Grey College Season Review
Grey achieve an unbelievable 27th unbeaten season in 2023!
Grey’s talismanic skipper JJ Theron after his last game for the school against Oakdale.
Photo credit: Netwerk 24
P15 W15 D0 L0
PF 589 PA 221
Average Score 39 - 15
Coach Jannie Geldenhuys was able to mentor an incredible group in 2023, who clearly benefited from the time away together as a group at the World Schools Festival in Thailand in December. Whilst they went down in the final of that competition, the core of the 2023 group performed admirably in foreign conditions to run perennial NZ champions Hamilton Boys’ High close in the Final.
On the back of that, much was expected of this year’s crop, but perhaps an unbeaten season was not predicted at the start of the year owing to their tough fixture list.
Grey slumped to a harrowing day on the Markotter and surrounds in their final game of 2022, and they would have been determined to ensure that this would never be repeated. Their win in the final game of the season against PRG, despite being shorn of a number of influential SA representatives and with a number of players playing out of position, would have been incredibly satisfying for players, staff and supporters alike.
The clearest illustration of how much their school means to them was during the handshakes after the final whistle of the SA v England u18 clash at Brugstraat. When the injured Grey flyhalf Ian van der Merwe came to congratulate his victorious skipper JJ Theron, the first thing Theron asked was whether Grey had beaten PRG. Van der Merwe’s smile and nod led Theron to punch the air in celebration, as it sunk in that he had skippered an incredible 27th unbeaten side and would go down in Grey folklore!
As always, Grey played rugby at a tempo that no one in the country could live with, as they combined power up front with speed and skill out wide, all the while showing dazzling interplay between forwards and backs. Who will forget tighthead Jean Erasmus’s try against St Andrew’s College, where he streaked away from the cross cover after receiving an unselfish offload on the back of a bullocking run by flank JH Smit from the kick-off.
Grey lose a number of matrics at the end of the year, but their depth is the envy of every school in the country. With another strong u16A side moving up, as well as some solid Grade 11s who played in the First XV and Cherries, who would bet on them not making it another unbeaten season in 2024?
Festivals
As always, Grey College were the hottest ticket in town in 2023 and they added considerable stardust to the Graeme College 150th Festival in Grahamstown, where they made their second appearance. It was noticeable how the grass bank under the Leopard’s Den swelled for their opening clash with Marlow, who themselves were written up before the season started. As always, Grey College will always be the ultimate test for a schoolboy. In a brutal display in the first half, Grey’s tempo and power were far too much for the side from Cradock, who had no answer to the fluency of Grey so early in the season. Marlow didn’t give up, but the looks on their players’ faces after the game was one of bewilderment at having been hammered by a side that is professional in all but name.
Their opponents on Day 3, St Andrew’s College, would have watched that game with appropriate dread and so it proved. Having narrowly missed out on being able to call the game off for lightning, St Andrew’s were steamrolled in a routine win for Grey, where they took the foot off the gas mercifully in the second half. St Andrew’s were lucky to get nil and it was disappointing how little resistance they showed in a match that every boy would love to play in.
Noord-Suid was a strange set of performances by Grey, as they blew Paarl Gim away, and then were pushed all the way by a Maritzburg College side who had started the season poorly. The determination etched on the Grey players’ faces before and during the Gim game was startling, and they put away the country’s second best side remarkably easily. Their pace and power again coming to the fore as they avenged last year’s defeat at Wildeklawer to a school they will now have a full fixture against from 2024. Maritzburg College were given no hope of even being competitive but they defied all expectations to run Grey very close, leading for long periods of the game, as they perhaps set out a blueprint of how to take this formidable side on. They tackled with gusto and took their chances, but ultimately Grey’s class told in the end as Maritzburg ran out of steam.
In Kimberley at the end of April, Grey had a hugely anticipated fixture with Garsfontein, a side who have not been shy of investment and as the Johnny-come-Lately of schoolboy rugby, would have been confident of giving Grey a good game. Grey managed to keep the upstarts at arm’s length all game and came away with a comfortable 23 - 9 win in the end. Garsfontein’s inability to cross the whitewash a clear illustration of the work (read investment) that still lies ahead for the Pretoria school. As part of Stellenberg’s fixture list form hell in 2023, Grey met the side from Cape Town’s northern suburbs and were again comfortable in sending them packing, conceding just the one try in a solid 31 - 8 victory.
Best performance
In a long list of great performances, their wins over Gim and Affies are difficult to separate. The striking thing about both these victories was the gulf in class on the day, especially in the win over Gim, who would go on to have a brilliant season themselves. The 33 - 12 Grey win over Gim showed just how dominant Grey were in 2023.
Their win over traditional rivals Affies in Bloemfontein was incredibly one-sided. In my preview for that weekend, I feared for Affies and these fears proved to be well-founded. Grey’s brilliant Grade 11 inside centre Pieter van der Merwe had a field day against fellow u17 star Janco Purchase. He ran over him, around him and through him in a spellbinding individual display that made a mockery of the later selection of Purchase ahead of van der Merwe for SA Schools. I have no doubt van der Merwe will repeat the dose next year against the Wit Bulle and expose Purchase’s limitations for a consecutive year. Grey scored 60 points in a record breaking day, and it honestly could have been even more.
Worst performance
A ‘worst performance’ category for an unbeaten side may be pedantic, but Grey were way off their best as they played their final game at home against Oakdale, where their SA representatives took their final bow. On an incredibly dry and hard field in Bloemfontein, Grey made a number of errors, and Oakdale, who had been incredibly poor in 2023, came to play and even had a chance to take a late lead but for the bounce of the ball. That would have been one of the greatest shocks in schoolboy history considering the fortunes of both sides this year, and when considering the emotion that would have been firing the home side to send off their national heroes.