The third and final day of the St John's Easter Rugby Festival takes place tomorrow (Monday 18). Steady rainfall throughout most of Saturday, the second day of the festival, made play difficult with the slippery ball and affected the running rugby seen on the first day.
Despite the weather, however, Saturday’s excellent turnout of spectators was entertained by some exciting play from the six mostly evenly contested fixtures.
Tomorrow starts slow but as the day continues the fixtures become close and exciting with the two last matches definitely the most anticipated of the festival.
08h30 St Benedict's (75,964) vs St Charles (79,254)
St Charles is still looking for their first win of the festival while St Benedicts had a "close" win against the Lions Invitational XV. Nothing much to choose between the two sides, with the bookies who will support st Charles.
09h40 St David's Marist Inanda (76,629) vs Lions Invitational
St David's again must be the favourites but the Lions Invitational XV were looking a lot more competitive on Saturday against St Benedict's. As the Lions Invitational's boys get to know each other and become a unit, a surprise could just maybe be on the cards.
10h50 Graeme College (86,586) vs Welkom Gimnasium (83,203)
Welkom Gimnasium is still looking for a win after two losses against Paul Roos (06-50) and Hilton (03-48) they are definitely not the favourite to beat Graeme College who ran Helpmekaar (07-10) close and whipped the hosts with 28-07.
An expected wet and slow pitch will also benefit the visitors from the Eastern Cape who will starve Welkom's slick backline of quality ball. Graeme College should win with relative ease.
12h00 Helpmekaar (89,906) vs Nelspruit (88,586)
Helpmekaar had a close call against Graeme College and lost their battle in the mud against Paarl Boishaai failing to keep up in the second half.
Nelspruit on the other hand showed that they struggle against a team with bigger forwards and the speed at which Helpmekaar play could just be their undoing.
Helpmekaar is definitely the favourite while Nelspruit who is having a great start to the season definitely have the ability to cause an upset.
14h00 Noordheuwel (83,908) vs St John's College (84,980)
Unfortunately for the hosts, they will finish the 25th St John's Easter Rugby Festival without a win. Noordheuwel's forwards and backs will overrun their hosts and should see them run away in the second half.
15h10 Affies (95,383) vs Boland Landbou (89,906)
Boland Landbou did not convince since they returned to South Africa from their Irish tour and they will have to be at their best if they want to win their second match in history against Affies.
Affies on the other hand had a great start to the 2022 season but sometimes struggle, as they did against Garsfontein to convert point-scoring opportunities into points on the scoreboard.
Affies struggled in the wet against Helpmekaar and Garsfontein when they can not play their fast gameplan and had to rely on their pack of forwards to dominate. Against Garsfontein their driving mauls were great but poor lineouts robbed them from several "certain" tries.
Affies should/could/must win this one, however, .........
16h20 Hilton (94,923) vs Paarl Boishaai (101,937)
A lot has been said regarding the massive forwards from Hilton College and their performance in the wet against Welkom Gim was impressive, to say the least.
However, they will come up against a very good Boishaai side that showed that they are patient and able to withstand the onslaught of a bigger pack. Their superior fitness helped them to outplay Helpmekaar in the second half to walk off the field with an easy win.
Many will support Hilton and hope for a surprise, myself, I can not wait to see what this ever-improving Boishaai can bring to the table against a good Hilton side. It is going to be close in the first half and then ..........
Results -14 April 2022
St John's 05-24 Nelspruit
Paul Roos 50-06 Welkom Gim
St Charles 12-19 St David's Marist Inanda
Boland Landbou 25-25 Noordheuwel
Hilton College 60-03 St Benedict's
Paarl Boishaai 83-00 Lions Invitational
Helpmekaar 10-07 Graham College
Results -16 April 2022
Helpmekaar 16-32 Paarl Boishaai
Paul Roos 40-03 Nelspruit
Hilton College 48-03 Welkom Gimnasium
St John's 07-28 Graeme College
Lions Invitational 21-38 St Benedict's
Boland Landbou 38-00 St Charles
Noordheuwel 60-05 St David's Marist Inanda