The countdown is on as the cream of the country’s young rugby players complete their final preparations ahead of next week’s kick-off at the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival (KERF).
A highlight on the calendars of local rugby spectators, the festival always entertains with competitive, well-matched teams that produce fast-paced rugby, display uninhibited passion, and offer an exciting mix of styles.
Pay days for the 16th edition of KERF are Thursday the 17th, Saturday the 19th, and Monday the 21st.
This year’s event promises to be bigger and better, with 28 participating teams, including 12 boys’ high sides, 12 primary school teams and, for the first time, a girls’ high school category.
Durban High School, Westville Boys, Glenwood and hosts Kearsney will represent KZN in the senior boys’ division, with a touring team from Peterhouse Boys’ School in Zimbabwe adding their special brand of rugby.
Powerhouse teams from Gauteng will join them - Hoërskool Dr EG Jansen (Boksburg) and Hoërskool Monument (Krugersdorp)- with the exciting Eastern Cape teams Hoërskool Framesby (Gqeberha) and Dale College (Qonce), as well as Hoërskool Rustenburg (North West). Newcomers at this year’s festival are Hoërskool Durbanville and Milnerton High School from the Western Cape, who will add another dimension to the action.
Hosts Kearsney began their season brightly, winning three of their first four matchups, showing great heart at the Grey High Festival in particular. The One Stripe scored a last-gasp try to edge a 28-26 result over Pretoria Boys before putting Hudson Park away 41-31.
DHS, who played some spectacular defensive rugby last season, will be full of confidence again after winning each of their first five games of the year with a points difference of +133. They will be out to replicate their 2024 KERF heroics, where they won all three of their games and conceded just seven points.
Glenwood will be eager to improve on their one from three record at last year’s edition of the festival and have started the new campaign positively, with wins over St Charles (38-0) and HTS Middelburg (7-5).
Westville opened their 2025 account with three wins from three attempts, including two comprehensive victories (45-12 against Selborne College and 28-13 over Dale) at the Grey High Festival last month.
From the Western Cape, newcomers Hoërskool Durbanville and Milnerton High will both be looking to make a mark, with the former, the oldest Afrikaans high school in the country, impressing in a 34-16 defeat of Hoërskool Dr EG Jansen and a 27-21 win over Hoërskool Monument at the recent North-South tournament.
Heavyweight Gauteng regulars EG Jansen and Monnas make their return, with Egies searching for another 100% campaign this Easter. The Boksburg team opened their 2025 account with surprise losses to Hoërskool Nelspruit and Durbanville but are not to be underestimated.
Monnas will be looking to find form fast after losing two of their opening three games of the year, including big defeats to Grey College (47-8) and Paarl Gimnasium (66-16).
The returning Eastern Cape teams to KERF are Hoërskool Framesby and Dale College. The Gqeberha side will be aiming to put more consistency into their game after winning two of their first four outings of the year.
Dale College have endured its own struggles of late and will be hoping to show improvement after recent defeats to Hoërskool Brandwag and Nico Malan High, before further losses at the Grey High Festival to Northwood and Westville.
Hoërskool Rustenburg, who make their second appearance at KERF, have won three and drawn one of their five games of the year so far.
Meanwhile, Peterhouse Boys’ School, the alma mater of Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira, will add an extra Zimbabwean dimension to this year’s festival.
Joining junior Zimbabwean club team Harare Lions will be local teams from Chelsea Prep, Glenwood Prep, Hillcrest Primary, Highbury, Kloof Senior Primary, Penzance Primary, Umhlali Prep, Westville Senior Primary and Winston Park, as well as uThukela Rugby from Bergville and KZN Ibutho Development team.
Four U16 girls’ teams will also offer something new: playing during the lunchtime slots each day. They are Adams College (Amanzimtoti), Mowat Park (Montclair), Grosvenor Girls (Bluff) and George Campbell School of Technology (Durban).
Kearsney headmaster Patrick Lees said he was grateful for the significant support from Standard Bank, Halfway Ford Waterfall, The Sharks Academy and Nashua, which had enabled the growth of this year’s festival to include 28 teams.
To avoid queues, spectators can purchase prepaid tickets online through Quicket. Alternatively, they can be purchased on the day from the Kearsney College Road gate. Spectators are urged to pay by card or SnapScan. Entry is R45 per person and children under six are free.
There will be ample parking, a fun KidZone for the little ones, as well as numerous food outlets and a field-side refreshment tent to ensure spectators can fully enjoy the weekend’s entertainment.
All games will be live-streamed via YouTube on the SuperSport Schools app.
Full and up-to-date festival news, team information, fixtures, results and match reports will be available on www.kearsney.com or from the Kearsney College Events app, which can be downloaded from Google Play or iStore.
FIXTURES
STOTT FIELD
BOYS HIGH SCHOOLS & GIRLS U16
DAY 1 THURSDAY 17 APRIL
08h00 Milnerton High vs Peterhouse Boys
09h20 Hoërskool Durbanville vs Dale College
10h40 Durban High School vs Hoërskool Rustenburg
12h00 Mowat Park High vs Adams College *
13h00 Kearsney College vs Dr EG Jansen
14h20 Hoërskool Monument vs Glenwood High
15h40 Westville Boys' High vs Hoërskool Framesby
DAY 2 SATURDAY 19 APRIL
08h00 Hoërskool Durbanville vs Hoërskool Rustenburg
09h20 Hoërskool Framesby vs Peterhouse Boys
10h40 Milnerton High vs Glenwood High
12h00 Adams College vs George Campbell *
13h00 Westville Boys' Highvs Dr EG Jansen
14h20 Kearsney College vs Dale College
15h40 Hoërskool Monument vs Durban High School
DAY 3 MONDAY 21 APRIL
08h00 Hoërskool Monument vs Milnerton High School
09h20 Glenwood High vs Dale College
10h40 Hoërskool Framesby vs Dr EG Jansen
11h00 Adams College vs Grosvenor Girls *
12h50 Closing ceremony
13h00 Durban High School cs Hoërskool Durbanville
14h20 Westville Boys' High vs Hoërskool Rustenburg
15h40 Kearsney College vs Peterhouse Boys
ROBERTS FIELD
BOYS PRIMARY SCHOOLS & GIRLS U16
DAY 1 THURSDAY 17 APRIL
08h00 Highbury Prep vs Kloof Senior Primary
09h00 Penzance Primary vs uThukela Rugby (Bergville)
10h00 Winston Park Primary vs Westville Senior Primary
11h00 Hillcrest Primary vs Chelsea Prep
12h00 George Campbell vs Grosvenor Girls *
13h00 Umhlali Prep KZN vs Ibutho Development
14h00 Glenwood Prep vs Harare Lions
DAY 2 SATURDAY 19 APRIL
08h00 Kloof Senior Primary vs Winston Park Primary
09h00 Chelsea Prep vs Harare Lions
10h00 Westville Senior Primary vs Hillcrest Primary
11h00 Glenwood Prep vs uThukela Rugby (Bergville)
12h00 Mowat Park High vs Grosvenor Girls *
13h00 Highbury Prep KZN vs Ibutho Development
14h00 Penzance Primary vs Umhlali Prep
DAY 3 MONDAY 21 APRIL
08h00 Hillcrest Primary vs Winston Park Primary
09h00 Chelsea Prep KZN vs Ibutho Development
10h00 Kloof Senior Primary vs uThukela Rugby (Bergville)
11h00 Mowat Park High vs George Campbell *
12h00 Glenwood Prep vs Westville Senior Primary
13h00 Highbury Prep vs Umhlali Prep
14h00 Penzance Primary vs Harare Lions
* Girls U16 fixtures