The first day of the St John's festival produced some brilliant rugby.
St John's 05-24 Nelspruit
The main match of the day started with Nelspruit using their heavier and dominant forwards to play into the St John's quarter from where they scored a try within the first 3 minutes of the match. St John's responded by forcing Nelspruit into their half and pressuring their defence for about 7 minutes but were unable to score. Nelspruit in turn forced St John's into their half for an extended period where they applied constant pressure and managed to score a try after repeated attacking phase play.
St John's managed to attack up to the Nelspruit try line but botched a potential try-scoring opportunity due to poor handling which turned the ball over to Nelspruit who played out of their half and scored a brilliant backline try. The halftime score was 17-0.
St John's had to defend in their quarter for the first 11 minutes of the second half until Nelspruit eventually scored a converted try to extend their lead to 24-0. Nelspruit was immediately back in the St John's quarter attacking the try line and forcing St John's to concede a number of penalties which led to a yellow card given to them with 14 minutes left of the match. St John's however absorbed the pressure and managed to escape their half and play into the Nelspruit quarter. They scored a try after taking a quick tap free kick and running the ball wide to score in the corner to eventually get 5 points on the board. The full-time score was 24-5 in favour of Nelspruit.
Paul Roos 50-06 Welkom Gim
Paul Roos as expected started the match on fire and scored their first try within the first 2 minutes by playing the ball wide to the No 14 wing who went over the try line to open their scoring tally with 5 points. They scored another try 2 minutes later when the No 14 wing again went over the try line in the corner to take their score to 10-0.
Welkom Gim then managed to settle and played into the Paul Roos half where they forced two consecutive penalties of which they kicked one for 3 points. Paul Roos then attacked onto the Welkom Gim try line where they scored a converted try with good forward driving play to take the score to 17-3 with 11 minutes left in the half. Welkom Gim who tried playing the ball away from the big Paul Roos forwards managed to force a penalty in their half which they kicked to increase their score to 17-6 which was the halftime score.
The first 11 minutes of the second half saw both teams trying to gain territory until Paul Roos managed to break the Welkom Gim defence to run from within their half and score a converted try. They then started to take control of the match and playing all the rugby in the Welkom Gim half where they scored another two quick tries to take the score to 38-6. With less than 3 minutes left on the clock, they scored another two tries with the second try being scored from the restart of play after the first try was scored taking the score to 50-6 at full time.
St Charles 12-19 St David's Marist Inanda
St David's opened the scoring tally early on in the first half when they forced a penalty which they opted to kick for 3 points. They soon increased their lead with a well-worked converted try to take the score to 10-0.
St David's kept St Charles pinned in their half after that with attacking play until the 11th minute when St Charles managed to play into St David's quarter with a clever chip kick to beat St David's defence however, errors by St Charles on attack allowed St David's to escape from their half 5 minutes later. A successful penalty kick by St David's increased their lead to 13-0.
St Charles soon attacked back into St David's quarter and a penalty kick that bounced off the upright led to another penalty against St David's close to their try line. The ball was quickly tapped by the St Charles No 8 who crashed over the try line for their first try to take the score to 13-5. St David's however soon followed up with another successful penalty kick to stay in the lead 16-5.
The match then became a see-saw affair with each team playing into each other's half. St Charles managed to score another try when the No 6 flank forced his way over the try line closing the score gap to 16-12 which was the halftime score.
The second half started with both teams continuing to try and play running rugby with no team really gaining much territory and sharing the possession. St David's managed to attack close to the St Charles' try line after 16 minutes in the half. The pressure exerted by St David's led to a yellow card being given to St Charles and further repeated penalties in their half from which St David's managed to kick 3 points to take the score to 19-12 which was the final score.
Boland Landbou 25-25 Noordheuwel
The match started with Boland playing into Noordheuwel's half to force a penalty which they kicked to open their scoring tally 3-0. Noordheuwel however soon responded by pinning Boland in their half and being rewarded with their own penalty kick to equalise the score at 3-3 in the 10th minute.
Boland managed to play back into Noordheuwel's half using their big forwards to gain good momentum which created an opportunity for the fullback to score a try in the corner to take the score to 8-3. They scored another try, this time with their forwards to take the score to 15-3. Noordheuwel managed to stay in the hunt when they kicked another penalty.
Boland was however soon back in Noordheuwel's half and scored another try in the 27th minute as a result of good pressure play to take the score to 22-6. Noordheuwel managed to force another kickable penalty to take their score to 22-9. They then stole a Landbou line out ball in midfield and played into their quarter from where they played the ball wide with two lock forwards in the backline and managed to beat the Landbou defence out wide to score their first try. This closed the scoreline gap to 22-11 which was the halftime score.
The second half saw Noordheuwel continuing their good momentum from the end of the first half which placed Boland under pressure in their quarter. This resulted in a brilliant try when the ball was again played wide with very good interplay between the forwards and backs to take the score to 22-18. Boland managed to play into Noordheuwel's half for the first time after 15 minutes and forced a penalty which they kicked to slightly increase their lead to 25-18.
Noordheuwel absorbed the pressure by Boland in their half and scored another brilliant try when they ran the ball from within their own half to equalise the score at 25-25 which was the final score.
Hilton College 60-03 St Benedict's
The first half saw Hilton playing like a house on fire forcing St Benedict’s to desperately defend their territory. Hilton drew first blood with a penalty kick by No 10 Ivan Lockem and then scored their first try in the 11th minute when Murray Brink crashed over the try line to take their score to 8-0.
This was quickly followed by another in the 13th minute when No 15 HJ Pienaar scored. Hilton was now in control of the match with another two tries scored to take the halftime score to 27-3.
The second half started similarly to the first with Hilton running away with the game. The final score was 60-3.
Paarl Boishaai 83-00 Lions Invitational
Helpmekaar 10-07 Graham College
Graeme College was almost responsible for the first big surprise at the 2022 St John's Festival. They were well on their beating the favoured Helpmekaar with relative ease after dominating most of the facets of the game before Helpmekaar stole the game with seconds left on the clock.
The two teams spent most of the time in the midfield for fifteen minutes before Jordan Jordaan from Helpmekaar converted a penalty to give them a 3-0 lead with fifteen minutes to go in the first half. As the first half continued Graeme College started to dominate territory and possession with their heavier pack of forwards and aggressive running. Unfortunately for Graeme Helpmekaar's defence held and remained in the lead with 3-0 at the halftime break.
Graeme College continued to dominate in the first ten minutes and eventually, Licebo Ngwentle broke through the Helmekaar defence to score a converted try a take the lead with 03-07 after Hlombe Kepe converted. With five minutes to go JP Beyer scored Helpmekaar's first points of the second half, converted by Jordan Jordaan to snatch a win from a deserving Graeme College.
Article by Francois du Toit
