By: TRISTAN COOK
The Mary Waters Rugby day took place on Saturday 25 August at the Grahamstown Oval. The day showcased six games, with skillful, running rugby being showcased throughout the day.
The day began with Mary Waters (Mawas) U15 vs Alexandria High School (Alex) U15. After finding themselves 7-17 down, an inspiring comeback saw Mawas win 29-17.
The second game of the day saw Nyalusa First team take on Alex Firsts in a good battle. Both teams played with solid defensive structures, but it was Nyalusa who demonstrated more organisation and skill on the day. In the end, they came away with a 24-7 victory.
The Mawas U16 team then came up against the Alex U16s. Although Alex fought hard, the Mawas team was extremely dominant after their impressive season, and ended the game 41-0 as deserving victors.
All of this great rugby led up to the GC Cup quarter-final between the Brumbies and the Born Fighters. Both clubs’ second teams went head to head in the build up to the hotly anticipated contest. The Brumbies Second team lost out to the Born Fighters Seconds after a tough battle resulted in a 12-29 victory for the visitors.
The GC Cup quarter-final between the Brumbies First team and the Born Fighters produced the most thrilling game of the day. The Brumbies found themselves 3-12 down early in the game and struggled to find continuity. However, after a good kicking performance and good clinical rugby, the Brumbies found themselves up 13-12 at half time.
The Born Fighters struck twice early in the second half but were not able to convert these two tries which left the score at 13-22. Both sides managed to score a converted try after this. taking the score to 20-29.
The Brumbies managed to keep their composure, however, and scored two tries without reply which meant the game ended at 32-29, meaning that the Brumbies booked their place in the semi-final. This concluded the exciting day of rugby hosted by Mary Waters, which brought an end to the school’s very successful rugby season.