Image: Werner Hills
St Andrew’s enjoyed a successful Standard Bank Grey High School Rugby Festival by returning with victories over Gauteng teams St John’s College and Jeppe High last week.
On Thursday against St John’s, after a tense half where the collisions in midfield were brutal, St Andrew’s came away with a narrow 5-0 lead, thanks to a try by hooker Chris Poole, following a strong lineout drive.
In the second half, St Andrew’s were in dominant form.
Two quick tries by Lloyd Koster and Matthew Hillary, both of which were converted by Connor Stulich, saw the lead stretch to 19-0.
After some fantastic work by Brayden Barratt, Miles Danckwerts stepped his way through the St John’s defence to score from 50m out.
Finally, with replacement scrumhalf Nicholas Rogan giving a fantastic inside ball to Bame Malesu, St Andrew’s rounded off the scoring to end the game 31-0.
On Saturday, they came up against a confident, physical and determined Jeppe side, who had beaten Selborne on the first day.
In a tense first half, it was Jeppe who came away with the lead, going into the break 12-3 up.
A number of missed lineouts by the St Andrew’s pack meant that possession was often given back to the opposition and this put unnecessary pressure on the team in what was always going to be a tense battle up front. The second half was just as tense, but it was St Andrew’s who managed to keep Jeppe pegged down in their own half because of the controlled boot of flyhalf Guy Rushmere.
The pressure told and with Danckwerts picking up from the base of the ruck and getting through the first line of defence, he was able to send his centre partner, Jason Thomas, away to score near the uprights.
The try was converted by Stulich and it suddenly became a two-point game, with Jeppe leading 12-10.
With the clock ticking down, St Andrew’s were once again able to keep Jeppe deep in their own half, eventually forcing a penalty.
This was converted calmly by Rushmere to put St Andrew’s 13-12 ahead.
The defended strongly in the final few minutes to complete what was a memorable victory.