Jnr Rugby Results – Lorraine Primary School Sports Day

Union High School’s u/13A rugby team travelled to Port Elizabeth on Saturday, 14 March, to participate in the annual sports day hosted by Lorraine Primary School.

Although there are many ways to describe the efforts of these young rugby players, only one word comes to mind – phenomenal!

The Union youngsters exceeded all expectations, delivering some of the most exhilarating attacking play seen on the day.

True determination and passion were on display from beginning to end as Union defeated three strong opponents to walk away undefeated.

Union beat Verkenner 5 – 0, Grens 25 – 0 and Stulting 10 – 5.

Well done on an amazing effort, boys!

Jnr Rugby Results – Grens Sports Festival

U/13 Rugby players enjoy successful tour to East London

This past weekend, Union High School’s u/13A rugby team travelled to East London to participate in the 10th annual Grens Sports Festival.

This tour marked the start of a very busy rugby season and serves as a great opportunity for Union’s young players to find their feet while playing competitive rugby against some of the best schools in East London.

After a lengthy bus ride on Friday, the group of exited rugby players faced off against Lilyfontein Primary in what proved to be a challenging encounter. The Union players played with determination and managed to win the encounter 26-5.

Saturday morning’s first fixture against George Randell Primary School was extremely physical and was unfortunately one step to far for our boys, who went down 12-24.

In the team’s last fixture of the festival, they found themselves facing a formidable Gonubie Primary School team. This match exceeded any and all expectation as the Union boys played exceptional rugby, punching way above their weight to win the match 31-12.

Snr Rugby Results – Kirkwood Sports Festival

Union beats Humansdorp, 19 – 12

On Saturday, 7 March, Union High School’s 1st XV played against Humansdorp Secondary in very hot conditions at the Kirkwood Sports Day.

The match was played at a furious pace, but both teams proved up to the challenge.

Union’s try scorers were Ashwon Davids, Martin van der Berg and Ashton Davids. Jaden Brotherton and Brett Amsterdam added a conversion each.

The Union players can be commended on a huge defensive effort.

The final score saw Union winning the encounter 19 -12.

Coaches Prep for 2020 Rugby Season

This past weekend, nine dedicated members of the Union Schools’ staff attended a World Rugby Level 2 coaching course.

The course was presented by Mr Anthony Heugh (World Rugby Coaching Educator) and was facilitated at Union High School over the course of two days.

The course was aimed at enhancing the participants’ coaching capability and technical knowledge.

The weekend’s activities included board sessions, theory work, video analysis and practical sessions with the school’s 1st XV squad.

The coaches will complete the second part of the course in May, the successful completion of which will see them earn their World Rugby Level 2 qualification.

Sevens Rugby

Ask any rugby fan the most exhilarating way to play and watch the game, they’re likely to answer: Sevens rugby.

As the curtain starts to close on the official schools rugby programme for the season, a unique blend of 20 schools brought their u/17 rugby talent together at Framesby High School in Port Elizabeth on Friday and Saturday, 23 and 24 August, for the school’s second annual Langerry u/17 Sevens Rugby Tournament.

Among those were twelve Union players, coached by Mr. Hanno Sparrius and Mr. Christopher Felix, who set off early Friday morning to participate in this tournament.

Over the course of the tournament, Union came up against some tough opposition, but the boys gave it their all and managed two out of six victories, most notably coming from behind to beat John Walton 21 – 19 in an entertaining fixture.

In other results, Union won against Otto du Plessis 21 – 10, lost against Framesby 50 – 0, won against John Walton 21 – 19, lost against Pearson 43 – 7 and lost against Volkskool 35 – 24 (in the Bowl quarter final).

This was an enjoyable tournament, with many positives taken and lessons learnt about this wonderful game.

Union commends the team on their great sportsmanship and being fine ambassadors for the school.

“Touching” Story Behind Lord Bowler

As always, Lord Bowler (seen here with captain Iviwe Ndamane) will be watching from the sidelines of the 1st XVs game this afternoon.

The saga of Lord Bowler, Union’s 1st XV’s mascot, started 46 years ago, in 1973.  The Head Boy that year was Johnny Smith. His father was renowned as a teller of tall tales, which in those days were colloquially called ‘bowlers’.  So when he decided to donate a teddy as a mascot to the 1st XV, it was immediately named ‘Mr Bowler’.

That same year, Andrew Crawford and Mark Wiley created the war cry which is still used today.

Tradition has it that the head of ‘Mr Bowler’ must be touched when the players are running out onto the field – indeed a touching story!  Since then, ‘Mr Bowler’ had been knighted and became ‘Lord Bowler’.

Lord Bowler might be the property of the first team, but over the years, he has stood for all the rugby teams who have taken to the Union fields in green and white.

Jnr Sport Results vs Herbert Hurd

Junior rugby vs Herbert Hurd 2nd of August: At home.

Union’s junior rugby teams played against Herbert Hurd Primary School on home ground today.

This past Saturday, 3 August, Union’s u/13A rugby team played against Port Elizabeth’s Herbert Hurd Primary School, in what proved to be one of the most physical encounters of the season.  Both teams took no time to settle in as fantastic conditions allowed for a flowing game of rugby.  Union managed to apply early scoreboard pressure with a well executed backline move led by Alutha Wesi.  Herbert Hurd did well to slow the game down in the second half, but it was too little to late with Union winning the encounter 22 – 5.

The other matches, saw Union’s u/11B team losing 0 – 44, the u/11A team losing 10 – 15 and the u/13B team losing 7 – 43.

Junior hockey vs Herbert Hurd 2nd of August: At home.

3rds vs 3rds: 1-1 (draw)

2nds vs 2nds: 2 -1 (win)

1sts vs 1sts: 1- 0 (win) 

First team match report:

After suffering a 6-1 defeat against this school last year, the girls were somewhat nervous when taking to the field this weekend. This time the match was much more evenly contested, with possession changing constantly throughout the game. Although the girls managed to leave the field victorious after a soft goal from Soso Mroro, the match was rather disjointed and disappointing. It was a physical contest with both teams consistently breaking down play, and neither team managing to produce an impressive response. The girls are going to need to work a lot harder in the final game of the season should they wish to be successful against our inter-schools rivals.

Second team match report:

After a disappointing match last weekend the second juniors really stepped up to the plate and gave their best performance to date this year. They played tenacious, entertaining hockey that kept their opponents on their toes. They passed well between each other and worked beautifully together as a team. If they play like this in their inter-schools encounter, they will have every chance of success.

The goal scorers were Aaminah Steele and Tara Fererra.

 

 

Snr Sport Results vs Winterberg

RUGBY

In Saturday’s rugby matches against Winterberg Agricultural High School in Fort Beaufort, the u/14A team lost 12 – 19, the u/15A team lost 12 – 14, the u/16A team won 36 – 14, the second team won 7 – 5 and the 1st team lost 14 – 31.

HOCKEY

Special mention must also be made off the girls who represented the school against Winterberg this past weekend – most playing against one team higher than their own ranking.  The girls were successful and flew the Union flag high, with the 2nd team beating Winterberg’s 1st team 4 – 0 and the u/16B team beating Winterberg’s 2nd team 6 – 0.

Jnr Results vs Clarendon

The junior rugby and hockey teams faced Clarendon Park Primary School on home ground this past Saturday morning, 27 July.

RUGBY RESULTS

The u/11B team lost 5 – 33, the u/11A team lost 5 – 20 and the u/13B team lost 5 – 17.

In the last match of the day, the u/13A boys worked hard to put their opposition under pressure in challenging conditions.  The first half was closely contested, but Union cemented their dominance in the second half to secure a 29 – 7 win over Clarendon Park.

HOCKEY RESULTS

A polished Clarendon side made a confident start against our 1st team and slotted home their first goal after only 5 minutes. This galvanized our girls into action and they soon regrouped and began to fight back. Shortly before the end of the first half, Union were finally rewarded for their efforts when Caytah-Leigh Koeberg and Leshay Fourie combined successfully to pop a sneaky goal past the keeper.

The second half delivered more fast-paced, exciting hockey and Clarendon again managed to score at the beginning of the half to put them one goal ahead. They continued to put pressure on our girls with many attempts at goal, but the Union girls worked hard to deny them. As the game drew to a close, Soso Mroro made one of her trade-mark break-aways, and the spectators held their breath as she stormed towards the goalbox with seconds to spare. An unfortunate foot fault at the crucial moment denied her the opportunity to equalize and the match ended with a 2 – 1 loss for Union.

2nd team lost 0 – 4

3rds vs u/11A lost 0 – 2

Jnr Rugby Results vs Albertyn

Another win for u/13As

This past Saturday, 20 July, Union’s u/13A rugby team played against Uitenhage’s Albertyn Primary.  In a very exciting match, the Union boys executed their game plan perfectly and put Albertyn under pressure from the get-go.

Good spacial awareness saw both forwards and backs run straight, before offloading into space created, leading to numerous points scored out wide. Albertyn needs to be commended for the spirit in which they played the game, however, they ultimately fell short, with Union winning the encounter 53 – 0.

* The u/11As also recorded a win against Albertyn Primary, beating their opponents 29 – 5.