{"id":68332,"date":"2025-03-28T14:04:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T12:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=68332"},"modified":"2025-03-28T14:04:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T12:04:25","slug":"queens-tackles-st-stithians-in-grey-high-rugby-festival-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=68332","title":{"rendered":"Queen’s tackles St Stithians in Grey High Rugby Festival opener"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Queen’s College 1st XV will play the opening match on the Kolisi Field when they take on St Stithians at 08:00, on Saturday, in the Standard Bank Grey High Rugby Festival in Gqeberha. Photo: Supplied<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Queen\u2019s College<\/strong> will be aiming to build on a solid performance at the weekend when they take on St Stithians College<\/strong> in the opening match of the Standard Bank Grey High Rugby Festival<\/strong>, in Gqeberha, on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Those two teams will set in motion an extravaganza of schoolboy rugby that features some of the country’s most exciting sides, culminating in the festival finale when Grey High<\/strong> takes on Hilton College<\/strong> in the last fixture on Monday afternoon, at 15:25.<\/p>\n

It’s an early 08:00 start for Queen’s and St Stithians on the Kolisi Field<\/strong>, and both will be keen to make an early impression.<\/p>\n

The Queenians have been in the thick of the action already this month, registering wins over Stirling High<\/strong> and Ooskus Gymnasium<\/strong> before suffering a narrow 17-20 loss to Pearson<\/strong> at the Graeme College Festival<\/strong>, in Makhanda, last Thursday.<\/p>\n

It was a disappointing outcome for Queen’s coach Clinton Loest<\/strong> after Pearson produced a dramatic fightback with five minutes remaining to score two tries and turn a 10-17 deficit into a 20-17 win.<\/p>\n

“I feel that was a game we should never have lost,” Loest said, “but we showed much improvement against a strong Brandwag<\/strong> team on Saturday to win that match.”<\/p>\n

Queen’s triumphed 29-15 in that clash, finishing strongly to take control of the contest, which had been evenly balanced heading into the final quarter.<\/p>\n

Down by two points, at 15-17, Brandwag made a costly error when they attempted to play out of their own 22, which led to an interception try under the posts by centre Thina Fenako<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Later, Queen’s produced a brilliant phase of continuity, which ended with Bongo Nyakaza<\/strong> diving over in the corner to seal the win.<\/p>\n

Loest said early season festivals were important in their overall planning for the season.\u00a0“We would like to see constant improvement in our overall game and these matches allow us to try various combinations and to look to settle on a starting lineup for the season ahead,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“Both teams we play (they face Pretoria Boys High<\/strong> on Monday) are well-known rugby-playing schools and the games will be testing for our team.<\/p>\n

“But we are ready to embrace that challenge as we ready ourselves for a tough programme ahead.”<\/p>\n

FIXTURES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday, 29 March<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kolisi Field<\/strong><\/p>\n

08:00 – Queen’s vs St Stithians
\n09:10 – Dale vs Northwood
\n10:25 – Pretoria Boys vs Kearsney
\n11:45 – Graeme vs Hilton
\n12:55 – Kingswood vs Durban High School
\n14:05 – Selborne vs Westville
\n15:25 – Grey High vs Michaelhouse<\/p>\n

Pollock Oval
\n<\/strong>
\n14.05 – St Charles College vs Port Rex
\n15.25 – Hudson Park vs Muir<\/p>\n

Crusaders<\/strong><\/p>\n

14.05 – Ithembelihle vs Daniel Pienaar<\/p>\n

Monday, 31 March\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kolisi Field<\/strong><\/p>\n

08.00 – Westville vs Dale
\n09.10 – Selborne vs Durban High School
\n10:25 – Hudson Park vs Kearsney
\n11.45 – Queen’s vs Pretoria Boys
\n12:55 – Kingswood vs Northwood
\n14.05 – Bishops v Michaelhouse
\n15.25 – Grey High v Hilton<\/p>\n

Pollock Oval
\n<\/strong>
\n11:45 – St Stithians vs Port Rex
\n12.55 – St Charles College vs Daniel Pienaar
\n14.05 – Muir vs Ithembelihle<\/p>\n

Crusaders<\/strong><\/p>\n

14.15 – Mali XV v Woodridge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queen\u2019s College will be aiming to build on a solid performance at the weekend when they take on St Stithians College in the opening match of the Standard Bank Grey High Rugby Festival, in Gqeberha, on Saturday. Those two teams will set in motion an extravaganza of schoolboy rugby that features some of the country’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":68339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68332","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\/68332","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\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}