{"id":51532,"date":"2024-06-29T18:49:45","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T16:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=51532"},"modified":"2024-06-29T18:49:45","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T16:49:45","slug":"u18-independent-schools-rugby-festival-gets-underway-as-coaches-take-stock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=51532","title":{"rendered":"u18 Independent Schools Rugby Festival gets underway as coaches take stock"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-16155\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/St-Albans-College-Schools-Rugby-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/St-Albans-College-Schools-Rugby-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/St-Albans-College-Schools-Rugby-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/St-Albans-College-Schools-Rugby.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The u18 <strong>Independent Schools Rugby Festival (ISRF)<\/strong> kicked off at <strong>St Alban&#8217;s College<\/strong> on Saturday, with 16 teams from around South Africa in action.<\/p>\n<p>The festival, coming late in the season, features many stayers&#8217; teams and it is a perfect opportunity for the independent schools to take stock of where their squads are ahead of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p>The event format features matches of 25 minutes&#8217; duration per half, with rolling substitutions allowed. At the conclusion of the event, a Festival XV will be named, and they&#8217;ll play in the <strong>NextGen XV u18 Tournament<\/strong> at Grey College in Bloemfontein in December.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cornwall Hill College<\/strong> ran out winners in their opener, storming to a 21-0 victory over <strong>CBC Boxburg<\/strong>, with <strong>Max Land, Daniel Van Ravensteyn<\/strong> and <strong>Dade Kunneke<\/strong> scoring tries. The second half became a little scrappy, which was possibly a consequence of a raft of substitutions, reckoned coach <strong>Dewald Kruger.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a tight battle, <strong>St John&#8217;s College<\/strong> went down to KZN&#8217;s <strong>Kearsney College<\/strong>, who claimed a hard-fought 12-7 victory.<\/p>\n<p>In another close Gauteng vs KZN game, <strong>Hilton College<\/strong> beat <strong>St Stithians College<\/strong> by exactly the same score, winning 12-7, with <strong>Langa Dlamini<\/strong> and <strong>Dan Sweeney<\/strong> scoring tries for the Midlands&#8217; school.<\/p>\n<p><strong>St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda<\/strong> made light work of <strong>Uplands College<\/strong>, running riot in a 39-0 victory, which included a brace for <strong>Nathan Hwindingwi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Woodridge<\/strong>, from the Eastern Cape, won by 10 points over <strong>St Benedict&#8217;s College<\/strong>, recording a 17-7 win.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Clifton<\/strong>, meanwhile, comfortably beat <strong>St Andrew&#8217;s School<\/strong>, from Bloemfontein. The Durban boys led 17-0 at halftime but were given a stiff fight in the second half, eventually winning 24-5.<\/p>\n<p><strong>St Charles<\/strong> clawed their way to a victory over the <strong>u17 Blue Bulls Development<\/strong> side, coming back from 0-6 down to win 12-6. <strong>Raphael Ajibade<\/strong> was named the man of the match after a strong performance for Saints, which included an excellent try.<\/p>\n<p>In the final match of the day, the hosts, St Alban&#8217;s, held off <strong>St Andrew&#8217;s College<\/strong> to claim a narrow 10-5 win, which will give the Pretoria side a boost of confidence ahead of Monday&#8217;s matches. <strong>Matthew Nelson<\/strong> and <strong>Kai Cele<\/strong> crossed for tries for the winners.<\/p>\n<p>The festival ends on Wednesday, 3 July, with the third and last round of matches.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Results Day One<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CBC Boksburg 0-21 Cornwall Hill College<br \/>\nKearsney College Stayers XV 12-7 St John&#8217;s College Stayers XV<br \/>\nHilton College Stayers XV 12-7 St Stithians College Stayers XV<br \/>\nSt David&#8217;s Marist Inanda Stayers XV 39-0 Uplands College<br \/>\nSt Benedict&#8217;s College Stayers XV 7-17 Woodridge College<br \/>\nClifton College Stayers XV 24-5 St Andrew&#8217;s School<br \/>\nBlue Bulls u17 Development XV\u00a0 6-12 St Charles College Stayers XV<br \/>\nSt Alban&#8217;s College Stayers XV 10-5 St Andrew&#8217;s College Stayers XV<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fixtures Day 2 &#8211; Monday 1st July 2024\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>08:00 &#8211; Clifton Stayers XV v St David&#8217;s Stayers XV (Moshate Field)<br \/>\n09:10 &#8211; Cornwall Hill College v St Stithians Stayers XV (Moshate Field)<br \/>\n10:20 &#8211; Kearsney Stayers XV v St Benedict&#8217;s Stayers XV (Moshate Field)<br \/>\n11:30 &#8211; St Andrew&#8217;s College Stayers XV v St Charles Stayers XV (Moshate Field)<br \/>\n12:40 &#8211; CBC Boksburg v St Andrew&#8217;s School (Moshate Field)<br \/>\n13:50 &#8211; Uplands College v Woodridge (Moshate Field)<br \/>\n15:00 &#8211; Blue Bull u17 Development XV v St John&#8217;s College Stayers XV (Moshate Field)<br \/>\n16:15 &#8211; St Alban&#8217;s College Stayers XV v Hilton College Stayers XV (Moshate Field)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The u18 Independent Schools Rugby Festival (ISRF) kicked off at St Alban&#8217;s College on Saturday, with 16 teams from around South Africa in action. The festival, coming late in the season, features many stayers&#8217; teams and it is a perfect opportunity for the independent schools to take stock of where their squads are ahead of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":16155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51532","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\/51532","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=51532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}