Paarl Boys High rally to maintain unblemished run

Paarl Boys High underlined why they are rated as one of the top schools in the country but had to dig deep to edge Affies 14-10 at yesterday’s 22nd St John’s Easter Schools rugby festival in Houghton.

With outside centre Divan Enslin probably the biggest star for Boys High – who haven’t missed a single tournament at the St John’s festival since it’s inception 22 years ago – they trailed 6-7 shortly after halftime but soon regained the lead at 14-7.

Despite Affies fighting back to narrow the gap to just 14-10 with a penalty, Boys High held on to keep their unblemished record intact in a thriller of a final game which rounded off a superb three days of schoolboy action.

Affies though, enjoyed a good enough tournament beating Hilton 17-6 in their opener as well as edging Florida 28-24 courtesy of a spirited fightback.

In sunny but windy conditions, Boys High ended the tournament unbeaten for the fourth year running after trashing Eye of the Tiger 57-0 and the Combined High School of Australia 67-0 in their opening two matches.

The Combined High School who are settled in New South Wales just outside of Sydney, also lost 19-26 in their opening fixture to Parktown, but finally bagged their first win of the tournament when they beat Florida 29-7 yesterday.

In the penultimate game, Nelspruit scored a late try to beat Helpmekaar 20-12, but Helpies, who had led 12-3 at the break, failed to add to their tally in the second.

Earlier Hilton beat St John’s Harare 327, Paul Roos finished unbeaten with a 61-12 trashing of Parktown, while hosts St John’s beat Eye of the Tiger, a rugby academy which is only five years old, 59-10.

At KES, Marlow beat Eldoraigne 24-12, Waterkloof edged Hudson Park 41-38, while Wynberg proved too strong for Noordheuwel to walk away 38-10 winners.

In the fourth game of the final day, Jeppe Boys went down 19-13 to Ben Vorster, while KES ran riot in the final game beating Kingswood 41-10.

At St Stithians, Graeme College beat Pretoria Tech 38-0, Michaelhouse outplayed St Davids 61-7, while hosts St Stithians fought bravely but just lost out being beaten 36-29 by Maritzburg.

In the final two matches, SACS beat St Andrews 24-15, while Grey High of Port Elizabeth kept the best for last by running up a convincing score of 53-17 against Durban High.