Thursday 10 April 25: Wynberg has been attending the Kwaggas Rugby Week for about 10 years. It is hosted by Outeniqua High School in George and is attended by top rugby schools from around the country. There were about 30 schools present this year providing a really strange environment for our boys because WBHS and KES, from Johannesburg, were the only two English schools present.
It is a great tour for our two junior age groups, getting to test themselves against top rugby schools from across South Africa, and exploring all on offer in the Garden Route area – and, of course, George is just a few hours’ drive from Cape Town. Our boys stayed at the George Country Resort where there was a pool and plenty of space for them to enjoy themselves.
We have always treated the tour as a pre-season opportunity to take a squad of players to test before finalising our teams for the season ahead. We often play schools at Kwaggas who’ve had a lot more matches and practices than we’ve had the opportunity this early in the season. It was no different this year. Cricket and water polo are not big sports at these schools and many of them play rugby all year round.
Our U14s were matched up against Drostdy from Worcester on Day 1. We lost 29-33 in a match that was decided at the death. We could easily have beaten them and as it turned out they were one of the strongest teams at the festival. On Day 2 our U14s beat Secunda 52-12, with our lads managing to score 9 tries. We matched up with KES on the last day, and although we played poorly, we managed to win a nail-biter 17-15. Where good rugby was sparse, our boys showed a lot of grit.
Wynberg’s U15s played Menlo Park on Day 1. It was a team we should have beaten comfortably but we made far too many errors and lost 7-13. On Day 2 we were fixtured against Garsfontein, physically the biggest U15 team I have ever seen. It was too early in the season for us to play against this kind of team and we lost 14-46. Unfortunately, most of Garsfontein’s tries came from our errors. On the last day, our U15s beat Sentraal from Bloemfontein 35-22.
I am sure this tour and the tough matches played will have prepared these two teams well for the season ahead. Critical team spirit was certainly developed on the tour which always makes our Wynberg sides so special when the chips are down – we will be back at Kwaggas next year – the festival is a magnificent opportunity for the boys to build match temperament and ‘gees’ while our coaches to fine-tune the tough selections ahead.
Peter van Schalkwyk
Deputy Headmaster || Rugby Coach
