{"id":14635,"date":"2023-04-14T12:15:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T10:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rugby.supersportschools.com\/?p=14635"},"modified":"2023-04-14T12:15:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T10:15:22","slug":"in-form-kwaggas-and-grey-college-to-face-each-other-in-a-titanic-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=14635","title":{"rendered":"In form Kwaggas and Grey College to face each other in a titanic battle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PHOTO: Frans Lombard\/Actionpix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the early fixtures and the NMI Toyota Menlyn<\/strong><\/span> North\/South<\/b> tournament at Affies at the beginning of the month it is clear that, <\/span>Outeniqua<\/b> and <\/span>Grey College<\/b>, are the standout teams so far this season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As fate would have it, these two teams face each other this weekend to remove any speculation as to how they would compare to one another.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bloemfontein’s rugby factory, Grey College, travels to George this weekend to face Outeniqua for what promises to be one of the games of the year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch the match live on <\/span>SuperSport Schools<\/span><\/a> (www.supersportschools.com<\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although some of the other big guns like<\/span> Paarl Boys’ High<\/b>\u00a0and <\/span>Garsfontein<\/b> might still have something to add to the conversation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Grey have started their campaign firing on all cylinders with a team that has been playing together since the <\/span>World Schools Festival<\/b> at the end of 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This year they have already done away with the likes of <\/span>Paarl Gimnasium<\/b> (33-12) and <\/span>Maritzburg College <\/b>(37-24), and it looks like it will take a special effort to prevent another perfect season for the boys from Bloem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Outeniqua is a team that specializes in big moments though and strong wins over <\/span>Monument<\/b> (32-27) and <\/span>Noordheuwel<\/b> (18-14) have stated their intent for their centenary year. Beating Grey for the fourth time in their history, at home, in their <\/span>100th year, would be the perfect way to celebrate the immense growth of their rugby program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grey is accustomed to being the number one target though, and has a history of spoiling many a school\u2019s \u201cdream season\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their forward pack, led by their captain and eighthman, <\/span>JJ Theron<\/b>, have been exemplary this year, not only scoring many of Grey\u2019s tries but also creating a solid platform to allow the likes of <\/span>Ian van der Merwe<\/b> (flyhalf), <\/span>Benito Goeda<\/b> (centre) and<\/span> Vincent Wolhuter<\/b> (fullback) to perform their magic in the backline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Players like <\/span>JT Strydom<\/b> (fullback) and<\/span> Estiaan Cronje <\/b>(centre) have been involved in some spectacular backline play for Outeniqua in their previous fixtures and the home team will want to play the game at a high pace to allow their backline to showcase their talent, but it will be up to their forwards to secure quick ball against the Grey pack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There will also be an interesting battle in the front as the Kwaggas’ SA Schools loosehead prop, Ruan Swart<\/strong>, take on Jean Erasmus<\/strong> in the scrums. Swart who is originally from the City of Roses and attended Jim Fouche before joining Outeniqua would’ve probably never made it to Craven Week if he stayed in the Free State.<\/p>\n

The two teams have met on ten previous occasions, with the side from George winning two of those matches in 2005 and 2013.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their previous encounter, last year, was called off after 35 minutes of play due to the danger of lighting, but Grey already had a solid 21-3 lead at that point.<\/span><\/p>\n

That game, in Bloemfontein, was meant to be the first of what will hopefully become an annual fixture between the two and this year\u2019s meeting will go a long way towards deciding whether such an inter could be feasible for both schools.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the success of Outeniqua\u2019s rugby program over recent years, producing players like<\/span> Warrick Gelant<\/b>, <\/span>Manie Libbok<\/b>, <\/span>Akker van der Merwe<\/b> and <\/span>Duhan van der Merwe<\/b>, and Grey\u2019s sustained success over its history, this will be a highly competitive pairing and would be a welcome addition to the calendar.<\/span><\/p>\n

The teams:<\/b><\/p>\n

Outeniqua: <\/b>15 JT Strydom, 14 JJ Daters, 13 Ashwin Damons, 12 Estiaan Cronje, 11 Keenan Jantjies, 10 Andrew Stopforth, 9 Jamil Pretorius, 8 Brendan Gouws, 7 Dewald Gerber, 6 Jefwinn Wesso, 5 Michael Cronje, 4 Jayden Potgieter, 3 Juan Kleynhans, 2 Nathan Smit, 1 Ruan Swart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grey College: <\/b>15 Vincent Wolhuter, 14 Hayden Tolmay, 13 Benito Goeda, 12 Pieter van der Merwe, 11 Martin Botha, 10 Ian van der Merwe, 9 Christiaan van der Westhuizen, 8 JJ Theron, 7 Keegan Scholtz, 6 Jean-Henri Smit, 5 Marno Stopforth, 4 Heinrich Theron, 3 Jean Erasmus, 2 Liam van Wyk, 1 Ranon Fouch\u00e9.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other fixtures on the A-field:<\/b><\/p>\n

08:15 – u14 – <\/b>Outeniqua vs Grey College
\n<\/span>09:15 – u15 – <\/b>Outeniqua vs Grey College
\n<\/span>10:15 – u16 – <\/b>Outeniqua vs Grey College
\n<\/span>11:25 – u19 – <\/b>HTS Eden vs Grey College III
\n<\/span>12:35 – u19 – <\/b>Outeniqua II vs Grey College II
\n<\/span>14:05 – u19 – <\/b>Outeniqua vs Grey College<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the early fixtures and the NMI Toyota Menlyn North\/South tournament at Affies at the beginning of the month it is clear that, Outeniqua and Grey College, are the standout teams so far this season.\u00a0 As fate would have it, these two teams face each other this weekend to remove any speculation as to how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}