EG Jansen salvages pride at Easter rugby festival
Hoërskool EG Jansen won one of their three matches as they salvaged some pride with a 25-3 rout over Kearsney College at the seventh edition of the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival.
The tournament, which was contested by the top 12 rugby schools in the country, ran between Thursday and Monday, April 17 and 21.
The win served as an ideal finish to the tournament for the boys from Boksburg.
The opening day saw EG Jansen suffer a crushing 26-8 loss to perennial powerhouse Bloemfontein’s Grey College, which has produced the likes of Springbok wing-forward ace Heinrich Brussow.
Having gone down in their opening match, the boys from the East Rand were eager to move on and they produced a much-improved performance in a 31-20 setback against KZN’s Glenwood.
The local school side, however, grew from strength-to-strength going into their last game against Kearsney, and displayed enterprising rugby as they outscored the hosts four tries to zero.
The homeside found themselves on the back-foot from as early as kick-off as EG Jansen’s pace and physicality put their defense under pressure.
The pressure told inside the first 20-minutes of the game as fullback Martin van Wyk scored a brace and centre Erich Cronje touched down as EG Jansen raced to a 15-0 lead.
The match was essentially over at the end of the first-half, as Forrest Roos’s penalty just before the hooter gave his side an 18-0 advantage into the recess.
The second stanza saw end-to-end action as Kearsney looked to claw their way back, but missed opportunities kept them out.
However, the homeside were finally rewarded for their persistence as scrumhalf James Hall scored a penalty to put the hosts on the scoreboard.
EG Jansen’s Rouxbann Bauman put the results beyond doubt with his side’s fourth try following a well-worked move, with Roos converting to make it 25-3.
Moreover, five stand-out players in the tournament received bursaries to the Sharks Academy for 2015.
The recipients of the bursaries are Glenwood’s prop and fly-half, Kenny van Niekerk and Curtis Jonas; Westville Boys High loose-forward Adrian Heystek, Dale College fullback Justerino Davids, and HTS Middelburg number 15 Barend Smit.
In announcing the awards Etienne Fynn, MD of the academy, says the great pool of talent this year had made it extremely difficult for the selectors to choose only three players as originally planned; and they had therefore decided on awarding five bursaries.
“The standard is again consistently high with excellent match-ups at the festival.
“Academy coaches and selectors who have been to the other festivals taking place around the country this weekend, have reported that the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival has an exceptionally high standard of participating teams; with sides being very competitive and evenly-matched,” Fynn says.
Adding to the status of the festival and to the thrill of players, international rugby referees Craig Joubert and Marius Jonker officiated at three games over the weekend.
Joubert said it was always a delight to ref schoolboy games and to experience the wealth of talent coming through at this level of the game.
Four teams remained unbeaten at the end of the festival, namely Glenwood (KZN), HTS Middelburg (Middelburg), Grey College (Bloemfontein) and Monument (Krugersdorp).
