Result – St Stithians College Easter Festival 2019 – Day 2
Prince Edward (7) 28; Parktown Boys High (14) 19.
Zimbabwe’s traditionally strongest state sporting school made a determined recovery from the shock of Thursday’s 48-11 thumping by their hosts – when the intensity and focus of a higher league in SA left the visitors playing catch up.
It didn’t look promising for the team from Harare when they trailed 7-14 at the break, with locals Parktown Boys High shading the forward contest.
Prince Edward has a reputation for effort until the end and the second 50% of their Saints Festival campaign, saw them move beyond stage fright for a free-running 30 minutes in which their side-stepping in particular, sparked a trio of extra tries. That includes the brace of crossing the line in the last eight minutes, as a tribute to fitness and spirit.
Parktown will be very disappointed at fading in the second half, with their rounding off of attacks and cover defence requiring attention before taking on the Eastern Cape’s St Andrew’s College on Monday. Prince Edward will be sorely tested by SACS of Cape Town in their concluder.
Rondebosch Boys High (6) 18; Grey High School (3) 17.
These schools, albeit 800km apart, are well acquainted via regular opposition at the bi-annual Cape Schools Festival. With both schools fielding strong senior age-groups, it was a Test match from the outset – much of the first half was giving no quarter between the 22-metre lines. Grey closed the first quarter with the opening penalty, to which the Capetonians soon responded. Crucially, Rondebosch slotted their next three-pointer on the stroke of half time.
It seemed that the Port Elizabeth school might break the shackles when they broke out of their won half along the right wing for a long distance try to take a 10-6 lead. Rondebosch had consistently applied much intensity close to the fringes and duly burst over for a 15th minute try near the poles, to regain the lead 13-10.
Grey’s backline had been ‘champing at the bit’ and the 23rd minute brought them their second long-distance try and the lead again: 17-13. This thriller final stanza was four minutes later, when Rondebosch crossed in the left-hand corner, but couldn’t convert to increase their slender single point margin. So often, a last minute penalty concludes such ‘slugfests’, but not this time!
For Grey it was a comedown after thrashing Michaelhouse 43-7, however Rondebosch added to their tight 17-10 defeat of St Andrew’s for a fifth successive Saints Festival victory; to which list Northcliff High should be added on Monday.
Maritzburg College (24) 38; Kingswood College (7) 7.
For decades the Sharks have battled to find top-level homegrown Zulu talent, so it was encouraging to note such raw talent on display in the famous red, black and white hooped Maritzburg jerseys.
Before five minutes were up, their Grahamstown opponents had burst through from broken play to score at the poles to be up 7-0. The gutsy Eastern Cape team’s joy was short lived however, as the KwaZulu-Natalians crossed the tryline out wide to trail 5-7 after eight minutes.
The contest was still competitive for another quarter of an hour, however Maritzburg were increasingly clinical and building momentum via thumping commitment. Eventually the pressure told and a second try after 24 minutes left matters at 10-7, but there was another for two minutes later for Maritzburg to lead 17-7. The ‘writing was on the wall’ as much as in Biblical Babylon, when the KZN outfit finished with speed in the left-hand corner for a 24-7 lead at the break.
It is to Kingswood’s credit that they never ‘threw in the towel’ and their solid defence kept the score down while Maritzburg never slacked off with the physical intensity, yet was only able to add further tries in the 2nd and 25th minutes respectively.
St Andrew’s College 28 (14); Michaelhouse 19 (7)
Somewhat against the run of play, Michaelhouse opened the scoring in the 2nd minute with a breakaway try into the left-hand corner to be 7-0 up.
St Andrew’s were more eager to attack via their backline and six minutes later crossed for their opening try to level matters at 7-all. That try was in the right-hand corner and the sizeable crowd watched a second successive superb conversion from out wide.
Play flowed at a solid tempo from then on, with the heavier KZN Midlands outfit attacking closer to the fringes, while their leaner-physique opponents from Grahamstown focussed their running out wide. Eventually, a superb midfield break from St Andrew’s was well supported off the inside shoulder to get a second try for a 14-7 lead, which held at the break.
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