{"id":94660,"date":"2026-04-28T10:14:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=94660"},"modified":"2026-04-28T10:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:14:29","slug":"grey-high-rugby-festival-parel-vallei-and-graeme-college-post-clean-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=94660","title":{"rendered":"Grey High Rugby Festival: Parel Vallei and Graeme College post clean records"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Parel Vallei defender delivers a cracking tackle in the Somerset West school’s win over Hudson Park High. Photo: Alwyn Burger<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ahead of the Standard Bank Grey High Rugby Festival, Ho\u00ebrskool Parel Vallei (PV) <\/strong>was a team about which people outside of the Western Cape knew little. After the Bulldogs <\/strong><\/em>scored two comfortable wins in Gqeberha, those who weren’t familiar with them now know they’re a serious rugby team.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Freedom Day, they defeated KuGompo City’s Hudson Park High<\/strong> 28-15 on the Pollock Field<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It was no surprise to see PV’s electric fullback, Shudley Rhoda<\/strong>, and their brickhouse inside centre, Brad Brown<\/strong>, get over the line for a try each.<\/p>\n

Rhoda ripped through a gap by running an excellent line at pace, while Brown used his physical might to bounce off a handful of defenders one by one for his five points.<\/p>\n

Left-wing Rafael von<\/strong> Loeper<\/strong> also shone with two tries, showing the Hudson Park defenders a clean pair of heels for both of his five-pointers.<\/p>\n

Hudson appeared down and out when they went into the break trailing 0-28, but they showed fierce grit and determination to score 15 points unanswered in the second half.<\/p>\n

Twice, they burst over from driving mauls, with openside flank Phindekuhle Mdlalana<\/strong> and hooker Avela Magcoba<\/strong> dotting down.<\/p>\n

Their other try came from their right wing, Cwenga Bityo<\/strong>. He hit the afterburners on a 95-metre run after picking up a loose pass on his own five-metre line to score a simple but impressive try.<\/p>\n

After a classic back-and-forth against Kearsney College<\/strong><\/a> on Saturday, Graeme College<\/strong> delivered another entertaining performance to beat St Charles College<\/strong> 43-17 on Monday.<\/p>\n

Graeme made their intentions clear early on when they scored in the second minute, regathering the ball from kickoff and playing a couple of phases inside the opposition’s 22-metre area, where they moved possession quickly from right to left before reversing direction.<\/p>\n

Flyhalf Ibenathi Kondile<\/strong> then dished out a testing cross kick, which left wing Selunathi Mfundisi<\/strong> claimed to score after a St Charles player dropped the contested ball.<\/p>\n

Despite going down 0-19 in the first 20 minutes, the Pietermaritzburg outfit remained alert, and blindside flank Une Shabalala<\/strong> quickly pounced on a loose pass thrown out by Graeme on their own five-metre line. He was over the try line in a flash for five points to get the Saints<\/strong><\/em>‘ <\/strong>score moving.<\/p>\n

Graeme led 29-7 at halftime. The second half was more competitive, but the Makhanda locals had already laid a solid foundation for victory.<\/p>\n

With successive wins over KZN opposition, Graeme will head into Saturday’s Makhanda derby against St Andrew’s College<\/strong> full of confidence. St Andrew’s was well beaten by another KZN side, Michaelhouse<\/strong>, on Monday, going down 5-41.<\/p>\n

Scorers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ho\u00ebrskool Parel Vallei 28 (28) –<\/strong> Tries: Raphael von Loeper (2), Shudley Rhoda, Brad Brown. Conversions: Stephan Niemann (4). Hudson<\/strong> Park High 15 (5) –<\/strong> Tries: Cwenga Bityo, Phindekuhle Mdlalana, Avela Magcoba.<\/p>\n

Graeme College 43 (29) –<\/strong> Tries: Selunathi Mfundisi, Erin Nelson, Luke Doyle, Asakhe Ranuga, Andrew Muir, Ahlumile Maqungu, Lucritia Magau. Conversions: Nelson (2), Ibenathi Kondile (2). St Charles College 17 (7) –<\/strong> Tries: Une Shabalala, Lukhiti Mbalana, Letho Zimu. Conversion: Njabulo Nala.<\/p>\n

Dale College 34 (19) –<\/strong> Tries: N\/A. Conversions: Sonwabise Dyani (3). Penalty: Dyani. Muir College 26 (0) –<\/strong> N\/A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the Standard Bank Grey High Rugby Festival, Ho\u00ebrskool Parel Vallei (PV) was a team about which people outside of the Western Cape knew little. After the Bulldogs scored two comfortable wins in Gqeberha, those who weren’t familiar with them now know they’re a serious rugby team. On Monday, Freedom Day, they defeated KuGompo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":94662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94660","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\/94660","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=94660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/94662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}