The derby that divides Paarl

The much-anticipated Paarl derby will be played at the Faure Street Stadium on Saturday at 4pm (CAT, SA, GMT+2) when Paarl Boys High host Paarl Gimnasium in one of South Africa's premier interschools clashes.

Both teams are listed as part of the top three schools in many schoolboy rugby rankings and both teams have lost to a very strong Affies team this season. Last weekend, both recorded victories as Paarl Boys beat Wynberg 12-6 and Paarl Gimnasium beat Rondebosch 38-8.

Picking a winner for this fixture is anything but easy but the main battle will be between two players who have both had wonderful seasons. Paarl Gimnasium will have Handre Pollard to steer their ship, while Paarl Boys will have the equally talented Jean Luc du Plessis controlling play.

Paarl Boys coach Elmo Wolfaardt said this of the flyhalf battle: “Even though they are different flyhalves, both are very talented and the Paarl area is blessed to have two flyhalves of their calibre playing for their two premier schools.”

Paarl Gimnasium coach Christoff Lötter is satisfied with how the season has evolved for his team. Every team goes through trying times and he believes his team learnt a lot from their loss to Affies and their draw in heavy rain against Outeniqua.

“This team has a lot of character, the players’ work ethic is exemplary, which has helped them in some of the difficult matches they have been involved in this season.”

Woolfaardt believes “the spirit of brotherhood, the respect for the traditions and what the school represents” sets this team apart.

“The start of the season was very difficult as we suffered some injuries to important players, but the team has played as a unit and despite losing to Affies, we are still satisfied with how we have played this season.”

Paarl Gimnasium will have all their players available to them this weekend, despite players like fullback Dawie Dayson and Jacques Vermeulen being pulled off against Rondebosch. According to coach Lötter, they were pulled off as a precautionary measure as they had their sights firmly set on the Paarl derby.

Paarl Boys will be very close to full strength as well. “Even though we will have some players like Ryno van der Merwe returning from injury, we will be strengthened by some of our players who were involved in SA Schools trials last weekend, we will be ready for them,” coach Wolfaardt said.

Paarl Gim might have two players in the SA Schools squad (Pollard and lock JD Schickerling), but these two schools collectively had 19 players representing Western Province during the June holidays.

Results against Common Opponents

Affies: Paarl Boys lost 22-14, Paarl Gim lost 27-20
Bishops: Paarl Boys won 80-5, Paarl Gim won 57-3
Boland Landbou: Paarl Boys won 20-10, Paarl Gim won 38-13
Grey Bloem: Paarl Boys won 28-18, Paarl Gim won 45-29
Oakdale: Paarl Boys won 22-7, Paarl Gim won 25-15
Outeniqua: Paarl Boys won 33-26; Paarl Gim drew 17-17
Paul Roos: Paarl Boys won 22-17, Paarl Gim won 28-8
Rondebosch: Paarl Boys won 24-3, Paarl Gim won 38-8
SACS: Paarl Boys won 19-10, Paarl Gim won 28-13
Waterkloof: Paarl Boys won 19-18, Paarl Gim won 38-11
Wynberg: Paarl Boys won 12-6, Paarl Gim won 14-10

The teams

Paarl Gim. 15 Dawie Dyason, 14 Grant Hermanus, 13 Wesley Cupido, 12 Altus Momsen, 11 Loek van der Merwe, 10 Handré Pollard (capt), 9 Lotter Pretorius, 8 Rikus Bothma, 7 Corné Cooper, 6 Jacques Vermeulen, 5 Hennie Botha (vice-captain), 4 JD Schickerling, 3 Stephan Morkel, 2 Evan Macdonald, 1 Ollie Regue
Coach: Christoff Lötter

Paarl Boys' High. 15 Darian Hock, 14 Tiaan Mouton, 13 Dewald Naudé, 12 Henri Nimb, 11 Dante van der Merwe, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Pieter Schoonraad, 8 Johan Botha, 7 Jeandré Brink, 6 Derek Taylor, 5 Sebastian Ferreira, 4 Burger van Niekerk, 3 Liam Hendricks, 2 Craig Corbett (capt), 1 Wesley Adonis
Coaches: Elmo Wolfaardt, Gerrie Visser, Pierre Ribbens

Broadcast times (all times CAT, SA, GMT+2) :
Saturday, 4 August 2012: SuperSport 1 at 7:30pm
Tuesday, 7 August 2012: SuperSport 1 at 1:30pm
Wednesday, 8 August 2012: SuperSport 1 at 8:30am
Thursday, 9 August 2012: SuperSport 1 at 5am