Menlopark Hoërskool was previously known as the school that recruited brilliant primary schools rugby players, but unfortunately when these players had to make the step-up to the senior sides they could not.
However, in the 2019 VirSeker Cup competition, the junior teams of Menlopark all played in the semi-finals and lost, while their 1stXV went all the way to beat Helpmekaar 44-17 in the VirSeker Cup final for a historic win.
If we take the performances in the u/14 and u/15 age groups into consideration Menlopark will be the favourites to be "king of Pretoria", however, in the VirSeker Cup the Helmekaar "dream-team" will take some special effort to beat.
Menlopark will open their season against a strong Ben Vorster team at home. Ben Vorster is slowly but surely busy working their way up the ladder and was recently promoted to the VirSeker Plate Competition.
Two weeks later they will face Paarl Boishaai and Drsotdy HTS at the Noord/Suid Festival hosted at Affies. Thereafter they travel to Nelspruit and Rustenburg that will give them enough opportunity to make the final adjustments for the Wildeklawer.
At the Wildeklawer Festival, they will face DHS and Stellenberg which once again will test them, however, both matches should be within their reach to win.
The VirSeker Cup competition starts the week after the Wildeklawer with Helpmekaar at home, followed by Waterkloof and Garsfontein. The VirSeker Cup will test this talented group of players to the maximum.
Their "highlight" of the season will be against Affies at Affies. These two schools last played in 2014 against each other with Affies winning 26-15. This could prove to be one of the matches of the season.
1stXV Provisional Fixtures (Home Team 1st)
12/05/2022 Menlopark vs Ben Vorster
25/03/2022 Menlopark vs Boishaai (Noord/Suid)
28/03/2022 Menlopark vs Drostdy HTS (Noord/Suid)
09/04/2022 Nelspruit vs Menlopark (NWU Schools)
14/04/2022 To be confirmed (Rustenburg Centenary)
23/04/2022 Transvalia vs Menlopark (NWU Schools)
30/04/2022 Menlopark vs DHS (Wildeklawer)
02/05/2022 Stellenberg vs Menlopark (Wildeklawer)
07/05/2022 Menlopark vs Helpmekaar (VirSeker Cup)
14/05/2022 Menlopark vs Waterkloof (VirSeker Cup)
21/05/2022 Garsfontein vs Menlopark (VirSeker Cup)
28/05/2022 Menlopark vs Noordheuwel (VirSeker Cup)
04/06/2022 Affies vs Menlopark
11/06/2022 Middelburg HTS vs Menlopark (VirSeker Cup)
23/07/2022 Menlopark vs EG Jansen (VirSeker Cup)
30/07/2022 Marais Viljoen vs Menlopark (VirSeker Cup)
06/08/2022 Monnas vs Menlopark (VirSeker Cup)
20/08/2022 VirSeker Cup Semi-finals
27/08/2022 VirSeker Cup Final
Other important dates:
25-30/03/2022 u/14A Kwagga Week (Outeniqua)
25-30/03/2022 u/15A Kwagga Week (Outeniqua)
25-30/03/2022 u/16A Jean de Villiers Week (Paarl Gim)
09-10/09/2022 7's Montana
16-17/09/2022 7s Eldoraigne
23-24/09/2022 7s Noordvaal (Menlopark)