{"id":8683,"date":"2019-04-17T09:03:55","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T09:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rugby.supersportschools.com\/st-alban-s-college-revel-in-great-expectations\/"},"modified":"2019-04-17T09:03:55","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T09:03:55","slug":"st-alban-s-college-revel-in-great-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=8683","title":{"rendered":"St Alban\u2019s College revel in great expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"St.Having just come off the best season in St Alban\u2019s College\u2019s rugby history, there will be a target on the back of the popular Pretoria school at this year\u2019s Standard Bank St John\u2019s College Easter Rugby Festival, taking place in Johannesburg from April 18 to 22.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite being a smaller school than most, the upstarts won 14 of their 17 fixtures in 2018 and will be looking to build on this momentum at St John\u2019s. <\/span>
\nBut it won\u2019t be easy, as Director of Rugby and First XV coach Kennedy Tsimba readily acknowledges. Eighty percent of the senior players have moved off, leaving the coach to assemble a young, inexperienced squad.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve come off a hectic schedule in March, with eight games, many in the holidays,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe\u2019re a small school, so there\u2019s always pressure in terms of numbers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s delighted they are returning to Johannesburg, however, saying that they thoroughly enjoyed last year where they beat Windhoek Gymnasium, the Golden Lions XV and Eye of the Tiger for a clean sweep.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year ought to be considerably tougher with matches against Australia\u2019s Combined High Schools, followed by mighty Helpmekaar of Johannesburg and HTS Daniel Pienaar, on Easter Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given Tsimba\u2019s own reputation as a playmaker during his playing prime, for Zimbabwe, Free State and the Bulls, it\u2019s little surprise that he encourages similarly smart rugby from his players.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey must learn to play what they see in front of them,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of them haven\u2019t been given that freedom, so a switch must be made. Better decision-makers are what I\u2019m after.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Among those players are influential figures like lock-cum-loose forward Simon Miller, big number eight Kian Turner and flyhalf Thabang Mogadima, who possesses one of the most cultured boots on the schoolboy circuit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tsimba\u2019s expectations of the festival weekend are measured. \u201cIt will be our toughest festival yet, especially with Helpmekaar on Saturday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He acknowledges that some don\u2019t believe a school like St Alban\u2019s has a traditional rugby culture but is happy to prove otherwise come Easter weekend. \u201cI\u2019m sure our boys will rise up and show grit and courage. We have our own special culture and I expect it will serve us well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Having produced several elite-level players, like Springboks Bongi Mbonambi and Jason Jenkins, plus provincial stars Michael Kumbirai (Stormers), Kurt Haupt (Kings and Worcester) and Abongile Nonkontwana (Free State Cheetahs), St Alban\u2019s has already developed a vibrant rugby tradition.<\/span>
\nAnyone underestimating them at St John\u2019s will pay the price.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

April 18: VS Combined High Schools (Australia), 11.30am.<\/span>
\nApril 20: VS Helpmekaar, 11.45am.<\/span>
\nApril 22: VS HTS Daniel Pienaar, <\/span>2pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having just come off the best season in St Alban\u2019s College\u2019s rugby history, there will be a target on the back of the popular Pretoria school at this year\u2019s Standard Bank St John\u2019s College Easter Rugby Festival, taking place in Johannesburg from April 18 to 22. Despite being a smaller school than most, the upstarts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8683","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\/8683","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}