East Cape schools put up brave fight
Unbeaten Queen’s upset fierce rivals Rondebosch
CLASSIC schoolboy rugby action was on display in Cape Town over the last few days during the annual Cape Schools Rugby tournament at Rondebosch Boys High School.
The east v west rivalry is always an exciting one and this year proved no different, with the Western Cape schools just edging out their Eastern Cape counterparts in the end, with most matches decided by close margins.
Border schools Queen’s, Dale and Selborne College were all in action, along with Eastern Province sides Grey High and Muir College. Each team played two games against Western Cape opposition.
Queen’s finished as the only unbeaten Eastern Cape side after a superb tournament, while Grey ended with one win and one loss to their names.
Dale drew a match and lost one, while Selborne and Muir lost both their encounters. Queen’s put in a brilliant performance to upset hosts Rondebosch in the final game of the Cape Schools Week yesterday afternoon, claiming a tight 22-19 win in the end. It was the perfect end for Queen’s after they had claimed an impressive 26-22 victory over Wynberg on Saturday’s first day. Dale seemed to underestimate their opponents yesterday morning as they fell to a 22-7 loss against Stellenberg.
Dale who were expected to be too strong for Stellenberg, found themselves trailing 22-0 at the break and, despite a much improved second half, they could only cross the line once in the end.
Dale should be a bit disappointed with their week as they should have also beaten hosts, Rondebosch, on the first day.
In that match they also struggled in the first-half, as they went into the break 15-7 behind, however they came storming back in the second half to take a 17-15 lead. The lead changed soon afterwards as Rondebosch moved 20-17 ahead.
Dale hit back, to move ahead 22-20 before Rondebosch went up 27-22.
With just a few minutes left on the clock, Dale drew level and with captain, Aphelele Fassi, tasked with a relatively easy shot at goal, Dale were expected to go back in front. Fass however, who had enjoyed an impressive game up to that point, fluffed the kick, allowing the hosts to escape with a draw in the end.
Grey High had two extremely close games, with one going their way and one not. On the first day they just pipped a strong Boland Landbou team 18-17 in an entertaining match, however the shoe was on the other foot yesterday. Having led SACS for most of the match, a last-gasp try saw SACS snatch a 20-18 win from Grey High.
Selborne scrumhalf Thomas Bursey missed a long-range penalty after the full-time hooter sounded as Selborne went down 20-19 to Wynberg yesterday afternoon.
It capped a disappointing Cape Schools week for them in the end after they also lost a tight encounter 17-13 to SACS on Saturday.
For Muir it was a difficult tournament as they were soundly beaten in both of their games, 40-10 by Stellenberg on Saturday and then 47-0 by Boland Landbou yesterday.
So in the end WC schools managed to win six of the fixtures, with EC sides winning three and one drawn.