Afrikaans Höer Seunskool (Affies) vs Maritzburg College

On Saturday, 13 July, Premier Interschools moves up to Pretoria where Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool (Affies) host Maritzburg College for their annual derby. The yearly fixture started in 1996 and since then they have played 24 games of which Affies has won 21 with only 3 wins by College, the last one being in 2014.  The visitors will have to dig deep again this year if they want to overcome the Affies juggernaut in Pretoria. Affies had five players representing the Bulls teams at Craven Week in Bloemfontein while College had three representing the KZN Sharks.

Scores Through the Years:

YEAR AFFIES MC
1996 12 9
1997 21 16
1998 36 15
1999 29 7
2000 10 16
2001 20 5
2002 20 19
2003 25 24
2004 33 3
2005 32 7
2006 15 19
2007 31 19
2008 52 15
2009 10 0
2010 32 20
2011 55 7
2011 19 6
2012 33 7
2013 51 20
2014 10 37
2015 50 19
2016 59 7
2017 40 25
2018 17 13

Affies started the season strong with four wins in a row against tough opposition. They did very well to overpower a good Helpmekaar team and then travelled down to Paarl for their first Premier Interschools match. Here they came up against a rampant Paarl Gim who gave them their first defeat of the season.  From there, their season seemed to have gone backwards losing to KES, Paarl Boys, Westville and Grey College with an in-between win against HTS Drostdy at Wildeklawer and Jeppe just before the school holiday.

Affies Season so Far.

Date Opp For Against
2019/03/09 Diamantveld 52 25
2019/03/15 Stellenberg 28 21
2019/03/19 Outeniqua 27 20
2019/04/06 Helpmekaar 52 17
2019/04/13 Paarl Gim 19 46
2019/04/27 KES 29 33
2019/05/02 HTS Drostdy 38 22
2019/05/04 HJS Paarl 12 39
2019/05/11 Westville BHS 31 35
2019/05/18 Grey College 28 50
2019/05/25 Jeppe 47 28

College is also not having one of their best seasons and started off with three losses in a row. Good wins against Kingswood, St Charles , Kearsney and DHS got their season somewhat back on track. They stumbled against Westville and Hilton, before ending the first half of the season on a good note with a win over Michealhouse.

College Season so Far:

Date Opp For Against
2019/03/09 Northwood 26 30
2019/03/23 Noord-Kaap 24 34
2019/04/06 Glenwood 7 15
2019/04/13 Pretoria Boys High 20 15
2019/04/18 Parktown Boys 31 5
2019/04/20 Kingswood 38 7
2019/04/27 St Charles 31 7
2019/05/04 Kearsney 14 12
2019/05/11 DHS 34 24
2019/05/25 Westville BHS 26 28
2019/06/01 Hilton 17 21
2019/06/08 Michaelhouse 42 17

Rugby at Affies

Affies is famed and regarded as one of the best rugby schools in South Africa. It has delivered ten Springbok players in the past and continues to supply loads of talent in the SA Schools and SA Academy sides. Affies also has many players at all provincial levels of rugby.

Affies have a huge talent pool in the school and one that is rich in depth. There are more than 10 senior teams each year, and teams as far as G-teams are filled at each age group.

Each year Affies challenge the country’s leading rugby schools such as Grey College (Bloem), Maritzburg College, Glenwood High School, KES and many more. At these derby matches each and every team gets a chance to take the field for the Rooi, Geel and Groen. In the last few decades Affies has produced top quality players such as Louis Schmidt, Wynand Olivier, Fourie du Preez and Pierre Spies (also an Affies choir boy) to name but a few. Perhaps Affies’ most unknown star was Francois Swart who played fly-half for Die Witbulle (the school’s first team) alongside scrum-half Fourie du Preez. The formidable duo played for the Blue Bulls and was fast becoming the next Springbok scrum-and fly-half pair. Tragically Francois Swart died in 2004 and since then Affies hosts an under-15 rugby tournament in the Easter Holidays bearing the name of Francois Swart.

AFFIES SPRINGBOKS

Player DebutYear
Louis Schmidt 1958
Tonie Roux 1969
Pierre Edwards 1980
Grant Esterhuizen 2000
Fourie du Preez 2004
Wynand Olivier 2006
Pierre Spies 2006
Dean Greyling 2011
Ivan van Zyl 2018
RG Snyman 2018

 

Rugby at Maritzburg College

Maritzburg College is traditionally the dominant school rugby force in KwaZulu-Natal. The first recorded rugby match in the province of Natal took place in the Market Square of Pietermaritzburg in October 1870. The contestants were Maritzburg College (then known as Pietermaritzburg High School) and Hermansburg School. Played on a sun-baked, wheel-rutted, gravel surface, the contest lasted for more than three hours and ended in a victory, for the High School, by two goals to nil.

The arrival of James Mervyn (Skonk) Nicholson, as a master at Maritzburg College, signalled a revival in the school’s rugby fortunes. From 1948 he coached the First XV for 35 consecutive seasons, until 1982. In 1949 the First XV was unbeaten, as were ten other teams of his, while a further thirteen First XVs during that period lost only one match each.

The legendary JM (Skonk) Nicholson

His teams in the 1950s and early 1960s were particularly successful, at one stage losing only five matches in eleven years!

Skonk’s successors were scarcely less successful. The 1985, 1988 and 1995 teams were unbeaten and four other First XVs lost only one match. Since the turn of the new century, College has often found it difficult to match those statistics. The reasons for this are many: the increasing importance placed on sporting success by schools; the greater spread of talent, often owing to lucrative bursaries offered to promising players; the erosion of the rural core of College boarders; and the greatly strengthened fixture list.

The First XV’s record, however, represents only a fraction of the rugby played at Maritzburg College. Every weekend, as many as thirty teams take the field, playing the game with fierce enthusiasm and pride. The school’s rugby success is therefore built on a very firm and broad foundation.

For many years, Maritzburg College’s rugby has been characterised by the rugged qualities and outstanding support work of its forwards, the hard running and punishing tackling of its backs and an eagerness to move the ball at every reasonable opportunity. Most notable, however, is the fierce determination and spirit typifying College teams and imbuing them with an indomitable will to win.

Maritzburg College’s superbly consistent record, great depth of talent and enviable reputation for a hard but sporting approach to the game have made it, historically, the premier rugby school in KwaZulu-Natal. No one would seriously dispute College’s right to that title.

MARITZBURG SPRINGBOKS

No Name
157 Wally Clarkson
183 Bill Payn
190 Bertram Vanderplank
199 Phil Nel
359 Keith Oxlee
380 Ormond Taylor
432 Andy van der Watt
592 Joel Stransky
648 *Jeremy Thomson
713 *Pieter Dixon
715 Butch James
789 Peter Grant
837 *Craig Burden
867 Jesse Kriel

In addition, several College Old Boys have represented other countries: Hubert Freakes and Geoff Appleford (England), Juan Grobler and Chad Erskine (United States), Brenton Catterall (Zimbabwe), Wim Visser (Italy), Frank Goedeke (Germany) and Andrew Binikos (Cyprus).

The game will be broadcast live on Saturday 13 July on SuperSport One from 12h55.

You can also catch the build-up Premier Interschools Magazine Show from Wednesday 10 July at 18:45 on SuperSport One featuring Jannes Kirsten and Dan Kriel.

 

Preview
Schedule Date Series Season Episode Schedule Time Schedule End Time Channel Status
10-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 18:45 19:00 CSN / SS1 / SS1A Premier
10-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 21:00 21:15 SS10 Repeat
11-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 01:45 02:00 SS10 Repeat
11-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 06:00 06:15 SS8 Repeat
12-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 09:30 09:45 SS10 Repeat
12-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 13:15 13:30 SS1 / SS1A Repeat
12-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 14:15 14:30 CSN Repeat
12-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 14:30 14:45 SS1 / SS1A Repeat
12-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 21:15 21:30 CSN / SS1 / SS1A Repeat
13-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 01:00 01:15 SS1 / SS1A Repeat
13-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 05:45 06:00 SS1 / SS1A Repeat
13-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 10:50 11:05 SS1 / SS1A Repeat
16-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Preview 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 01:15 01:30 CSN Repeat
Build-up:
Schedule Date Series Season Episode Schedule Time Duration Schedule End Time Channel Status
13-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 12:50 00:05 12:55 CSN / SS1 / SS1A Premier
13-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 23:30 00:05 23:35 SS10 Repeat
14-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 04:30 00:05 04:35 SS1 / SS1A Repeat
14-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 09:30 00:05 09:35 CSN Repeat
15-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 04:30 00:05 04:35 SS1 / SS1A Repeat
15-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 16:00 00:05 16:05 SS1 / SS1A Repeat
15-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 23:00 00:05 23:05 SS1 / SS1A Repeat
16-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 01:30 00:05 01:35 CSN Repeat
16-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 04:30 00:05 04:35 SS8 Repeat
16-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 10:00 00:05 10:05 SS11 Repeat
17-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 01:00 00:05 01:05 SS1 / SS1A Repeat
17-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Build-up 2019 Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 11:30 00:05 11:35 CSN Repeat
Fixture:
Schedule Date Series Episode Schedule Time Schedule End Time Channel Status Venue Location
13-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 12:55 14:30 CSN / SS1 / SS1A Live Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
13-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 23:35 01:00 SS10 Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
14-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 04:35 06:00 SS1 / SS1A Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
14-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 09:35 11:00 CSN Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
15-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 04:35 06:00 SS1 / SS1A Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
15-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 16:05 17:30 SS1 / SS1A Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
15-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 23:05 00:30 SS1 / SS1A Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
16-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 01:35 03:00 CSN Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
16-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 04:35 06:00 SS8 Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
16-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 10:05 11:30 SS11 Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
17-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 01:05 02:30 SS1 / SS1A Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
17-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 11:35 13:00 CSN Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria
17-Jul-2019 Premier Interschools Rugby Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool vs Maritzburg College 15:00 16:25 SS1 / SS1A Repeat Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool Pretoria