AFTER a month of spectacular rugby, there is no doubt which Nelson Mandela Bay township school has the best team.
Ndzondelelo High School in Zwide, Gqeberha, is the deserving Mzwandile Mali Tournament winner. In the final played on Friday in very hot conditions in the Wolfson Stadium in KwaZakhele, Ndzondelelo beat the regional Fort Beaufort winner, Thubalethu, 32–13.
The well-organised Ndzondelelo team scored four tries to two, to get the better of the gutsy Thubalethu boys. Ndzondelelo started the match strongly, while Thubalethu was a bit over-eager and made some unforced errors. After 20 minutes the more structured game paid off for Ndzondelelo, and they led 13–0.
Thubalethu was very keen on defence, sometimes too keen, and gave away a lot of penalties. This led to two yellow cards in the first half, which put them under even more pressure.
Ndzondelelo started the second half strongly with a quick try, after leading 13–3 at the break.
Although the Fort Beaufort boys never gave up, they struggled to stop the Ndzondelelo runners who were giving the ball a lot of air, scoring some brilliant tries in a convincing victory.
It was a real battle for third place in the tournament between Bonzai and Uitenhage. The only points in the first half were from a penalty by Uitenhage, and in the second half Bonzai managed to score a try to seal the deal 5–3.
While these two matches were played in Gqeberha, there were also exciting matches at the Graeme College Festival in Makhanda.
Six Nelson Mandela Bay teams were in action and did very well. There were good victories for the Gqeberha sides of Pearson, Grey High, and Framesby.
Grey beat Hudson Park 44–5 in the main match on Friday. The Grey forwards, especially with their mauling game, were too much for their opponents to handle.
Daniel Pienaar (Kariega) caught the eye with an easy 43–6 win over Union High.
On Saturday another Kariega team, Muir College, just couldn’t pull it off in a close contest which Cambridge won 24–21. St Andrew’s beat Die Brandwag 34–19.
It was easy for Pearson; they got the better of Queen’s College winning 19–11, scoring three excellent tries in the process. Framesby beat Stirling 43–0.
Pearson and Westering will be the Gqeberha schools in action at the Oakdale Week which starts today just outside Riversdal.
Die Brandwag will further represent Nelson Mandela Bay where 32 schools participate till Monday.
After today’s matches the fixtures for the rest of the week will be finalised in an effort to match the sides up evenly.
Westering takes on Labori (11:05) this morning, and Pearson tackles Zwartkop at 15:10. Die Brandwag is involved in one of the later matches when they kick off at 18:00 against Pietersburg.
