Craven Week: Cream of SA’s crop on show

South Africa’s top schoolboys will have the chance to shine at the SA Rugby U18 Craven Week, which will be staged at Outeniqua Park in George over the next six days.

The second tournament in SA Rugby’s 2023 Youth Weeks programme will run from today until Saturday (July 8), with 16 teams competing across the matches played over five days (no matches are scheduled for Friday). 

The Craven Week was initially scheduled to take place at Hoërskool Outeniqua in George, but the local organising committee informed SA Rugby that the school’s fields would not be able to handle the heavy workload due to the high volume of rain that has fallen 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.

The Craven Week Opening Ceremony was held at 15:00 and followed by the clash between Western Province and the local SWD side. The outcome was not known at the time of publishing.

U18 Craven Week Day One Schedule:

10:00: Valke v Boland
11:30: Free State v Eastern Province
13:00 Sharks v Western Province XV
15:00: Opening Ceremony
15:20: Western Province v South Western Districts