A full-strength Selborne College beat an understrength Paarl Gym 20-17 on the first day of the Cape Schools Week, while Grey High beat Rondebosch 15-10.
Selborne started strongly and opened the scoring through flanker Heindrich Nieuwenhuizen with scrumhalf Joshua Alderman converting.
But Paarl Gym took a 12-7 lead into half-time after a brace by winger Max Thalwitzer, the second of which was converted by fullback Naude Wessels.
The second half saw Selborne fight back, but not before Gimmies extended their lead through acting scrumhalf Morné Buxman. The Eastern Cape side then scored two unanswered tries through No 8 Darren Lemmer and inside centre David Brits, with Alderman adding three points in between.
Selborne 1st XV coach Phiwe Nomlomo was full of praise for his side.
'It was a good victory, they're a well-respected side, but everything went right for us today,' he told SARugbymag.co.za. 'It was a massive effort from all 22 players and the management team. We applied ourselves, everyone came to the party, and we couldn't have asked for more. [Inside centre] David Brits was particularly good today, and if he plays like that all the time we'll win 90% of our games.'
Paarl Gym coach Christoff Lötter rued his missing star players, who are with the WP Craven Week squad.
'It was difficult because we have seven of our guys with Western Province, and Selborne were full-strength. Their forwards dominated, we made some costly individual errors, and their inside centre was particularly excellent today. We thought we had the win, but they scored late on and took the game away from us. We had all the territory, but couldn't do enough to take the win.'
Selborne – Tries: Heindrich Nieuwenhuizen, Darren Lemmer, David Brits. Conversion: Joshua Alderman. Penalty: Joshua Alderman.
Paarl Gym – Tries: Max Thalwitzer (2), Morné Buxman. Conversion: Naudé Wessels.
Day 1 results
Grey High 15 Rondebosch 10
Selborne 20 Paarl Gym 17
SACS 19 Muir 8
Queen's 25 Standard Bank XV 13
Boland Landbou 26 Dale 14
Photo: Craig Anderson
