{"id":91916,"date":"2026-03-05T13:50:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=91916"},"modified":"2026-03-05T13:50:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:50:54","slug":"after-a-superb-2025-season-can-gimmies-maintain-that-incredible-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=91916","title":{"rendered":"After a superb 2025 season, can Gimmies maintain that incredible standard?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_71887\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-71887\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-71887\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/PSX_20250503_204323-400x271.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"271\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-71887\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Supplied.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.&#8221; &#8211; <strong>Will Durant<\/strong>, American historian and philosopher.<\/p>\n<p>Last season was excellent for <strong>Paarl Gimnasium<\/strong>, even when judging them by their own very high standards.<\/p>\n<p>Other than a <a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/valiant-boishaai-victorious-in-paarl-derby\/\"><strong>33-35 loss to archrivals Paarl Boys&#8217; High<\/strong><\/a> in a mesmerising clash in August, <em><strong>Gimmies<\/strong><\/em> won their other 17 matches, many of them by massive margins.<\/p>\n<p>Head Coach and former<strong> Springboks<\/strong>&#8216; wing <strong>Pieter Rossouw<\/strong> noted the fierce competition for a place in the 2026 1st XV: &#8220;There are a few [<strong>Grant Khomo<\/strong> and <strong>Craven Week<\/strong> representatives] that played for the 1st team last year, but everybody must start from scratch and earn their place,&#8221; he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Schoolofrugby\"><strong>SuperSport Schools Plus<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The coaching setup remains familiar, but there is one change, Rossouw said, with <strong>Ockie van Zyl<\/strong> taking over from <strong>Helmut Lehmann<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>When reflecting on his squad, Rossouw also pointed out how Old Boys and their sons continue adding to the school&#8217;s rich rugby history: &#8220;<strong>Johan van Zyl<\/strong> played for <strong>Western Province<\/strong> and clubs abroad as a lock. His son, <strong>Hendr\u00e9 van Zyl<\/strong> [who plays as a loose forward], is once again available for selection for the first team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rossouw also shared his side&#8217;s mission for the season: &#8220;We have no specific goals. Rather, we want to set a consistent standard of playing good rugby week-in and week-out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With an experienced coaching unit and a wealth of talented players coming through, one question remains, and it is a fair one to ask: Could Paarl Gimnasium go unbeaten in 2026?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paarl Gimnasium Fixtures 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Paarl Gim [ninja_tables id=&#8221;91843&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.&#8221; &#8211; Will Durant, American historian and philosopher. Last season was excellent for Paarl Gimnasium, even when judging them by their own very high standards. Other than a 33-35 loss to archrivals Paarl Boys&#8217; High in a mesmerising clash in August, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":71887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91916","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\/91916","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\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/71887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}