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Herefordshire Rugby Academy
Herefordshire Rugby Academy South Africa 2010
5th May 2010
The Herefordshire Rugby Academy travelled to Pretoria, South Africa to take part in the annual Waterkloof Sports Festival. The festival attracts sides from all over South Africa and at this year's tournament there were several schools ranked in the South African top ten rugby-playing schools.
The team travelled to Johannesberg via Cairo and on arrival at JNB Airport were surprised to see the developments that had taken place since last year. The influence of the forthcoming soccer world cup was evident to see across all of the country with roads and stadia in various stages of development.
A training day allowed the players to acclimatise to the conditions – heat, humidity and altitude (6,000 ft) were expected, but what actually materialised was rain! Lots of it!
The first game was the opening game of the tournament at 10.30am in the morning against Hoerskool Waterkloof who had beaten us by 67 points the previous year. The team made a slow start and conceded two early tries but from then on competed on equal terms and fought hard to lose 12 – 25. The coaches were impressed with the levels of commitment and organisation that the players brought to the game and were confident that we would be at least competitive in the remaining two matches.
The second game after a day’s rest and further training saw the expected conditions materialise and in high heat and humidity the team were pitted against Jim Fourie College from Cape Town. They were fit, strong and well coached and had completed their best ever playing season the previous year. The Academy started strongly and opened up a deserved 6 – 0 lead with two Connor Sullivan penalties - but Jim Fourie responded well with the pace and width of their attack causing constant problems. The game was well contested throughout and was a great advertisement for schoolboy rugby. All the coaches agreed that although we lost by 18 – 33 it was probably the best display from the Academy side since the Academy started in 2000.
Unseasonal heavy rain continued to impact on the tournament and one shower deposited 70mm of rain in an hour. The pitches looked like they might not hold up and the final games were reduced to 25 mins each way. The Academy side was paired against Hoerskool Merensky from Namibia who had beaten us by 60 points the previous year. The side was full of confidence after the performance against Jim Fourie and applied early pressure without being able to capitalise this into points. Merensky scored first against the run of play and in difficult conditions the Academy forced a field position from which Merensky conceded a penalty. The half time score of 3 – 7 did not reflect the run of play and as previously the effort and commitment was fantastic. The second half saw several injuries and substitutions and despite having chances to take control of the game it was Merensky who scored a late try to take the spoils 14 – 3.
The team met all the expectations that the coaching team had placed upon them and can be extremely proud of their efforts. South Africa is one of the toughest places to play schoolboy rugby, particularly in a tournament of this quality - and although all 3 games were lost the performances were excellent.