The Paarl Gimnasium 1stXV is expected to dominate South African schoolboy rugby in 2022. Although it is very early days one can look at the performances of the Gimmies' u/15A team of 2019, which should make up the core of the 2022 1stXV team.
The 2019 Paarl Gim’s u/15A team played 17 matches and won all against some of the top schools in the country. This team has also been unbeaten in 2018. Five of these players which included the star flyhalf Liam Koen were already starting as part of the 2021 1stXV team with another 2 players coming off the bench during each match.
The season is fast-paced, testing the Gimmies against some of the top schools in the country. It will start against a good Stellenberg side followed by Monnas and Glenwood at the Noord/Suid Festival at Affies in Pretoria.
A trip to Pretoria to visit Affies will be one of the highlights of the season with maybe their toughest assignment against Grey College ten days later in Kimberley at the Wildeklawer festival.
Thereafter follows six weeks of matches against the best the Western Cape Premier "A" division can offer with Oakdale visiting thrown in just for the "fun".
The season will end with the all-important Paarl Interschools against Paarl Boishaai. Some last minutes changes had to be made to the fixture list as the original date set for the interschools against Boishaai clashed with other games at the Faure Street stadium. The schools agreed to move the date to 30 July 2022 which resulted in the planned matches against Outeniqua High School being cancelled.
A fixture list from "hell" with no easy matches in between to recoup or restructure.
1stXV Provisional Fixtures (Home team 1st)
18/03/2022 Stellenberg vs Paarl Gim
26/03/2022 Monnas vs Paarl Gim (Noord/Suid)
29/03/2022 Glenwood vs Paarl Gim (Noord/Suid)
09/04/2022 Wynberg vs Paarl Gim
23/04/2022 Affies vs Paarl Gim
30/04/2022 Helpmekaar vs Paarl Gim (Wildeklawer)
02/05/2022 Grey College vs Paarl Gim (Wildeklawer)
07/05/2022 Paarl Gim vs Paul Roos
14/05/2022 Rondebosch vs Paarl Gim
21/05/2022 Paarl Gim vs Boland Landbou
04/06/2022 Paarl Gim vs SACS
11/06/2022 Oakdale vs Paarl Gim
23/07/2022 Paarl Gim vs Bishops
30/07/2022 Paarl Boishaai vs Paarl Gimnasium
Other important dates:
11/03/2022 Gim "IPL Touchies"
21/03/2022 Wynberg Festival u14A, u/15A & u/16A
23-30/03/2022 u/14A Kwagga Rugbyweek (Outeniqua)
25-30/03/2022 u/15A Boishaai u/15 Rugbyweek
25-30/03/2022 u16A Jean de Villiers Rugby Festival
25-30/03/2022 u/14C, u/15C & u/16C Paul Roos Festival
26-30/03/2022 u/19B Noord/Suid
26-30/03/2022 u/19E Tony Stoops Festival
29/04 - 02/05/2022 u/19B, u/19C & u/19D Wildeklawer
13/08/2022 Internal 7's
15-17/09/2022 Marius Schoeman 7's