Warm-up time for Craven Week

EASTERN Province's Craven Week rugby teams will gain useful match preparation when they meet their Boland, SWD and Western Province counterparts in Oudtshoorn this weekend.

The games will start this evening at 6.10pm and the second set of fixtures gets under way tomorrow at 8.30am.

EP will be up against WP today and Boland tomorrow in matches which should give the coaches a useful indication of the strengths and weaknesses of their respective teams.

The Craven sides are preparing for the annual tournament to be held in Middelburg (Gauteng) from July 13-19.

With many schools involved in exams, as well as it being a long weekend, there is a shortened programme tomorrow, but there will be two big matches in Grahamstown.

At Kingswood's City Lords at 3.30pm, the annual bragging rights between the city's two private schools will be up for grabs when the hosts take on arch-rivals St Andrew's.

Besides a loss in 2011, St Andrew's have enjoyed a long period of success against the Kingswoodians and they are coming off a morale-boosting 47-17 win over Queen's.

In contrast, Kingswood went down 15-10 to Queen's at the Graeme Rugby Day in their second match of the season.

In the only other clash against corresponding opponents this season, both teams went down to Cape Town's Bishops, St Andrew's losing 39-15 and Kingswood being defeated 45-14.

While the odds probably favour St Andrew's, Kingswood have enough players capable of turning things their way.

With the pressure on, it will be a case of the team making the fewest mistakes most likely to be celebrating.

There should be another close contest in Grahamstown when Graeme host Union High at 1.15pm. The Graaff-Reinet team will be smarting from a one-point loss to Victoria Park last weekend and will be looking for redemption tomorrow.

But Graeme, despite several losses, must start as favourites for another win.

In Oudtshoorn:

Today, first games at 6.10pm: EP v WP (U16, EP Academy and Craven Week teams); Boland v SWD (U16, Academy and Craven Week); EPCD v Boland Invitation

Tomorrow, first games at 8.30am:

EP v Boland (U16, Academy and Craven Week); SWD v WP (U16, Academy and Craven Week), EPCD v SWD Country - Neale Emslie