Thrilling finale on cards for schools festival

THOUSANDS of supporters will descend on Lower Field at St Andrew’s tomorrow for the climax of one of South Africa’s most famous school derbies.

The annual K-Day celebration of sport between St Andrew’s and Kingswood began on Monday and will see about 1 000 pupils take part in 80 matches across a wide range of sports.

It will all culminate in the first team rugby match at 3pm tomorrow, a showdown which should provide a thrilling finale to the week-long festival.

After successes in 2015 and 2016, Kingswood were well beaten last year, but this year’s encounter promises to be much closer.

The home team, though, will go into the match as favourites if you consider their record this season.

St Andrew’s have suffered only one defeat so far, to Selborne, and they showed their resilience by bouncing back from that to defeat Grey High and Pearson in successive weekends.

That will have restored their confidence and their running rugby is sure to put some strain on the Kingswood defence.

But the visitors, despite a few losses earlier in the season, have also built up a respectable record in recent weeks and will take a positive attitude into this clash.

St Andrew’s, though, will be arguably their toughest clash of the season, so they will need to produce a concerted team effort for the full 80 minutes to upset the odds on Lower Field.

The other clash sees Graeme College hosting Union High in Grahamstown, with the first team game starting at 1.30pm.