Oakdale vs Boland Landbou Historic Overview

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The last of the season’s Premier Interschools derbies takes place on Saturday 26 August when Boland Landbou visits fellow agricultural school Oakdale in Riversdale for their annual interschool.

The two schools have been playing each other on a yearly basis since 1992 and this year they will meet for the 25^th time. The first couple of matches were very close and the home ground advantage was a huge factor. It was only in 2001 that an away team won for the first time when Boland Landbou with a certain Derick Hougaard at the pivot, took the honours 15-0 in Riversdale.

For the next eight years, Boland Landbou dominated the inter-schools and Oakdale Landbou could only win once in 2005 by the score of 8-6 in a very hard-fought game in Riversdale.

The 2009 Interschools to be held at Oakdale was abandoned due to flooded fields. The last five years again went according to home ground advantage and this might well continue the trend in 2017.

Currently, Boland Landbou holds the overall upper hand by winning 15 of the games while Oakdale has won 8 with one match ending in a draw.

Scores through the years:

Current Season:

Boland Landbou started well in winning their first two matches by relatively big margins but then slumped to three defeats in a row against Garsfontein, SACS and Grey College. They then bounced back by beating a very strong Monument team at the Wildeklawer tournament.

Their best game of the season was reserved for Paarl neighbours Gimnasium, winning a very tough game at home. A week later they had another huge game against Paarl Boys’ High in what can only be described as a humdinger, just going down by five points in the end.

By all accounts they have had a decent season so far, perhaps losing one or two matches they should have won, but also winning some very good ones. It was a surprise that initially only one of their players was deemed good enough for Craven Week selection in utility back Duren Hoffman, but the captain and lock Herman Le Roux was called up from the Academy team to the Craven Week when a pre-tournament injury caused one of the Craven Week players to withdraw.  Prop Albert Coetzee was then left as the only Boland Landbou representative in the Academy Week team.

Players like scrum-half Gavin Mills, lock Marko van Niekerk and centres Francois du Toit and Sebastian de Klerk can be deemed very unlucky not to be picked in at least one of the teams. They were consistently better than most of their opponents during the whole of the season and how the selectors could not find a spot for them in any of the teams remains a mystery.

Results for 2017:

Oakdale from Riversdale had a somewhat disappointing season compared to their own high standards and could only muster a 50% winning ratio, playing 12 games, winning 6 and losing 6. Their best win of the season was the game against Noordvaal cup holders Garsfontein during the Wildeklawer Festival in Kimberley. Other than that, they could not get a big scalp in the 2017 season as they usually do.

Despite their form, they still produced 12 Craven Week players for South Western Districts in JayCee Nel, Daniel van der Berg, Nicolai Weber, Jean Cor Lourens, Sulman Pienaar Kleinhans, Magnus Muller, Keano Hendricks, Hanu Heunis, Clyde Lewis, Johannes Klinck, Dian Bleuler and Liam du Toit.

Results for 2017:

HOër LANDBOUSKOOL BOLAND PROFILE

Boland Landbou is an Afrikaans agricultural high school that was established in 1962 in Paarl.  All the boys are hosted in hostels and there are no day learners. The Boland Agricultural Union already started campaigning for an agricultural high school in the Boland area in the early 50’s and in 1953 the then Administrator, Mr JO du Plessis in principle approved the establishment of such a school.

The Department of Education formally approved the request in 1956 and the agricultural union was tasked to find a suitable farm to host the school on. Factors that they had to consider where the distance to nearest Town, availability of power, postal distribution, water availability, size of the farm to be able to do diverse farming.

The farm “Langerug” in the Agter-Paarl area was eventually identified as the most suitable for this venture and in 1957 it was bought by the Provincial Administration for R150 000 from Mr F Hauptfleisch. By 1959 the final planning was done and building started in early 1960. The union opted for the name “Hoër Landbouskool Boland” and it was dually accepted by the Superintendent-General of Education Mr DJ Liebenberg. In 1961 the first Principle was appointed in Mr C. du Toit (Vonk) van der Merwe, who was still at Augsberg Agricultural at that stage.

On 22 January 1962, the school opened its doors for the first time and with brand-new staff Mr van der Merwe laid the foundations for an excellent institution. Boland Landbou rugby produced their first Springbok in 1984 when prop Attie Strauss was picked for the test series between South Africa and the South American Jaguars.   They produced a further three Boks in lock Hottie Louw (2002), prop Deon Carstens (2002) and flyhalf Derick Hougaard (2003).

The latter becoming the darling of Loftus and the Blue Bulls with his match winning boot in the mould of their beloved Naas Botha. Old boys Hottie Louw and Deon Carstens have returned to help their Alma Mater in matters of rugby and both have coaching roles at the school.  It is indeed great to see that they are ploughing their experience back into the school and its learners.

HOëR LANDBOUSKOOL OAKDALE PROFILE

Established in 1928, Oakdale Agricultural High School is well known countrywide for its high standard of agricultural training. Classes are small to ensure that every learner receives individual attention. A mere 80 boys have enrolled annually and applications always exceed this figure.

High marks in Natural Science and Maths, as well as an interest in fauna and flora, are requirements for acceptance, and learners come from all over the Cape, as well as the Free State and Gauteng. All teaching venues have computers and data projectors and there are also two fully equipped computer education help centres with 80 computers. In addition, the school has effective maths and reading help centres.

In the early 1920’s, the Department of Agriculture earmarked the farm “Oakdale” as a potential training farm for returning war veterans, but this never materialized. Instead, it was approved in 1927 as ideal for the establishment of an agricultural school and 200 merino sheep, eight mules, four Jersey cows were purchased.

The school officially opened in 1928 with six boys, three from the old Transvaal and three from the Free State. The only living space available was the old original farmhouse. In 1930 a new hostel was built that could house 42 learners and the old farmhouse became the school building.

In 1941 the two Victorian side wings were demolished to build two much bigger wings, that is still in standing today. One was used as the hall and the other as classrooms. The latter is the Fanie du Toit Centre today.

The hostel was enlarged in 1942 and in 1948 to be able to host the 108 learners of the time. In 1957 a second hostel for seniors was built and the school can now house around 300 boys.

Oakdale Landbou has produced to date four Springbok rugby players in flanker Pedrie Wannenburg, centre/flyhalf Meyer Bosman, lock Johann Muller and prop JC Janse van Rensburg. Their latest export is loose forward CJ Stander who has represented Ireland and was picked for the British Lions tour to New Zealand in 2017.

The game will be broadcast live on Saturday 26 August on SuperSport Ten from 13.55 (kick-off at 14.00)

You can also catch the build-up Premier Interschools Magazine Show from Wednesday 23 August at 18.45 on CSN featuring Deon Carstens and CJ Stander

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