Western Province and Golden Lions flex their muscles at Craven Week

On a day of mismatches and a flood of tries‚ the Western Province and Golden Lions game neatly summed up the strengths of the respective unions and the strengths of their schools.

Their 13-all draw was a fair reflection of the strengths of the sides and the excellence of the schools that provided the players.

Clearly smarting from the fright they received at the hands of the Pumas despite their 36-10 win‚ Western Province were far more street-smart even though they didn't make the best of their opportunities.

The Lions took a gamble by fielding their “weaker” side against Border and it reaped rich dividends with a 44-8 win that put them in line for Saturday's main game.

After all‚ it was these same teams who took part in last year's pulsating “final” at Kearsney College where the Lions couldn't fight back strongly enough after Western Province ran up a formidable lead.

There was less of that in Wednesday's main game where sporadic bursts of pace by both sets of backs were superseded by forward exchanges that weren't a theme of the earlier games where tries were flowing.

Western Province scored at the starts of both halves where their flying wingers in Angelo Davids and Thaakir Abrahams outstripped the respective cover defences.

The teams were more reliant on their forwards‚ whom the majority are from Paarl Boys High‚ Paarl Gimnasium and Stellenbosch's Paul Roos Gimnasium.

The Lions sourced the majority of their forwards from Hoerskool Monument from Krugersdorp and Helpmekaar in Braamfontein.

Towards the end of the game‚ it was those Lions forwards who took charge in the same manner these teams have dominated rugby north of the Vaal River this season.

They've been better than their Bulls brothers‚ who were put to the sword by the Sharks who were down to 14 men but still outplayed the Pretoria side.

King Edward VII School backs have been the dominant force in the Gauteng region and their skills came to the fore in the tries David Cary and Santino Swanepoel scored.

However‚ they were well matched by the Western Province counterparts who had Muller du Plessis in their ranks.

It is a pity one of these sides will not be featuring in Saturday's main game as the Sharks‚ who face South-Western District's in Thursday's main game will fight for the right for the Saturday “final”.

- TimesLIVE