The SA Schools team opened their SA Rugby Under-18 International Series with a hard-fought 23-13 win over Wales thanks to a better attacking effort in the second half of their clash at Markotter Stadium at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch.<\/p>\n
The SA team trailed 6-10 at the break, but managed to play the big points better in the second half to overhaul their opponents.<\/p>\n
Wales deserved credit however, as they refused to stop chasing the game and were hard on attack at the final whistle.<\/p>\n
The opening points came the way of SA Schools flyhalf, Kian Meadon, who slotted a penalty from close range.<\/p>\n
SA Schools fullback, Zeilinga Strydom, intercepted a pass 60 meters out and raced in fro what appeared to be first try of the match, until he was called back for a neck roll by a team mate and the decision reversed to a penalty to Wales, allowing flyhalf Thomas Mathews to level the scores.<\/p>\n
Wales then took the lead after a period of sustained pressure, with centre Mason Grady bursting open the midfield to dot down, with Mathews converting.<\/p>\n
Meadon scored a second penalty kick to cut the lead to four before half time.<\/p>\n
The South Africans regained the lead early in the second half via scrumhalf, Jurich Claasens.<\/p>\n
From a powerful scrum, the scrumhalf played a move off the back of the scrum with No 8, George Cronje, and as the gap opened up, he raced through to score next to the poles.<\/p>\n
The conversion was good to delight and the crowd happy with the lead and they were soon back on their feet for a great run and try in the corner from Jan-Hendrik Wessels (prop).<\/p>\n
The lead jumped out to 18-10, as the momentum swung towards the South African side.<\/p>\n
However Mathews kicked a second penalty to cut the lead to five once more and there were some anxious moments on both sides, with both teams coming close to claiming a decisive score.<\/p>\n
A crucial turnover by South Africa on their own line eased the pressure and when Wales conceded another penalty via a high tackle, the SA side swooped.<\/p>\n
They forced an attacking line-out and from that, kept plugging away with bursts close to the ruck until the Welsh defence buckled and flanker, Jarrod Taylor, burst through from close range for a try five minutes from time to seal the deal.<\/p>\n
Scorers:<\/strong><\/p>\n SA Schools 23 –<\/strong> Tries: Jurich Claasens, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Jarrod Taylor. Conversion: Kian Meadon. Penalties: Meadon (2).\u00a0Wales 13 –<\/strong> Try: Mason Grady. Conversion: Thomas Mathews. Penalties: Thomas Mathews (2)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The SA Schools team opened their SA Rugby Under-18 International Series with a hard-fought 23-13 win over Wales thanks to a better attacking effort in the second half of their clash at Markotter Stadium at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch. The SA team trailed 6-10 at the break, but managed to play the big points […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9056","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\/9056","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=9056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}