Trinityhouse, an independent school in Johannesburg's northern area, is touring in South America and report from Chile where they have played the fourth of their five matches. They have two teams on the trip.
The report comes from a beautiful Viña del Mar in Chile, a place that reminds us a lot of the French Riviera, quite beautiful if not a little chilly at the moment (NPI). The boys played at MacKay School's marvellous sports facilities (imagine five fields on land three times the size of Trinity's fields) where another local school, Redland, was also visiting; so there was rugby all around us - so good to see.
Our long-suffering Seconds played Redland’s Firsts at the same time as our Firsts played MacKay, and this wasn't good news for our touring squad, a tad decimated by injuries as it was! We soldiered on though and the seconds went down 11-0 but still fighting. To put this into perspective we had a prop and a hooker on the wings, a lock at fullback and a flank at centre; all of which goes to prove that old rugby adage that in this wonderful game we have piano-players and piano-carriers!
The First XV match was a nail-biter in the end as we went from a comfortable lead of 40-17 to a narrow win of 45-39 as we took our foot off the gas a bit against opposition that was meant to be a little easier than that we have faced thus far, although a school that in previous years has beaten the likes of Pretoria Boys. They were wonderful hosts and the rugby was played in great spirit.
Our captain Matthew Gouldie was outstanding scoring FOUR tries with Ewan Botha adding a brace and the excellent Kieran Usher another. In the absence of regular flyhalf and goal-kicker Matthew Feinstein (bruised knee) Kyle Steyn converted five times.
Not a pretty win but we'll take it.
Now for the final hurdle against the Chile National Under-18 team on Tuesday...
Touring Squad
1st Team: 1 Wessel van Niekerk, 2 James Marais, 3 Brandon Palmer, 4 Morné Els, 5 Frazer Stockley, 6 Ewan Botha, 7 Luke Palmer, 8 Gareth Philips, 9 Kieran Usher,10 Mathew Feinstein,11 Grant Grobler,12 Sheldon Hallet,13 Matthew Gouldie (C),14 Raymond Charlotteaux,15 Kyle Steyn,16 Bryce Nel,17 Chad Venter
2nd Team: 1 Shehan Hearn, 2 Jake Wagner, 3 Paulo Pappanio, 4 Charl Carstens, 5 Neil Campher, 6 Oliver Bruens, 7 Liam Vallance, 8 Carmen Pillay 9 Jonty Liebenberg,10 Simon Drennan,11 Brendan Le Roux,12 Calvin Reeves,13 Tagara Mutuma,14 Zibu Nkomo,15 Ross van Coller,16 Michael Ray,17 Wium Swart,18 Stephan McAdam
From Deon Els
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