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Westlake pull away from EG Jansen to make World Schools Festival final

(Source/RugbyPass)

It’s finals time at the World Schools Festival, and New Zealand’s Westlake will take on Ireland’s St Michael’s College in the tournament’s grand finale on Sunday.

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It wasn’t an easy route to the final for either side, both claiming single-digit victories to punch their ticket. the Westlake team faced a stoic young E.G. Jansen squad in the semi-final after a draw against Hartpury in the quarter-final.

It wasn’t the tidiest of games when it came to skillset execution but the team with the higher success rate ultimately prevailed on the day.

Westlake were guilty of plenty of handling errors and throwing intercepts while attacking an aggressive Jansen defensive line in the contest’s early passages.

Jansen’s execution let them down in their attacking opportunities early, getting penalised at the line out. While the South Africans looked to have the upper hand in the scrum, nothing would come of it as the Kiwis were efficient with getting the ball through to their halfback and would be on the attack before the second shunt came through from the strong Boksburg pack.

Westlake failed to find touch on multiple occasions in the opening quarter and also kicked it out on the full which handed Jansen numerous chances at attacking field position.

Jansen’s backs posed damaging physicality on the left wing through Cameron Van Wyk and lethal pace through promising centre Jeandre Jacobs.

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The defence was strong for both teams, but Westlake had more success finding narrow seams in the Jansen line, making strong carries in traffic and punishing any lack of organisation when the game opened up.

Handling errors saw the early opportunities of the second period for Westlake go begging, but Jansen also struggled to capitalise on the metres made through tough carries up the middle.

Westlake tightened the screws in some crucial areas once settled into the half, producing cleaner exits and retaining possession with greater efficiency.

After some strong work around the breakdown in the first half, Jansen were unable to slow the Westlake attack when the Kiwis found their rhythm. Captain James Cameron was damaging in the midfield on both sides of the ball for Westlake, beating players with strength and agility while always keeping his arms free for an offload. The multiple tries Cameron set up in the second period more than made up for some shaky handling in the opening half.

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Some desperation infiltrated the Jansen side as the game looked to slip out of reach late and the additional pressure around the fringes made life difficult for the Aucklanders, but fullback Issac Murray-Macgregor stepped up with five minutes to play to extend the lead beyond reach. Final score: 25-16

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Comments

5 Comments
M
Mick 586 days ago

St. Michael’s are not the best school side in Ireland either. Both their Senior teams were comprehensively beaten by Terenure College 3 weeks back…Terenure had been offered the chance to play in this tournament but are targeting the Leinster Cup…

R
RH 586 days ago

Westlake aren’t NZs top schools team either, was it a tournament about who can afford to travel this year, rather than invite the top teams in the country.

I
IB 586 days ago

Then perhaps the name ‘World Schools’ is wrong for the tournament.

I
IB 586 days ago

Why is one of South Africa’s top schools not participating in the tournament? I can think of Grey Colllege and halve a dozen teams here in the Cape that will run over these teams!

K
KB 586 days ago

What was the score 🙃

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J
JW 35 minutes ago
Half-back depth is the flaw in 'Razor's' 4-4-4 Rugby World Cup plan

Well there’s a couple of distinctions here that are important aren’t there?


First though like I replied to Tk where does it say theres need to test vets, or proven reliable players? It is simply ‘test quality’.


Now, I have created a list that I think is test quality, so all weve got to do is upskill the missing pieces right? No. Razor might not mean to have given every player half a dozen matchs but he will want to have identified and assured himself that each individual is indeed test quality. So yes, plays like Darry and Lord may still be included in a few squads and used so he’s happy to include them as say 5th and 6th ranked locks, but that doesn’t mean he needs to go to the same level to ensure for himself the 7th and 8th ranked locks.


He might be happy basing performances off SR Finals, or organizing an AB XV match against a team like France or SA with similar locking depth (even organizing say Warner Dearns to be part of the Japan XV etc), and I’m sure they’re going to have a very large squad over in South Africa for two months.


I don’t think he is quite in the same predicament as SA to have to rest top stars. And this is obviously just goal setting, they’re supposed to be hard. As you can see by the context around this series, arbitrary targets like everyone getting some minutes are made. That could also simply be how he ensures he has met the 4. So hookers would be ticked, as he’s already used 5 at test level. If you looked at the Baabaas SA game you’d see Beehre performing like an accomplished test player, that already makes 7 locks with more than 2 full seasons to go. You take the point BA was making about Marshalls previous remarks about Razor want players to be able to play 3/4/5 different positions, that would mean if Razor was really happy with Finau at lock last week he already has 8 test quality locks as well, etc, etc.


TLDR sorry for the big reply, it’s just a goal, the teams not going to suddenly fail if he doesn’t reach it, I think theres many means and many players for him to be comfortable in getting 4 in each position. He’s obviously not going to be able to get 4 proven, hardened test players in each by then, no.

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