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Day one of the Kearsney Hockey 5s, powered by Belgotex Sport, delivered goals galore in Botha’s Hill on Friday.

In the boys’ high school section, Garsfontein stuck their hands up as potential champions with good hockey and an unbeaten run, while in the girls’ high school matches both Danville and St Mary’s DSG went through the day unbeaten.

Boys’ High School matches

Garsfontein made a strong impression in the boys’ competition, going five for five, including a narrow 3-2 win over Hilton College, who won their remaining three games convincingly.

Garsies’ record included a 2-1 win over the defending champions, Westville Boys’ High, who were also beaten 4-3 by Clifton College. Surprisingly, when Hilton College and Clifton met, Hilton won comfortably, cruising to a 6-1 win.

It was a good day for Clifton, however. They beat Ashton, Kearsney, Westville and Michaelhouse, with the latter going to a penalty shootout after the teams had finished level at 3-3.

Apart from their setback against Garsfontein, Hilton shone. With an attitude of taking shots from anywhere (which is allowed in the Hockey 5s), the boys from Midlands provided plenty of action and plenty of goals.

They overran Ashton 8-1, beat St Alban’s 5-2, and Clifton 6-1.

It was a tough day for the hosts, last year’s beaten finalists. They won only one of their four games.

Boys’ High School Results

Clifton 8-0 Ashton
Hilton 2-3 Garsfontein
Kearsney 8-1 St Alban’s
Clifton (1) 3-3 (0) Michaelhouse
St Alban’s 1-7 Garsfontein
Hilton 8-1 Ashton
Clifton 6-3 Kearsney
Michaelhouse 1-2 Westville
Garsfontein 2-1 Westville
Kearsney 1-5 Michaelhouse
Clifton 4-3 Westville
Kearsney 2-7 Garsfontein
Westville 6-2 Ashton
Hilton 6-1 Clifton
Garsfontein 6-2 Ashton
Michaelhouse 3-2 St Alban’s

Girls’ High School matches

Danville, beaten in the 2023 final, caught the eye on the opening day of the girls’ competition, roaring their way to three big wins.

They opened with an 8-0 shellacking of Thomas More College, blanked Ashton 4-0, and ended their commitments with an 8-2 victory over Curro Hillcrest.

St Mary’s DSG, without their grade 12s, like the rest of the teams, but also missing their grade 10s, who are in the Drakensberg, also went three for three.

They won 6-2 against Maris Stella but were then stunned by a fantastic fightback from Thomas More, which brought the game level at 4-4 before Saints bagged a winner.

In their last game of the day, they found matters more routine in a 5-1 defeat of Ashton.

Girls’ High School Results

Curro Hillcrest 0-2 Thomas More
Maris Stella 1-3 Ashton
Danville 8-0 Thomas More
Curro Hillcrest 2-5 Maris Stella
Danville 4-0 Ashton
St Mary’s 6-2 Maris Stella
St Mary’s 5-4 Thomas More
Curro Hillcrest 2-8 Danville
St Mary’s 5-1 Ashton

Boys’ Primary School Results

Highbury 1 4-5 Hillcrest Primary
Cowan House 0-3 Atholl Heights
Higbury 2 2-3 Bonisanani
Kloof Senior Primary 0-5 Penzance
Westville Senior Primary 3-2 Winston Park
Ashton 4-1 Treverton
Highbury 1 1-6 Cowan House
Highbury 2 1-3 Hillcrest Primary
Atholl Heights 8-2 Bonisanani
Kloof Senior Primary 0-6 Westville Senior Primary
Penzance 5-1 Treverton
Winston Park 1-1 Ashton
Highbury 1 6-0 Highbury 2
Hillcrest Primary 8-1 Cowan House
Bonisanani 8-2 Kloof Senior Primary
Westville Senior 2-5 Atholl Heights
Ashton 0-1 Penzance
Treverton 1-4 Winston Park
Highbury 1 8-1 Bonisanani
Highbury 2 2-2 Cowan House
Hillcrest Primary 9-0 Treverton
Westville Senior Primary 3-1 Penzance
Ashton 0-1 Atholl Heights
Winston Park 3-1 Kloof Senior Primary

Rondebosch Boys’ High will most probably complete a southern suburbs white-wash as they face their old-foe Diocesan College in their final outing of the 2024 season.

Bosch hasn’t lost a match thus far against their southern suburbs opponents during the season. They won their first encounter against their neighbours, Bishops, by 31-16 in their annual Bisch-Bosch clash.

Bishops did not have the best season by their standards but have been producing solid performances during the last couple of weeks. They have beaten SACS by 12-10 and also led Wynberg Boys’ High by 9-7 at half-time before losing the encounter by 16-38.

Bosch will therefore not be overly confident for Saturday’s clash at home. They will also be without their flanker Josh Neill for this encounter as he is representing South Africa at the u18 International Series in Paarl. Neill was one of the star performers during the annual Stadio Craven Week in Krugersdorp as Western Province cemented their place as the best.

Their centre Alutha Wesi is also still on duty for the national team as a flanker. The midfield pairing of Ewan Lawrie and Randall-John Davids has however been solid the last couple of weeks.

Their fullback who represented the SA u18A side, Dylan Miller, is however back to face Bishops. Bishops’ left wing, Lucca Mynhardt, is the dangerman and would like to finish his season off with another solid performance.

SACS will be eying a victory over Wynberg Boys’ High as the latter missing their SA u18 flyhalf, Yaqeen Ahmed, for their final clash of the season. They have beaten a full-strength Wynberg away from home by 30-29 earlier in the season.

Wynberg Boys’ High’s captain, Aden da Costa, will have to produce a big performance to help his side secure victory. Da Costa, Xabiso Mkiva (hooker) and Luqobo Makwedini (prop) are back after service for the SA u18A side.

The dangerman for SACS is their fullback, Jack Benade, who had an outstanding season so far troubling defences with his eluding runs from the back.

The teams: 

Rondebosch Boys’ High vs Diocesan College at Tinkie Heyns field from 12:20: 

Rondebosch Boys’ High: 15 Dylan Miller, 14 David Kadima, 13 Randall-John Davids, 12 Ewan Lawrie, 11 Shakeel Abrahams, 10 David Simon, 9 James Kirsten, 8 Collin-Paul Kemp, 7 Connor Arbuthnot, 6 Matthys du Plooy, 5 Danil-Nicolas Oosthuizen, 4 Carl Geddie, 3 Damian Spence, 2 Justin Amos (captain), 1 Luke Pretorius.

Dioecesan College: 15 Wa-keem Fortuin, 14 Alex Newton, 13 Iviwe Dadamasi, 12 Anmar Laatoe, 11 Lucca Mynhardt, 10 Jordan Petersen, 9 Kashief Joseph, 8 Aza Gabada, 7 Alex Smith, 6 James le Feuvre, 5 Nic Reid, 4 Fouke Wagenmer, 3 Yusuf Ahmed, 2 Daniel van den Heever, 1 Gareth McKinon.

SACS vs Wynberg Boys’ High at Memorial A from 12:45: 

SACS: 15 Jack Benade, 14 Quewinn Lackay, 13 Nic Reynolds, 12 Mikey Skeeles, 11 Endi Sidnile, 10 Rayaan Solomons, 9 Seth Barnard (captain), 8 Daniel Grant, 7 Tashriq Bailey, 6 Zac Wilson, 5 Pierre van Selm, 4 Callum Hirst, 3 Ikhona Maxegwana, 2 Sango Zangqa, 1 Ethan Combrinck.

Wynberg Boys’ High: 15 Morné Noble, 14 Albert Lourens, 13 Ezra Antonio, 12 Brandon Ashburner, 11 Levi Brown, 10 Luke Gertze, 9 Tyrone Gombe, 8 Aden da Costa (captain), 7 Jaden Meier, 6 Jamie Stride, 5 Tyler Jackson, 4 Jaythen Orange, 3 Luqobo Makwedini, 2 Xabiso Mkiva, 1 Benjamin Matthews.

A dominant first-half performance laid the foundation for a well-deserved 38-26 victory for South Africa over Ireland in their first outing of the Under-18 International Series at Paarl Gimnasium in bright sunshine on Friday afternoon.

The SA u18s enjoyed a deserved 21-12 halftime lead after scoring three converted tries, while the Irish responded with two tries and a conversion during an enterprising first half before an appreciative crowd which included a sizable Irish contingent.

Both sides added two converted tries in the second half, which was characterised by a raft of replacements as both teams gave opportunities to their full squads. South Africa also landed a long-range penalty goal to ensure they finished well out of range of the powerful Irish side.

With Riley Norton (lock), who was named Player of the Match, leading the way, the hosts had the upper hand in the set pieces in the first half, with Ireland sloppy at lineout time which saw them losing three on the trot and a further four after the break.

However, the Irish had a complete reversal of fortunes in the scrum during the second half, when they made life difficult for the SA pack, especially after sending their replacement forwards onto the park.

Ireland who got off to the perfect start when Connor Magee (hooker) scored in the right-hand corner from a well-executed lineout maul to put them 5-0 ahead.

Five minutes later, from a stolen lineout and a clever kick ahead into the Irish 22, the SA U18s’ strong running centre Markus Muller went in under the posts for the hosts’ opening try, converted by flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed.

Shortly afterwards, South Africa went further ahead when the lively Ahmed was the architect of the second try, with a lovely break from a set piece to put Zekhethelo Siyaya (left wing) over under the uprights to stretch the hosts’ lead to 14-5.

Jack Deegan (centre) then reduced the deficit for the Irish with a converted try, but the South Africans didn’t waste time to cross for their third try – and Siyaya’s second – when the speedster gathered a clever grubber from the impressive Muller. Ahmed added the extras to stretch the SA advantage to 21-12 at the break.

With SA punished with two yellow cards and their replacements struggling to make an impact upfront, the Irish gained the ascendancy upfront, and Magee barged his way over for his second try, which was also converted to make it a two-point game.

But the SA u18 pack worked hard to stay in the fight, and captain Sethu Mnebelele capped a good performance with a try to edge his side 28-19 ahead with more than half of the second stanza remaining.

They then turned on the style when exciting outside back replacement Cheswill Jooste outstripped the defence on the left flank for another converted try, their fifth of the afternoon which was converted by fullback Akahluwa Boqwana.

Replacement back Vusi Moyo then landed a long-range penalty goal to take the game away from the Irish at 38-19 and despite a fourth Irish try, it was a deserved win for the SA U18s in their first outing of the tournament.

Earlier on Friday, England had to draw on all their reserves and produced a second-half masterclass as they wiped out a 20-10 deficit at the break to defeat a gritty Georgia 27-20 for their first win of the series.

The U18 International Series concludes next Tuesday when South Africa faces England and Ireland take on Georgia at Paarl Boys’ High’s Brug Street fields.

Scorers:

South Africa 38 (21) – Tries: Zekhethelo Siyaya (2), Markus Muller, Sethu Mnebelele, Cheswill Jooste. Conversions: Yaqeen Ahmed (3), Aka Boqwana (2). Penalty: Vusi Moyo. Ireland 26 (12) – Tries: Conor Magee (2), Jack Deegan, Jamie Conway. Conversions: Conor O’Shaughnessy (2), Tom Wood.