Headmaster urges schools unity through rugby
DURBAN’S feuding rugby schools, DHS and Glenwood, will participate in this year’s Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival although they will not square up to each other over the course of the popular event that runs from April 9-13.
Sporting ties between the aforementioned schools were recently and dramatically suspended amid accusations of player poaching.
It surely was with this unsavoury business in mind that Kearsney headmaster Elwyn van den Aardweg eloquently called on schools to set a good example regarding unity in South Africa, at this week’s launch of the festival at Jonsson Kings Park.
Also drawing on Springbok captain Siya Kolisi’s address at the Laureus Awards in Berlin this week, Van den Aardweg appealed for school sport to unite schools, provinces and the country.
“I appeal to all schools to work towards positive relationships between players and between schools – use rugby to do this,” he said.
“We cannot allow the sport of rugby to be used as a mechanism for division. Role models for schoolboys are rare these days; and sport offers a wonderful opportunity to develop relationships between schools, with educators taking the lead as role models.”
Van den Aardweg said two years ago the Springboks hadn’t been given much chance of success at the 2019 World Cup, but coach Rassie Erasmus, captain Kolisi and others stood up and won the trophy, uniting communities and the country in a euphoria unseen for many years.
“Whatever challenges are facing us, let’s be courageous, let’s even swim against the current to be ‘that guy, that woman’ who makes a positive impact on those around us, on our schools, between our schools and in our communities,” Van den Aardweg said.
DHS and Glenwood are joined by two other KZN teams in Westville Boys’ High and hosts Kearsney.
The visitors to the province are the perennially strong Eastern Cape outfits of Selborne College (East London) and Hoërskool Framesby (Port Elizabeth); as well as HTS Drostdy from the Boland; Hoërskool Noord-kaap from Kimberley, Hoërskool Dr EG Jansen (Boksburg in Gauteng) and HTS Middelburg (Mpumalanga).
Glenwood and Dr EG Jansen have both played at 10 festivals, while Westville last participated in 2015. DHS has played at four previous festivals, including the last two.
Endorsing the festival, Etienne Fynn, managing director of the Sharks Academy, said the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival has consistently showcased some of the top schoolboy rugby talent that South Africa has to offer.
“The games are invariably wellmatched and tight, which is indicative of the thought placed in inviting schools which will ensure competitive fixtures at the festival. Add to this the splendid surroundings and faultless organisation, the end product is simply superb,” he said.
Fynn, a former Bok tighthead prop, said the number of players currently representing the Sharks who have participated in the festival was proof of how the Sharks and Sharks Academy have benefited from the festival.
Prime examples are Sharks and SA Sevens player Tera Mtembu, who captained Dale College at the festival in 2009 and was awarded a Sharks Academy bursary, the exciting Aphelele Fassi who was awarded a Sharks Academy bursary at the festival when he captained Dale in 2017 and Mzamo Majola who represented Westville Boys’ High at the festival in 2013.
As in the past, four primary school teams will be offered the opportunity to participate, providing young players with the excitement and challenges of playing on a full-size field in front of large crowds.
This year, Highbury Preparatory, Hillcrest Senior Primary and Umhlali Preparatory will face the KZN Rugby Union’s Ibutho U13 team to open each day’s play.
The primary school games kick off at 9.30am daily and will be followed at 10.30am by five tough match-ups between the 10 senior 1st XV teams.
The Sharks Academy will offer full bursaries for 2021 to three selected players.
These include a contract with the Sharks Academy, accommodation and a tuition bursary with one of its reputable education partners.
The recipients of the bursaries, valued at over R120 000 each, will be announced immediately after the final game of the festival.