St Andrew's beat St Benedict's 43-24 on day one of the St Stithians Easter Festival.

The latter were first to score, through a penalty, but St Andrew's then began to dominate.

They opened their account when wing Courtney Archer slipped a few tackles to dive over the line, followed by another five-pointer from Anthony Dakin.

St Benedict's looked out of their depth with St Andrew's centre Robbie Ball running in a double in the space of a few minutes to give his team a 26-3 lead.

After their fourth try, from Grant Dixie, St Andrew's made a string of substitutions and St Benedict's spotted an opportunity, immediately hitting back with a converted try of their own.

Ball then grabbed his hat-trick and Archer a second, while there would be two further scores for St Benedict's.

In other results, Hilton College sneaked past SACS 24-23, after scores were level 13-13 at half-time, Maritzburg eased past Linden 29-15, St Stithians came from behind to edge Windhoek 16-10 and Wynberg won 29-7 against Helpmekaar.

Day 1 results:

Hilton 24 SACS 23
Maritzburg 29 Linden 15
St Benedict's 24 St Andrew's 43
St Stithians 16 Windhoek 10
Wynberg 29 Helpmekaar 7

Day 2 fixtures:

Wynberg vs Linden (10:45)
St Benedict's vs Windhoek (12:05)
Helpmekaar vs SACS (13:25)
Maritzburg vs St Andrew's (14:45)
St Stithians vs Hiton (16:15)

Day 3 fixtures:

St Benedict's vs Helpmekaar (10:25)
St Stithians vs SACS (11:45)
Linden vs Windoek (13:10)
Hilton vs St Andrew's (14:30)
Maritzburg vs Wynberg (15:30)

Photo: St Stithians