AT the end of the school rugby season, there are usually some exciting interschool clashes to look forward to.
Last Saturday the interschool action was at the DF Malherbe fields in Gqeberha, with Despatch the visitors. The match between the first teams was a real humdinger with the home side hanging on to win 13-6.
This coming Saturday, the interschool events will be hosted by Framesby and Cillie.
Nico Malan will be making the trip from Humansdorp to Gqeberha to take Framesby on and at the JJ Engelbrecht field, Cillie will be hosting Otto du Plessis.
The match between DF and Despatch wasn’t the only nail-biter of the past weekend.
Matches were played in atrocious conditions. It was wet, cold and windy and that made it very difficult for the players.
At Pearson, the home side staged a brave comeback but it was just not enough. Die Brandwag from Kariega, leading 17-7 at one stage, just did enough to win 20-19.
Graeme College hosted Nico Malan in Makhanda in the rain and wind in another thriller.
Nico Malan started the match with a strong wind at their backs. With their forwards doing strong work at the rucks and mauls, Nico Malan built up a nice lead of 26 points.
With the score 26-0, it looked like victory was in the bag for Nico Malan but Graeme had other ideas.
When Graeme finally adjusted to the conditions, they staged a strong comeback by scoring three converted tries.
The home side left it just a little bit too late though and Nico Malan hung on to win 26-21.
Although the victory will give Nico Malan confidence for the match against Framesby, the Gqeberha-side will be the huge favourites to win this one, after beating the strong Oakdale team from Riversdale 11-6.
Framesby has been making a habit of winning the nail-biters at home this season.
They caused a massive upset by downing Oakdale with solid defence and good discipline under pressure.
Loose head prop, Juandre van Rensburg, became the hero of the day when he scored the winning try with just four minutes left in the match.
At Grey High, it was the start of the Frogfoot 7s series and the host won the first of the ten under-17-tournaments being played nationwide.
The conditions were especially difficult for sevens rugby where the handling must be spot-on and the speedsters can be sent away in space.
There were some very exciting matches leading up to the final and Grey had to work hard to secure a place in the final against HTS Daniel Pienaar.
Grey won a hard-fought semi-final against Grens 10-5, after also beating Itembilihle, Gelvandale and Mzondsundu.
In the final, Grey was at their best as the lessons learnt in the semi-final clearly paid off in a 29–0 victory.
Grey will now play against the winners of the other tournaments in the final at Loftus in Pretoria on November 5.
