CAPE TOWN – The 54th edition of the Under-18 Craven Week concludes on Saturday at St Stithians College in Johannesburg with the Golden Lions up against the unbeaten KwaZulu-Natal Sharks in the “final” game.
Western Province, the unofficial champions for the past two years, meet Free State in the penultimate match of the tournament.
The Lions can consider themselves fortunate to have made the main game, in that they’ve only won once from two starts and were held 13-13 by WP on Wednesday.
WP have similar returns, having beaten the Pumas in their opener on Monday.
Free State are in the same pool as the Lions and WP and boast an unbeaten record with two big wins recorded, so you would have thought the Grey College-laden side would have been chosen for the main game.
The fact that the Lions are hosting the world’s biggest schools rugby tournament for the first time in 11 years probably helped earn them the nod.
WP would have fancied their chances against a Sharks team that has easily seen off two rivals in the space of three days.
That said, the Cape side still have a big game ahead of them and will want to end off with an unbeaten record for the third year in a row under head coach Elmo Wolfaardt.
Free State, like WP, are one of the powerhouses of SA rugby but haven’t quite been at their menacing best in recent years at this level of the game.
But the chance to end off their campaign with a hat-trick of wins and for the Grey College caps to exact revenge on their Paarl Boys counterparts who came to Bloemfontein earlier in the season for an Inter-schools clash, is enticing.
Wolfaardt, an assistant coach at Paarl Boys and in his third year with WP, wants his charges to sign off with a convincing performance. “The fact that we never made it into the final game is no big train crash, of more importance is to go unbeaten again. I’ve guided this team since 2015 and have yet to taste defeat," said Wolfaardt.
WP players in the running for national colours are fullback Muller du Plessis, who made the SA Schools team last year, left wing Thaakir Abrahams, hooker Joshua du Preez, openside flanker Vian Fourie and No 8 Joachim Martins.