Some new faces at this year’s Standard Bank KES Easter Festival
The annual Standard Bank King Edward VII Easter Festival kicks off on Thursday, 6 April, in Johannesburg and the fixtures promise another action-packed week of rugby during the Easter school holiday.
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14 schools will be in action over the three days, and as always, some of the matches promise to showcase a highly exciting brand of rugby between some of the top schools in the country as well as some teams with a history of delivering big upsets.
Paarl Boys’ High’s season does not get any easier, after two hard-fought victories over Jeppe and Affies at the North/South festival in Pretoria, they are back in action on day one against Selborne College before they play the hosts in the main game of the second day and Northwood on the last day.
Selborne has a list of famous sporting alumni, from Mark Andrews and Brent Russell to Mark Boucher and Jody Scheckter, but they have yet to establish the dominance of old on the rugby pitch in recent years, losing to Marlow earlier in the season at the Grens festival, but a good performance this week can change the trajectory of their season.
The hosts, King Edward VII, also need to perform this week after going down by 49-19 against Paarl Gimnasium when they represented the North last week.
KES is the Alma Mater of Springbok hookers, Scarra Ntubeni and Malcolm Marx, as well as the loose-forward, Joe van Niekerk and winger, Bryan Habana. The Welsh prop Rhys Thomas also attended King Edward VII, so they are no strangers to producing some great players and will hope that this group will also be able to realize their potential at this prestigious festival.
They have three challenging fixtures in Hudson Park, Boishaai and Selborne to get through over the Easter period.
Rugby fixtures:
Thursday, 6 April
08:10 – St David’s Marist Inanda vs Nico Malan
09:20 – Eldoraigne vs Parktown Boys’ High
10:30 – Paarl Boys’ High vs Selborne College
11:40 – Northwood vs Ben Vorster
12:50 – King Edward VII vs Hudson Park
14:00 – Queen’s College vs Diamantveld
Saturday, 8 April
08:00 – Kempton Park vs Durbanville
09:10 – Nico Malan vs Diamantveld
10:20 – Eldoraigne vs St David’s Marist
11:30 – Hudson Park vs Northwood
12:40 – Queen’s College vs Ben Vorster
13:50 – Selborne College vs Parktown Boys’ High
15:00 – King Edward VII vs Paarl Boys’ High
Monday, 10 April
08:00 – Kempton Park vs Queen’s College
09:10 – Nico Malan vs Ben Vorster
10:20 – Parktown Boys’ High vs Diamantveld
11:30 – Hudson Park vs St David’s Marist
12:40 – Eldoraigne vs Durbanville
13:50 – Northwood vs Paarl Boys’ High
15:00 – King Edward VII vs Selborne College
