North vs South Can We Expect The Unexpected?

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In the second day of the Noord vs Suid Tournament held at Waterkloof, one can not help to predict that the winners of Saturday will again be victorious tomorrow 04 April 2017.

In the match between EG Jansen and Paar Gim, Paarl Gim must only keep on doing what they did on Saturday to again score a convincing victory. Pressure with more pressure until the gap opens go wide and score. Pressure on defence until EG Jansen is forced into making mistakes and score. Easy peasy they say, but the coaches of EG Jansen knows exactly what they must do to again cause a major upset. Firstly the players must get to know the difference between aggression and anger. EG Jansen can not afford to be one second without all fifteen men on the field of play. Then they will have to neutralise Gims big forwards with Henco Martins enemy number one. This boy is a special talent and showed on Saturday if not guarded properly he will score, again and again. Then no silly passes and kicks as Gim's backs will run riot if they do. Muller du Plessis and his teammates must be one of the best backlines in schoolboy rugby. EG Jansen fought until the end against Boland Landbou and showed their willingness to attack from anywhere on the field, their (10)Dylan Swarts, (12)Jonas O Niel and (13)Keenan Oelofse also has more than enough talent to keep Gim's defence very busy. They just need quality ball and they will produce. Can EG Jansen win? Not really but they already showed this season they do not care what people think or predict.

Boland Landbou will face a Garsfontein team that is prepared for this match. Duppie and his other coaches will not accept the loss against Paarl Gim lying down and have analysed Boland Landbou to the last dot. Boland Landbou plays a simple but very effective game. What makes them so good is their players and that they have confidence in their game plan AND stick to it no matter what. Garsfontein has to supply their dangerous backline some quality ball as they do have the staff to run any team apart. And maybe it is just there that Garsfontein's downfall is, their backs run from everywhere and with wild passes trying to do the impossible. Sometimes they do get it right but most of the times are does not work and with Boland's ability to pounce on every turn over this will be costly. This will be the match of the day with Garsfontein just not the favourite. Will anybody beat this Boland Landbou team, maybe we just need until tomorrow to find out.

Waterkloof will be on a high when they face Outeniqua and why not? They showed that they do not know the meaning of giving up and rescued a win from a loss after time was up on the clock on Saturday. Outeniqua will be more at ease facing a team that is not as physical up front and is also looking to spread the ball wide at every opportunity. They do however have to guard the 10 of Waterkloof Ulrich Maritz as he is the main playmaker in this exciting Waterkloof team. This game will be the most "exciting" of all four fixtures with Waterkloof keeping the North in the hunt.

Menlopark will want to build on their victory against Outeniqua in playing the same effective game. Menlopark will again look at the big Jeandre Ferreira and their no 8, Divan Venter to make hard earned meters before giving the ball to their excellent halfback pairing of Bernard van der Linde and Werner Nel. Both these boys showed they know the art of taking on the defence by themselves or with slick hands distribute it to their backs. Stellenberg must first counter these big boys who will run at them the whole seventy minutes and then play their natural running game where they combine the forwards and backs in a lethal combination scoring tries from any place on the field. A wise coach once said "play the game for the full seventy minutes" and after Saturday Stellenberg will know the meaning thereof. This one only the brave or stupid will predict. As I am both I will rather not.