{"id":50993,"date":"2024-06-24T16:30:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T14:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=50993"},"modified":"2024-06-24T16:30:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T14:30:57","slug":"st-johns-clinches-dramatic-win-in-pink-day-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=50993","title":{"rendered":"St John&#8217;s clinches dramatic win in Pink Day clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-15606\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/St-Stithians-College-Schools-Rugby-Debbi-Adcock-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"398\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/St-Stithians-College-Schools-Rugby-Debbi-Adcock-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/St-Stithians-College-Schools-Rugby-Debbi-Adcock-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/St-Stithians-College-Schools-Rugby-Debbi-Adcock.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Fullback <strong>Gerald Van Wyk<\/strong> stole the show, with only two minutes left on the clock, by launching a devastating counterattack that produced the winning try for <strong>St John&#8217;s College<\/strong> against <strong>St Stithians College<\/strong> on <strong>Burger Field<\/strong> on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">After trailing for most of the game, the <strong>Blues<\/strong> sneaked over the line to claim the <strong>Pink Day<\/strong> honours by four points, 24-20.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Rewatch the all the action on <a href=\"https:\/\/supersportschools.com\/\">SuperSport Schools<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>St Stithians scored first from a well-executed lineout, storming up to the hosts&#8217; try line before flank <strong>Ross Turner<\/strong> went over to silence the home crowd.<\/p>\n<p>Then, a smart tap-and-go from <strong>Chris Anderson<\/strong>\u00a0saw the flyhalf sell a classic dummy pass before bursting through a gap to dive over for another five points, which took the visitors 12-0 clear.<\/p>\n<p>Blues&#8217; substitute and utility-back <strong>Kago Masote <\/strong>scored just before the break, after the hosts had pressed hard to deep inside the St Stithians&#8217; 22. A pass out wide opened up space for Masote to charge over unchallenged.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Saints<\/strong> then suffered a big blow when their talented no. 10, Anderson, was stretchered from the field with an injury.<\/p>\n<p>At half-time, only five points separated the sides. Trailing at home, St John&#8217;s came out all guns blazing in the second stanza.<\/p>\n<p>Saints tacked on another eight points, but some handling errors and a blunder, which resulted in a yellow card, left St John&#8217;s with a favourable opportunity to pull back some points. They made it count, with <strong>Jacob Smith<\/strong> and<strong> Joshua Shannon<\/strong> each scoring tries.<\/p>\n<p>The match was a fine showcase for independent schools&#8217; rugby, with the <strong>Pink Drive<\/strong> emerging as the biggest winner on the day, thanks to the awareness that was raised for the cause, with the teams both wearing pinks socks, the field&#8217;s lines being painted pink, and spectators wearing pink to show their support.<\/p>\n<p>In Pretoria, <strong>St Alban&#8217;s<\/strong> marched to a 29-14 victory over <strong>St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda<\/strong>. It was a hard-earned and morale-boosting victory for the <strong>Hoops<\/strong> after they delivered a disappointing performance last weekend against St John&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>Eighthman <strong>Daniel Bouwer,<\/strong> returning from injury, was among the points&#8217; scorers. He also showcased good ball-handling skills and was impactful at scrum time.<\/p>\n<p>St David&#8217;s converted three penalties from the boot of <strong>Diego Ferreira<\/strong>, as a result of sloppy play by the hosts, and only one point separated the schools at the beginning of the second half, with St Alban&#8217;s leading 10-9.<\/p>\n<p>However, as was the case last week, St Alban&#8217;s found a new lease on life after the break, and this time they ran in four tries, with <strong>Tumelo Mohale<\/strong> dotting down twice.<\/p>\n<p>Prop <strong>D&#8217;Andre Mushonga<\/strong> scored for the visitors, but it was not enough to bring his side back into contention, as the Hoops were well ahead by the time he went over.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <strong>St Benedict&#8217;s<\/strong> registered only their second win of the season and their first since early in March by beating <strong>Cornwall Hill College<\/strong> 14-3.<\/p>\n<p>Cornwall Hill&#8217;s only points came from a penalty kick by flyhalf <strong>Matthew Fox<\/strong>. In reply, Bennies scored two tries, one from <strong>Declan le Roux<\/strong> and the other from <strong>Tebogo Phukuile<\/strong>. Inside centre <strong>Braeden le Roux<\/strong> easily converted both.<\/p>\n<p>St Benedict&#8217;s will be relieved to have tasted victory after a long dry spell during which both points and victories were hard to come by.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Point Scorers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>St John&#8217;s College 24<\/strong> <strong>(7) &#8211;<\/strong> Tries: Jacob Smith, Joshua Shannon, Kago Masote, Gerald van Wyk. Conversions: Gerald van Wyk (2). <strong>St Stithians 20<\/strong> <strong>(14) &#8211;<\/strong> Tries: Ross Turner, Chris Anderson.\u00a0 Conversions: Chris Anderson (2). Penalty: Josh Meyer (2).<\/p>\n<p><strong>St Alban&#8217;s 29<\/strong> <strong>(10) &#8211;<\/strong> Tries: Tumelo Mohale (2), Daniel Bouwer, Everett Gosling, Andreas Phillipou. Conversions: Joshua Verster (2). S<strong>t David&#8217;s 14<\/strong> <strong>(9) &#8211;<\/strong> Try &#8211; D&#8217;Andre Mushonga. Penalties: Diego Ferreira (3).<\/p>\n<p><strong>St Benedict&#8217;s 14 (7) &#8211;<\/strong> Tries: Declan le Roux, Tebogo Phukuile. Conversions: Braeden le Roux (2). <strong>Cornwall Hill 3<\/strong> (3) &#8211; Penalty: Matthew Fox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fullback Gerald Van Wyk stole the show, with only two minutes left on the clock, by launching a devastating counterattack that produced the winning try for St John&#8217;s College against St Stithians College on Burger Field on Saturday. After trailing for most of the game, the Blues sneaked over the line to claim the Pink [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":15606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50993","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\/50993","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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}