This annual clash in August will certainly be one of titanic proportions and will most definitely deliver a classic festival of exciting school rugby. Talking of which, South African rugby in general appears to be well on top of its game at the moment: The Springboks, despite faltering against the British and Irish Lions in the last encounter, comprehensively routing the Lions in the first and second Tests to clinch the series. This is sweet revenge for

our 1997 loss to Martin Johnson’s Lions side. Who will ever forget Jeremy Guscott’s last–minute drop–goal in the

second test that broke South African hearts and handed the series to the Lions? Despite the Lion’s protests

over certain aspects of our robust style of play and certain comments by Springbok coach Pieter de Villiers,

they were up against the World Champions in their own backyard, so a bit of rough and tumble is to be expected. Despite the shenanigans off of the field, the history books will record a convincing Springbok victory, so congratulations to the Bokke.

The Tri–Nations is also fastapproaching and our intense rivalry with the All Blacks is set to continue and I am sure the Australians will have a thing or two to prove in their Tri–Nations campaign as well. We last held the Tri–Nations trophy in 2004 and you can be sure that current holders New Zealand won’t be too keen onrelinquishing that title easily. Taking into account that we won this year’s Super 14, the Tri–Nations promises

to deliver some exciting rugby and I think that we are currently wellplaced to win this year’s title. Currie Cup is set to get underway soon as well and I am sure that everybody is already talking about Boland’s and Western Province’s chances in this year’s competition. We will just have to wait and see