A lot have been said this season regarding Diamantveld and their performances this season. They were surprised in their first match against Louis Botha HTS and ended up drawing this match 14 all. Against Sentraal they were running on all cylinders but against Garsfontein the lost 25 - 5 at the Bulls Prestige evening on Tuesday. This score does not tell the whole story and this game was closer as what the score reflects. The match against Garsfontein showed that Jaco Dames is a thinking coach and he surprised all with his tactics come line out time. Garsies did not have an answer to the tactics and really struggled. It is unfair to single out players this early in the season but the name of De-an Ackerman will be heard a lot in schoolboy rugby circles in 2017. He showed in all Diamantveld's fixtures that he will be in the SA Schools side this year.
Affies on the other hand only finalised teams during this week with the trials that concluded on Saturday. Seven boys in the starting XV represented the Witbulle last season with only two grade 11's. The positive from the trails is that Affies' backline will be one of the best in South Africa. With Charles Goedhals at 10, the opposition will be kept guessing the whole match. Mr Goedhals must be one of the best flyhalves in schoolboy rugby this year. One has to wonder if this dangerous backline will see enough quality ball as Affies forwards did not display the same quality as last year's forwards. A general shortage of tall locks in 2017 is very evident at Affies and a real fetcher is also missing. Although it is understood that we only have the trials to judge Affies potential one can not help to wonder.
So who do I think will win. My heart says Affies by 50 but ..................
Teams
Diamantveld | Affies | |||
WS Coetzer | 1 | Wiehan Bezuidenhout | ||
Marco Van Straaten | 2 | Janco Uys | ||
RoedolfFourie | 3 | James Combrinck | ||
Armie Venter | 4 | Michael de Waal | ||
Hendrik Smit | 5 | Carl Els | ||
Justin Range | 6 | Divhan du Preez | ||
Armin De Villiers | 7 | Jaco Labuschagne (k) | ||
Renier Van Zyl | 8 | Philip Potgieter | ||
Jannie Van Niekerk | 9 | Johan Mulder | ||
Charles Williams | 10 | Charles Goedhals | ||
Charlie Louw | 11 | Ruben Mering | ||
Handre Bruwer | 12 | Zach Briel | ||
De-an Ackermann | 13 | Marnus Potgieter | ||
Chandre Ludick | 14 | Sean Thungo | ||
Ashwill Botha | 15 | Regardt Roets |