Schoolboy Rugby – Preview Week 3 Central Region

 

We take a short preview of the matches for this week in the Central Region. The Central Region comprises the Free State and Northern Cape schools.

Diamantveld vs Affies

Most of the eyes of the schoolboy rugby pundits will be on Kimberley when the highly rated Affies 1stXV will play against Diamantveld who boasts the services of ex-Boland Landbou head coach Phillip Molnar.

Diamantveld had a good start beating Voortrekker Bethlehem 18-06 in the opening round of the Wesgrow competition. The big forwards of Diamantveld are credited for the win against Voortrekker Bethlehem and will want to do the same against Affies.

Affies on the other hand have not played any official matches, however, warmup "matches" against the Vodacom Bulls u/19 squad were played and apparently, the Affies boys did not disappoint at all. Interestingly the Affies 1stXV team have 5 u/17 players with their back three all u/17s.

We expect a close and physical match with both packs of forwards the main weapon of both sides. However, Affies have a brilliant centre pairing which could tear any top team's defence apart.

Affies 1stXV: 1 Werner Very, 2 Ethan van Dyk, 3 Ruan Smuts, 4 Muntingh Hamman, 5 JH Hattingh, 6 Lohan Potgieter, 7 Albert Smit, 8 Ruan Lippold, 9 Hendre Schoeman, 10 Ruben Pienaar, 11 Nic Grobler, 12 Janco Purchase, 13 Theuns Maritz, 14 Hugo Snyman, 15 Ruben Groenewald.

Trio vs Sentraal
Trio started their season with losses to Grey College (03-40) and Noordheuwel (22-12), however, those two losses are supposed to send early warnings to other schools that might have penned in a win over Trio.

Sentraal has also started the season with losses against Hentie Cilliers (05-21) and Noord Kaap (22-28) and is definitely not the favourite when they visit Trio in Kroonstad in their first Wesgrow Series match.

Other Matches
Goudveld vs Fichardtpark
Grey College vs Grey PE (not confirmed)
Jim Fouche vs Witteberg
Landboudal vs Noord Kaap