Jeppe resumes its relationship with Durban High School (DHS) this weekend after a 13-year break. DHS are one of Jeppe's oldest rugby rivals. The schools began playing each other in 1938 and met just about every year after that until the fixture was dropped in 2010.
For most of that time, the games were part of a doubleheader fixture involving Jeppe and KES playing DHS and, at first Northlands High School, and later Northwood. The games alternated between Durban and Johannesburg annually and were played on the Ascension Day long weekend.
After Ascension Day was removed from the calendar of public holidays it became more and more difficult to fit the fixtures in and they were dropped. The relationship with Northwood resumed a few years ago and now DHS is also back.
It used to be a first-teams-only affair at first, but this year sees a full sports exchange between the two schools, involving a couple of hundred boys, across a range of sports and other activities.
Because those earlier meetings involved 1st teams only, the school magazines from those years didn’t always publish their results. So, although there have been more than 70 rugby encounters, Jeppe only has 58 results on record and, of those DHS has won 41 and Jeppe just 15, making them one of the opponents that Jeppe have enjoyed the least success against.
A new era begins this weekend and recent results show that the 1st XV rugby game is likely to be an epic encounter.
Jeppe's 1stXV had an average season to their standards and won eleven of their seventeen fixtures while Durban High School also only won eleven of their sixteen fixtures.
Durban High Schools played more "glamorous" teams in 2023 and under the guidance of Peter Engledouw was welcomed at the Noord/Suid Festival as well as the Wildeklawer festival and are currently ranked fifteenth in South Africa. However, Jeppe is ranked two positions higher than DHS and has won their last three matches in a row with KES their latest victim a week ago.
With DHS being inactive since before the June school holiday they will be rusty and could/should struggle to match Jeppe's match fitness and cohesion, making Jeppe the favourites to win on Saturday.