Rare poor performance for U13 Blue Bulls at Craven Week
While the Blue Bulls’ primary schools team for many years usually performed well on the Craven Week, 2014 was’t a good year for these young Blue Bulls team.
Western Province finished the 2014 Coca-Cola u.13 Craven Week, held at Glenwood High School in Durban, as the top team after claiming a 29-14 victory over Border in a pulsating final match of a week full of entertainment and a display of South African youth rugby talent.
The win over an impressive Border team left the Cape side as the only unbeaten team and unofficial champions. Equally impressive to the WP display was the abundance of talent spread right across the country, with a number of rural regions performing very well against the urban provinces.
Three teams were still undefeated at the beginning of day four on Friday, but after the Leopards fell to Eastern Province, it was up to either Border or WP to walk away undefeated.
Unfortunately for the Blue Bulls u13 team this year’s Craven Week was one of their weakest in years. On day one Border ran in eight tries in demolishing the Blue Bulls 52-10. The markedly bigger Blue Bulls team tried to keep it tight – their tries came from line-out drives close to the Border line – but they were ineffective against the inventiveness and ball skills of the Eastern Cape side. Border stunned the Blue Bulls, one of the traditional powerhouse teams of the week, early and they scored three tries in the opening 15 minutes and never looked back from that.
It did not get any better for the Blue Bulls on day two. They went down 19-17 to SWD in their second match and on the third day the young Bulls played better rugby but still lost 5-0 against the Cheetahs. They got their first and only win of the week on the last day when they beat Griquas 14-7.
