Easter dishes up rugby feast

Rudolph Jacobs

With legendary alma maters like former Springboks Pierre Spies and Fourie du Preez, Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool and Paarl Boys High would be two of the main draw cards at the 22nd Easter School Festival at St John’s College which kick off today.

It is one of three big school festivals in the Johannesburg area which will run over three days today, Saturday and Monday with the other two hosted by St Stithians and King Edward School (KES).

St John’s will once again stage an evening game tonight with the hosts facing Florida at 7.15pm, while the main game on Saturday will see Western Cape powerhouse Paul Roos taking on Helpmekaar.

The main game on Monday will see Paarl Boys High taking on Affies, which could well be the highlight of the festival. Boys High ran up an impressive record of going 43 games unbeaten before they lost 38-36 on tour to Christchurch Boys High recently.

At KES, today’s highlight will be Jeppe taking on Rondebosch High, while the hosts will play the main game on Saturday and Monday against Rondebosch High and Kingswood College respectively.

Other big-name schools attending include Pretoria’s Waterkloof, Krugersdorp’s Noordheuwel, Ben Vorster, Wynberg and Marlow Agricultural.

St Stithians has decided to refer to their festival as the Saints Sports Festival to include both St Stithians Preparatory Schools festival and the St Stithians College festival, culminating in a riveting seven days of sporting action.

The college festival, which takes place over the Easter weekend, will feature teams from South Africa and Botswana participating in cross-country, hockey, netball, rugby, squash and tennis.

Well-known rugby schools to attend include Durban High School, Graeme College, Grey College (PE), Maritzburg College and the famous Michaelhouse.