Under-18 Craven Week kicks off at George's Outeniqua Park on Monday

rugby balls on a field

Four matches are scheduled for Day 1 as the cream of schoolboy rugby in South Africa will be competing over the next week in the Southern Cape to be unofficially crowned the country's best Under-18 side. Picture supplied.

Published Jul 2, 2023

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Cape Town - Last year's unofficial final winners Western Province will face the South Western Districts in the main game of day one of the Craven Week at Outeniqua Park in George on Monday.

Four matches are scheduled for Day 1 as the cream of schoolboy rugby in South Africa will be competing over the next week in the Southern Cape to be unofficially crowned the country's best Under-18 side.

It's the second tournament of SA Rugby's youth weeks program after the completion of the Grant Khomo week a few days ago.

Matches are scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

The Western Province schoolboys will be looking to start their week off with a win against their neighbours who are generally tough opponents to break down.

The Province side played and won the unofficial final last year when they went through the tournament unbeaten, dispatching the Blue Bulls in the final match of the tournament.

SWD will be playing in front of their home crowd and will be keen to cause an upset early on in the tournament.

Boland will take on the Valke in the first match of the day (10:00), while the Free State and Eastern Province clash at 11:30. The Western Province XV face the Sharks at 13:00 before the main clash of the day is scheduled to start at 15:20.

The Craven Week was scheduled to take place at Hoërskool Outeniqua in George, but the school’s fields are not able to handle the heavy workload after the high rainfall in the area in recent weeks.

As a result, the decision was taken to move the Craven Week to Outeniqua Park, the home ground of the South Western Districts Eagles. However, Hoërskool Outeniqua, who are celebrating their centenary this year, will still host four matches on their C-Field on Saturday 8 July.

@Leighton_K

IOL Sport