The South African rugby factory, Grey College, once again showed why they are considered to be one of the top rugby schools in South Africa, if not the world.

The schools’ rugby teams scored a total of 1998 points on Saturday as opposed to the mere 129 by the Glenwood High School from Durban.

A total of nineteen matches were played at the school on Saturday, of which the visitors U15A team, scored their sole win, with a narrow 27-24 victory over their Free State counterparts.

The one score that really had rugby lovers talking was the U15D match, in which Grey crossed the whitewash for no less than 31 tries in thrashing Glenwood 221-0. The Grey flyhalf, Chris Bezuidenhout scored six of the teams tries and slotted 11 conversions for a total of 52 points.

Sadly for Glenwood, the carnage wasn’t just in that game. Ten other games also produced scores of 100-plus, while a further six games saw scores of 60-plus for the hosts.

Among the U19’s it was only the 1st XV and the 2nd team (Cherries) who failed to chalk up centuries. However, the 1st XV hammered Glenwood 83-10 and the Cherries also ran out convincing victors with a 74-8 win.

The Peaches (3rd team) won 124-6, the Playboys (4th team) won 147-0, the Pacmans’ (5th team) won 121-0, the Pigs (6th team) won 152-0 and the Crocs (7th team) won 164-0.

The U16 C/D team was the only team to bring up a ton in that age group with a 150-0 win. The U16A team won 82-20 and the U16B team won 88-9.

As mentioned a bit earlier the U15A’s were the only team to lose, while the U15B’s won 109-0 and the U15C’s won 95-7.

The U14’s also scored big with two of the teams reaching three figures. The U14A’s won 36-19, the U14B’s won 66-3, the U14C’s won 104-0, the U14D’s won 129-0 and U14E’s won 29-10.

One cannot argue that this does look very impressive, however, the social media has been buzzing with activity regarding the results and it does raise questions as to what value such high scores add to rugby. There were also questions raised as to why these matches weren’t stopped once the scores got out of control.

The players certainly cannot be blamed for annihilating their opponents.

There are rules in place for games to be stopped once a team has a 50 point lead over their opponents, at least in local school matches those rules get applied. The last thing the sport needs is for youngsters to get humiliated and choose to give up the sport or for a school to choose not to play against Grey.

A huge positive though, is that this speaks volumes for the strength of the sport in the province, and the current Toyota Free State Cheetahs captain, Niell Jordaan, agrees.

Jordaan, who himself attended Grey says the trick is to keep the talent in the region.

“For Free State rugby it is a big positive and we are very fortunate have a school like Grey College that produces quality players and quality performances.

“They teach the boys to develop a winning mentality from a young age and that is really important in sport.

“I feel that some days that lacks in our team, people can get complacent and lose that winning mentality.

“The trick is to keep the talent that gets produced by Grey. It’s not always easy. If you’re the best rugby school in South Africa, who doesn’t want the best the players at their union”

“Maybe something we can learn from them is putting your opponents away when it matters.

“For Free State rugby is a huge positive to have a school that produces good players and a great mind-set.

Grey College will be wrapping up their season this coming weekend with the annual inter-schools’ against the great foe Paul Roos Gymnasium. This year’s derby day will be played in Stellenbosch. – MORGAN PIEK