The second edition of Premier Interschools gets underway on Saturday, 15 May and will feature one of South Africa’s most exciting schoolboy matches when Bishops host Paul Roos at the iconic Piley Rees field. This promises to be an exciting encounter with Bishops known for always dishing up entertaining running rugby while Paul Roos rugby is synonymous with dishing up an exhilarating brand of rugby.
The hosts’ last win against Paul Roos was more than a decade ago, in 2010, 33-23, since then it was the boys from Stellenbosch that have dominated this fixture with a single draw, 22-all, since 2009. It has been three years since these two teams last, in 2018, a fixture which Paul Roos thoroughly dominated, 21-44. The Maroon Machine participated in the Sanix World Schools event in Japan in 2019.
Paul Roos and Rondebosch played 18 matches since 2001 with Paul Roos winning 10, losing 7 and drawn 1.
Last Five Years' Results:
2014 - Bishops 14-36 Paul Roos
2015 - Bishops 29-39 Paul Roos
2016 - Bishops 24-42 Paul Roos
2017 - Bishops 30-32 Paul Roos
2018 - Bishops 21-44 Paul Roos
What to expect from Bishops
Bishops have recorded two wins from their two matches thus far for the season. They won against Wynberg (38-21) as well as SACS (29-22).
However, heading into a fixture against Paul Roos with just two games under the belt might prove to be not enough for the home side to beat the Maroon Machine. Ideally, Bishops would probably have wanted more game time before taking on one of the giants of schoolboy rugby and with a pack as solid as Paul Roos’ one the home side will want to lean on their strengths and spread the ball wide while attacking the space with pace.
What to expect from Paul Roos
In a similar fashion to their opponents, Paul Roos has also only played two games leading up this game, this season, but their results are not as favourable as Bishops’. Paul Roos is coming off a defeat, 25-10, against Paarl Gim albeit that they picked up a win against Boland Landbou (45-21) in their season opener it offers little to no deduction of what this Paul Roos side is capable of.
The Maroon Machine will be hoping to get back to winning ways and would want to spread some quality ball to their dangerous and exciting backs.
Prediction:
Rain is predicted which should make handling and exciting backline play extremely difficult, therefore the forwards of Paul Roos should be able to secure a good win for Paul Roos.
Source: premierinterschools.co.za