The 2025 edition of the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival (KERF) concludes tomorrow (Monday) with a number of teams eager to finish their Easter campaigns on a high following some dramatic results on the penultimate day.
Capacity crowds on Saturday enjoyed some surprise outcomes and nail-biting finishes in glorious autumnal sunshine. Only two schools go into the final day unbeaten, with a third having won one and drawn their other fixture.
This makes for a humdinger of a final day, with so many teams having points to prove in their final fixtures of a highly successful 16th KERF. Action from the boys’ high school 1st XV teams gets underway at 08h00 with the final game kicking off at 15h40.
In the first match of the day, Hoërskool Monument tackle Cape Town’s Milnerton High, with the Witbulle having drawn 26-all with Glenwood on Thursday, before losing 17-32 in their second match against Durban High School (DHS). The Western Cape side opened their festival account with a 34-18 win over Peterhouse Boys’ School from Zimbabwe, before falling to a last-gasp Glenwood penalty in an all-action 34-37 defeat in their second game.
At 09h20, Glenwood face Dale College in a fixture the KZN outfit will definitely be looking to target. The Green Machine followed up their Day 1 draw by securing their at-the-death win over Milnerton, and will be confident of taking advantage of a Dale lineup that was vanquished 22-66 by Hoërskool Durbanville and 13-34 by Kearsney College.
Hoërskool Framesby picked themselves up after their 31-0 drubbing by Westville on the first day, to beat Peterhouse 45-19 in their second outing. They take on Hoërskool Dr EG Jansen on Monday, with the Gauteng giants having seen off Kearsney in a close 29-24 encounter first up, before copping a 5-36 loss in their game against Westville.
In the fourth match at 13h00, DHS will finish a second consecutive KERF campaign with a 100% record if they can put away Durbanville, having already taken care of Hoërskool Rustenburg (41-7) and Monument. Durbanville followed up their big win over Dale with a disappointing 22-26 defeat to Rusties and will be keen to sign off strongly themselves.
The penultimate clash of the final day pits Westville against Rustenburg, with Zander Erasmus’ charges eyeing out a third win and the team from the North-West out to make it two from three.
Finally, hosts Kearsney College will want to build on their comfortable win over Dale, when they come up against winless Peterhouse, who, to their credit, hadn’t played any matches this season upon their arrival at Botha’s Hill.
In addition to the boys’ high school battles, there will also be exciting primary school games with 12 local teams on an adjacent field; and a girls U16 division.
To avoid queues, spectators can purchase prepaid tickets online through Quicket. Alternatively, they can be purchased 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 is ample parking, a fun KidZone for the little ones, as well as numerous food outlets and a field-side refreshment tent.
All games will be live-streamed via YouTube on the SuperSport Schools app.
Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival (21 April)
08:00 Milnerton vs Monnas
09:20 Dale vs Glenwood
10:40 Framesby vs EG Jansen
13:00 DHS vs Durbanville
14:20 Rustenburg vs Westville
15:40 Kearsney vs Peterhouse (Zim)
