Affies Should Be The Favourites Against Maritzburg College

 

The eighth edition of the 2022 Premier Interschools seasons gets underway this coming Saturday, 23 July when Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool (Affies) travel to Pietermaritzburg to take on hosts Maritzburg College for their annual derby.

This rivalry started in 1996 while in 2011 the teams met twice. This year marks the 26th inter-school match between the two schools. Affies have the better record overall and have won 22 of these encounters in comparison to Maritzburgs’ three victories.

For many years, Maritzburg College's rugby has been characterized by the rugged qualities and outstanding work of the forward pack. The hard running and punishing tackling of its backs and an eagerness to shift the ball wide at every reasonable opportunity. Most notable, however, is the fierce determination and spirit typifying College teams with an indomitable will to win.

The Pretoria side is regarded as one of the best rugby schools in South Africa. It has delivered many Springbok players in the past and continues to supply loads of talent in the SA Schools and SA Academy sides. Affies also has many players at all provincial levels of rugby. This will be a match of strength up against spirit, an exciting prospect for any lover of South African rugby.

Both teams have contributed well to the recent Craven Week held over the July school holidays with Affies having seven players in the Blue Bulls team while Maritzburg College boasts five members in the Sharks team. Center Litelihle Bester from College and flyhalf Stephan Heymans from Affies also made the SA Schools team while Affies hooker, Hanro Venter was a late inclusion for the SA Schools "A" team.

Affies is having a stellar season so far with only two losses out of 13 games of which one was by only one point to Garsfontein and the other to the perennial schoolboy benchmark of Grey College. They had excellent wins over Paarl Gim, Oakdale, Helpmekaar and Paul Roos as part of their season so far and find themselves as one of the top three ranked schools.

Maritzburg College, on the other hand, is having a somewhat of an indifferent season having played 15 games, won eight and lost seven. They started with four wins on the trot but then ran into inform teams like Michaelhouse and Bishops, then another win against Grey PE and then a hatrick of losses against DHS, Paarl Boys and Helpmekaar. It seems they could just not get two good games in a row going. They managed to stabilise the season by winning their last two matches against local rivals Kearsney and Westville and will want to keep the momentum going against Affies.