Grey College (u17A) Match Report for World School Festival 2022 in Thailand

Grey College was invited to the World School Festival 2022 held in Thailand.

Grey College send an u17 team which included the u16A players of 2022, the Grey College 1st XV u19A team with its 7 South African Schools u18 players did not travel to this tournament due to the Grade 12 matrics finishing off their final school exams.

The young Grey team blended with 16 and 17 year old did exceptional task to reach the finals of this event that had the best u19A 1st XV teams in the World there.

Due to the fact that this was not the 1st XV u19A of Grey the team chosen to travel would play in the striped jerseys and not in the navy blue traditional 1st Xv jersey.

The results of this event has been archived on the u17A Rugby results and unfortunately can’t form part of the 1st XV u19A results archive.

50% of the team for all three matches was made up of the u16A team, the team was changed for each match and served as trials for 2023 season.

Grade 11 players Martin Botha, JJ Theron, Jean-Henri Smit was 1st XV regulars in 2022 with Ranon Fouche, Marno Stopworth & Hayden Tolmay that played for 2nd XV and for 1st XV from bench.

Against Hamilton’s we had 12 players from the u16A team playing for the Grey College u17A team against Hamilton Boys High u19A, the youngsters did amazing job especially in second half to come back and score 2 tries against Hamilton’s 3 tries.

There’s a lot of depth in the u16A team which makes them a very promising team for 2024 1st XV rugby season.

Below the 2022 1st XV Rugby team in their last match for Grey College 1st XV vs Grey High from Port Elizabeth before 6 players left the team to represent South Africa u18A team:

Below the 2022 Grey College u17A team (which included 12 of u16A players) that played against Hamilton Boys High u19A in the finals of World School Festival held in Thailand:

Trinity School (England):

Trinity from Croydon – one of the top in-form rugby teams in England – have been named as the latest addition to the World Schools Festival in Thailand this December. The London school have risen up the ranks in impressive fashion over the past few years in schools rugby and having enjoyed success as RFU National Cup champions in 2021/2022, they have continued that form this season and beaten many of the top schools that have been put in their way.

Cardiff and Vale (Wales):

The squad from South Wales will fly to Thailand off the back of being winners of the Welsh Schools and Colleges Cup in December 2021. Despite only setting their rugby programme up in 2016 as a partnership and development programme with Cardiff Rugby, CAVC have vast experience in the world of the highly-competitive Welsh schoolboy scene. A notable 28 alumni have put on the Three Feathers to represent the Welsh U18s or the Welsh Senior 7s and over 100 have represented Cardiff Rugby in on an academy or professional level, including Welsh cap Ben Thomas.

Hamilton Boys High (New Zealand):

First XV champions Hamilton are without a doubt one of the best age-grade rugby sides in the world. The Waikato school, which saw Warren Gatland and Sean Maitland pass through its storied school, have brought many All Black rugby players through their ranks, and they also boast some up and coming stars that everyone should keep their eye on, like Payton Spencer, son of the legendary Carlos. The school was the subject of the highly successful fifth series of “The Season”, a documentary which intimately followed the team in 2019 as they hoped to win the Super 8 title. Hamilton will be highly fancied by many to win the cup competition given their recent success domestically.

The event had 3 match days, the results is as follows:

Day 1: GREY COLLEGE (u17A) vs TRINITY SCHOOL (u19A) 1st XV

Day 2: GREY COLLEGE (u17A) 14 vs 11 CARDIFF AND VALE (u19A) 1st XV – Semi Finals

Day 3: GREY COLLEGE (u17A) 12 vs 22 HAMILTON BOYS HIGH (u19A) 1st XV – Finals

The Match Videos: