Following a brilliant 2024 Wildeklawer Sports Festival there were several big winners and big losers.
Schoolboy Rugby - RSA Top Rugby School Ranking (click to view)
And to the supporters of some of the top schools that will want to explode for their unbeaten team not being mentioned. It is easier to climb seven positions on the log from the Top 30, than it is even possible to climb six positions from the top 5. Capeesh?
The big winner in the Top 20 Rugby Schools was Stellenberg who stormed into the top 20 at #14, jumping seven positions. Their 1stXV beat Garsfontein on Thursday 26-22 and narrowly lost 17-19 to EG Jansen on Saturday. Their U16s returned home with wins over Garsfontein (26-24) and EG Jansen (43-05) while their U15s drew 11-11 against Garsfontein and beat EG Jansen (54-07). Their U14s lost 05-26 to Garsfontein and beat EG Jansen (22-12).
These results saw their 1stXV jump three positions to #25, U16s jump five positions to #5, U15s jump two positions to #4 and their U14s jump 2 positions to #24. A below-normal season suddenly turned into an acceptable season with a promise of great 1stXVs in 2025,26 and 2027.
However, the talk of the town was the Oloff Bergh (Head of sport) and Philip Molnar (Head of coaching) led Diamantveld who jumped 10 positions to #43. Diamantveld 1stXV beat Marlow 59-25 on Thursday and St John's NZ 40-24 on Saturday. Their U16s beat Marlow 41-27 and Glenwood 25-17 to jump sixteen positions to #50, while the U15s lost 05-38 to Marlow and 00-57 to Glenwood to drop one position to #58. Their u14s beat Marlow 43-06 and Glenwood 17-00 to jump 23 positions to #26.
For Diamantveld their U14s are the torchbearers for a "new" leadership at Diamantveld with a change in coaching style showing early fruits that indicate a much brighter future for the hosts of the Wildekalwer Sport Festival.
The big losers who had a not-so-nice Wildeklawer Sports festival were Glenwood (-10) and Outeniqua (-6).