Titanic battle awaits as Affies and Grey meet in Pretoria
Grey College’s last visit to Affies ended in tears, but since that loss against Jeppe High School for Boys’ during the NMI Toyota Noord/Suid-tournament the team from Bloemfontein has been in superb form.
It is their recent form that will make the rugby factory from Bloemfontein take the field as favourites for Saturday’s FNB Classic Clash against the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool of Pretoria.
Catch all the action live on SuperSport Schools – (www.supersportschools.com).
Last year Grey College brought down the hammer on Affies beating them by 69-19 in Bloemfontein. This year’s clash will be a much tighter affair as Affies would fancy their chances to claim a seventh victory over Grey since the two schools’ first encounter back in 1923.
The Wit Bulle is also enjoying a fruitful season thus far with only two defeats at the hands of Paul Roos Gimnasium (25-30) and Paarl Gimnasium (19-20) so far. Both these teams who will also face each other on Saturday in their annual clash have occupied the top spot on the rankings.
Affies’ victory of 43-21 over Paarl Boys’ High during Wildeklawer was their first since 2012 over Boishaai. Grey College also defeated the side from Paarl last week by 40-28.
The clash between Affies and Grey College will see some good contests between some of South Africa’s top schoolboy talent. The big contest will without a doubt be in the midfield between last year’s SA Schools centre, Janco Purchase, who is also captaining Affies, and Pieter van der Merwe.
Van der Merwe’s midfield partner, Ethan Adams, will without a doubt test his direct opposition, Hendré Schoeman. The latter moved from scrumhalf to outside centre recently due to injury woes in this position for Affies. Schoeman has however shown so far that he might even be a better outside centre than a scrumhalf.
Affies’ pack of forwards and the boot of Ruben Pienaar will be key for their success. If Pienaar has his kicking boots on today and his touch finders are pin-point he could put the Wit Bulle’s pack of forwards on the front foot. The battle between Danie “Boer” Kruger (Grey College) and Ruan Smuts (Affies) in the scrum could also be one of the highlights of the game.
In the line-outs, JD Hattingh (Affies) and AJ Meyer (Grey College) could also produce some fireworks.
The teams:
Affies: 15 Ruben Groenewald, 14 Rikus Strydom, 13 Hendré Schoeman, 12 Janco Purchase (kaptein), 11 Hugo Snyman, 10 Ruben Pienaar, 9 Zirk Meyer, 8 Ruan Lippold, 7 Albert Smit, 6 Stefan McDonald, 5 JD Hattingh, 4 Muntingh Hamman, 3 Ruan Smuts, 2 Ethan van Dyk, 1 Werner Vrey.
Grey College: 15 Heinz Stockenström, 14 Pretorius Ekeji, 13 Ethan Adams, 12 Pieter van der Merwe, 11 Ruben Cilliers, 10 Alzeadon Felix, 9 Philip McLaren, 8 Liam Santos, 7 Julian Cosmo, 6 Xander Smit, 5 AJ Meyer, 4 Heinrich Theron, 3 Danie Kruger, 2 Liam van Wyk, 1 Dian Venter.
Referee: Jonathan Lottering.
