{"id":9667,"date":"2022-02-24T04:57:12","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T04:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rugby.supersportschools.com\/eastern-cape-powerhouses-primed-for-graeme-rugby-day\/"},"modified":"2022-02-24T04:57:12","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T04:57:12","slug":"eastern-cape-powerhouses-primed-for-graeme-rugby-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=9667","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Cape powerhouses primed for Graeme Rugby Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft size-full wp-image-9664\" style=\"margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px; float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/rugby.supersportschools.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Graeme_-_Andrew_McCallum.jpg\" alt=\"Graeme Andrew McCallum\" width=\"380\" height=\"253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Graeme_-_Andrew_McCallum.jpg 960w, https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Graeme_-_Andrew_McCallum-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Graeme_-_Andrew_McCallum-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/>A programme of riveting matches featuring the powerhouses of Eastern Cape schools is guaranteed to provide a rugby extravaganza when the Graeme Rugby Day, sponsored by Buco, takes place in Makhanda on March 19.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Tournament director Nico van der Meulen is excited about the array of talent which will be on display as Eastern Province and Border teams gear for a much-anticipated season after the two years of languishing in the Covid-19 wilderness. The Graeme Rugby Day was last held in March 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Adding spice to the occasion is that the fixtures present a series of match-ups between schools from EP and their Border counterparts, with bragging rights very much at stake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Hosts Graeme College, as has been their approach during their hosting of this day, have not shied away from taking on the bigger schools, and this year they will be seriously challenged by Border rivals Selborne.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The East London outfit has a long and proud tradition of rugby and it is said that there is never a weak Selborne team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But Graeme, themselves, also own a rugby legacy of serious proportions and the class of 2022 will be fired up to make a point on their home ground.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This is the feature match of the day, but it will be preceded by several mouth-watering clashes in which schools who don\u2019t normally meet each other in the regular league schedules get a chance to play different opponents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In this way, Dale College will be gearing up for a titanic clash with the tough outfit of Marlow Agricultural from Cradock.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Marlow is never subdued easily, but they will also need to be on guard against a Dale side well known for their exciting brand of rugby.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Makhanda side Kingswood will be well tested when they take on Queen\u2019s College, while Hudson Park and Cambridge will have their hands full against Nico Malan and Muir respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In a departure from the cross-border action in two earlier games, there are sure to be outstanding encounters when Grey High face Brandwag and St Andrew\u2019s take on one of the top Gqeberha schools in Framesby.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">These are repeat fixtures from the 2020 Graeme Rugby Day which threw up two epic games, won by Brandwag (17-10) and St Andrew\u2019s (15-12).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">All four teams will be aware of the significance of laying down a marker early in the season and that will only add an extra dimension to the exciting programme set up for Somerset Field.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>PHOTO:\u00a0Bern Mackenzie<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>The fixtures are:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>08:00 &#8211;<\/strong> Pearson vs Mary Waters<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>09:10 &#8211;<\/strong> Hudson Park vs Nico Malan\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>10:20 &#8211;<\/strong> Cambridge vs Muir College<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>11:30 &#8211;<\/strong> Dale College vs Marlow Landbou<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>12:40 &#8211;<\/strong> Grey High School vs Brandwag (Uitenhage)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>13:50 &#8211;<\/strong> St. Andrew&#8217;s College vs Framesby<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>15:00 &#8211;<\/strong> Kingswood College vs Queen&#8217;s College<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>16:10 &#8211;<\/strong> Graeme College vs Selborne College<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">[powr-comments id=&#8221;4a690b6c_1645678527598&#8243;]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A programme of riveting matches featuring the powerhouses of Eastern Cape schools is guaranteed to provide a rugby extravaganza when the Graeme Rugby Day, sponsored by Buco, takes place in Makhanda on March 19. Tournament director Nico van der Meulen is excited about the array of talent which will be on display as Eastern Province [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9667","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\/9667","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=9667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}