Saturday 25 March 2017 will only be the fourth weekend of the 2017 schoolboy rugby season and in the Noordvaal schools are already playing the quarterfinals in the Tuks Series.
Nelspruit will be the host in two fixtures. In the first Nelspruit will face the dragon slayers of Pretoria, Eldoraigne. Eldoraigne ended as winners in group 2 after their surprising victory against Monnas Saturday at Ellispark. Eldoraigne possesses a macro pack and has the backs to put the points on the board. Nelspruit narrowing lost to Middelburg HTS at home but then turned around their season with two victories against Klerksdorp (49-14) and Florida (29-22). These two teams are not favourites to win the TUKS series but will definitely not go down without a fight. While Eldoraigne maybe displayed the better form of these two teams up to now, one can and will not ever forget the never say die attitude.
In the other quarterfinal hosted at Nelspruit Middelburg HTS will meet an injured and motivated Monnas. Tjaart van der Walt will have no problem motivating his team after their loss against Eldoraigne. It must be also said that he will have all five players missing against Eldoraigne back this weekend. The missing players all attended the SA Schools training camp this weekend. Middelburg HTS season this far shows two victories against Nelspruit (25-22) and Florida (38-29) with an easy win against Klerksdorp (59-10) this past weekend. Monnas must be the favourite to win this one BUT again seen Middelburg HTS winning games as the fat lady is ending the last note.
Garsfontein Hoërskool will host the other quarter-finals on Saturday. The first fixture is between Garsfontein and Menlopark fighting for the crown of Pretoria. Menlopark beating Transvalia (40-36) and Kempton Park (18-11) is showing an upward curve this year and must be confident beating Garsfontein after Garsies "surprise:" lost against EG Jansen. Garsfontein will be hurt after the loss on Saturday against EG Jansen and will want to proof that they are still the best Pretoria team in this competition. Expect a very hard game with one or two heated moments.
In the East Rand derby, EG Jansen will meet Kempton Park Hoërskool. EG Jansen is this year doing its own thing without the usual fanfare. Everybody expected them to fail as a lot of poaching was done. But typically of these East Rand boys, they are just playing every opponent, giving their best and most important WINNING. Kempton Park should not pose any real threat to EG Jansen and one can not be blamed to expect a comfortable win for EG Jansen.
And then for the semi-finals on Saturday 22 April 2017. The winners of Eldoraigne and Nelspruit will play the winners of Middelburg HTS and Monnas semi-final. The second semi-final will be between the winners of the fixtures Garsfontein vs Menlopark and EG Jansen vs Kempton Park.