{"id":70308,"date":"2025-04-19T18:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=70308"},"modified":"2025-04-19T18:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:28:10","slug":"st-johns-digs-deep-in-win-graeme-impresses-against-pretoria-boys-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=70308","title":{"rendered":"St John&#8217;s digs deep in win, Graeme impresses against Pretoria Boys High"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_70319\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70319\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-70319\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Greame-College-vs-Pretoria-Boys-High-400x312.jpg\" alt=\"Greame College vs Pretoria Boys High\" width=\"400\" height=\"312\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-70319\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Frans Lombard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"310\" data-end=\"482\">Two matches marked by thunderous collisions and silky handling thrilled the sizeable crowd gathered for Saturday&#8217;s smorgasbord of action at the 28th <strong>Standard Bank St John\u2019s College Easter Festival<\/strong>, in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"310\" data-end=\"482\">Relive all the action on <strong>SuperSport Schools<\/strong> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/StJohnsEasterFest2025\"><strong>(www.supersportschools.com)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"484\" data-end=\"787\">The hosts, <strong>St John&#8217;s College<\/strong>, had to dig deep to overcome a spirited performance from <strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Randburg<\/strong>, but two tries from openside flank <strong>Tumelo Bopape<\/strong> helped the hosts secure victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"484\" data-end=\"787\">As expected, the home side came out firing, buoyed by a passionate crowd singing their support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"789\" data-end=\"1128\">Lock, <strong>Allan Njanfang Patu<\/strong>, ignited the St John&#8217;s engine room. Though not the tallest second-rower, his relentless work rate and powerful ball carries consistently put the hosts on the front foot.<\/p>\n<p>At fly-half, <strong>Gerald van Wyk<\/strong> led with composure and creativity. He&#8217;s in a rich vein of form and orchestrated play with authority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1130\" data-end=\"1376\">For Randburg, their right-wing <strong>Bradley Butcher<\/strong> was a standout performer. The speedster twice carved open the St John&#8217;s defence to cross for long-range tries, which injected life into his team\u2019s comeback hopes while firing up the crowd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1378\" data-end=\"1691\">In the following fixture, <strong>Graeme College<\/strong> played with precision and intensity and delivered a clinical performance to secure a 25\u201310 win over <strong>Pretoria Boys High School<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Fullback <strong>Lucritia Magau<\/strong>\u00a0was a constant threat. His strong runs from deep put the Eastern Cape side onto the front foot time after time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1693\" data-end=\"1973\">Blindside flank <strong>Ayola Mali<\/strong> was in devastating form with the ball in hand. His crowning moment came when, from inside his half, he sliced through the host&#8217;s defensive line, exhibiting sharp acceleration and strength, with a powerful hand-off, to score one of the best tries of the festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1975\" data-end=\"2228\">The <em><strong>Candies<\/strong><\/em>&#8216; eighthman, <strong>Queenton Mncube<\/strong>, stood tall in defeat. He made his presence felt with his powerful carries and committed defensive work, and was rewarded with his side&#8217;s only try.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1975\" data-end=\"2228\"><strong>SCORERS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>St John&#8217;s College 33 (19)<\/strong> &#8211; Tries: Tumelo Bopape (2), Luke Scott, Simon Musset, Lwandile Khupe. Comversions: Gerald van Wyk (4). <strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Randburg 24 (5)<\/strong> &#8211; Tries: Bradley Buther (2), Kian Kritzinger, Jayden Oosthuizen. Conversions: Josh Wigget (2).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Graeme College 25 (5)<\/strong> &#8211; Tries: Ayola Mali, Erin Nelson, Lucritia Magau. Conversions: Ethan Bokbaard (2). Penalties: Aiden Walters, Bokbaard. <strong>Pretoria Boys High 10 (7)<\/strong> &#8211; Try: Queenton Mncube. Conversion: Blake Mager. Penalty: Mager.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two matches marked by thunderous collisions and silky handling thrilled the sizeable crowd gathered for Saturday&#8217;s smorgasbord of action at the 28th Standard Bank St John\u2019s College Easter Festival, in Johannesburg. Relive all the action on SuperSport Schools &#8211; (www.supersportschools.com) The hosts, St John&#8217;s College, had to dig deep to overcome a spirited performance from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":70319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70308","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\/70308","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}