Bishops Platinum Blue 2018 full mag crop

Above: Lock Ano Mtombeni played 12 games for the 1st XV in
2018, scoring one try.
Below: Contesting the line-out is Tim Sharples supported by
Matt van Westenbrugge; the 1st XV ran out easy winners
against Strand in the first game of the third tearm.
June holidays. We were given tough fixtures against the
hosts Kingswood and an unbeaten Hilton side. The
festival also ran over the annual Craven Week, which
meant that we were missing five of our regular
starters. The first game against Kingswood was
different for our boys as it was the first time they
would play under lights with a 7pm kick off. Here, our
forwards dominated and put the backs on the front
foot, allowing for some great tries and we won that
match 19-10. The final game of the festival saw us
going up against a Hilton side that was having a good
season and were unbeaten. Once again the forwards
laid the foundations for the backs to finish off – and
finish off they did! We were able to come out with a
24-17 victory and, for the second time in 2018,
completed an unbeaten tour.
The start of the third term is always a tricky one to
face as the boys come back after a long holiday,
however, they showed no signs of rust when they put
Strand to the sword, beating them 81–5. The last of
the schools from across the N1 was next, Paarl Gym,
away. There was a lot of optimism as we had been
playing very good rugby, however, we came up against
a well-polished team which was very keen to lay the
foundation for their derby against Paarl Boys the next
week. Disappointingly, this fixture ended up being our
most comprehensive defeat of the season.
SACS away was next and, in a stuttering
performance, with Bishops never in danger of defeat,
we ended up winning 22-20 – far closer than it should
have been.
It was now time for our traditional rivals,
St Andrews, to come to town and, for me, the first half
was the best rugby the Bishops team played all year
– we looked really slick and dominated all facets of the
game. The second half saw us take our foot off the
pedal, but we still ran out convincing 38-22 winners.
One of the most anticipated matches in the
calendar was the reverse fixture against Wynberg and
what a game it was! Both sides went at each other very
hard for 70 minutes, playing some great rugby and
thrilling the crowds. It took a last-minute penalty from
Wynberg to knock over our boys who fought until the
very end.
Finally, it was time for the last game of the season,
which was the big one against Rondebosch. The
conditions were horrendous for both teams, with
gale-force winds and rain spoiling the brand of rugby
that both teams wanted to play. We played with the
wind and in spite of complete territorial advantage,
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