I’m wondering if the two-year gap in rugby festivals over Easter due to the shutdown of school sport due to Covid-19 didn’t have some positive spinoffs, one of which was the revitalisation of the concept.
They were missed for the last few years, no question. The words “gee but it’s great to see the boys playing again” were pretty much part of every greeting I got from friends and acquaintances at KES, where I spent the weekend.
And the crowds, including the famous old boy contingents of the Eastern Cape schools, Queens and Dale, expressed their approval of the comeback, by turning up, despite Saturday’s non-stop rain and, consequently, Monday’s chilly viewing of teams that were indistinguishable from each other trying their best to play in mudholes – at all four venues. Five actually, if you include the under-16 festival that was held at Jeppe.
Everyone at KES was appreciative, you felt, the organisation was superb and the hospitality hit a new level of warmth and generosity. I was aware of just one contentious issue – Jeppe played their second team against Eldorainge in their first outing. There were, it seems those who felt they were being precious, and disrespectful towards their hosts and opponents.
There was a communication breakdown, apparently, that led them to be included in the schedule for all three days, but they say they only intended to play two games from the very beginning, just as they did in 2019, at the last festival. KES, by the way, were also only down for two games then as well. And Eldoraigne were consulted and agreed to play against the Jeppe seconds, so there was no disrespect towards them.
In the excitement of being back we seem to have forgotten that in 2019, and before that already, there was talk around the wisdom of asking 18 year-olds to play three very competitive games over five days. In that year, like in this one, Easter fell in term-time for the State schools. That meant, with the customary early-season festivals, and normal Saturday fixtures on the Saturdays before and after Easter, schools were playing way too many games in a short period of time.
Jeppe, if they had fulfilled the proposed schedule at KES, will have played nine games in just over a month. That just not right. And they weren’t the only ones who opted for fewer games at the weekend. At St John’s Paul Roos Gimnasium only played twice, and Affies just once, and Paarl Boys’ High apparently agreed to three games only if the first was an “easy” one – they played the Golden Lions XV, and won 83-0.
I think we had schools agreeing to play three games this year, even though they were talking about cutting it down to two even before the Covid break. Everyone’s just so happy to be playing again and, at the time that invitations were accepted no-one was really sure that we would have a full season again, so they committed to playing as much as they can – it will probably not be the same next Easter.
I got the impression that, by 2019, people were getting a little tired of the concept of Easter festivals already. Gone are the days when all the top schools are clamouring to get into one of them. They have been replaced as the really prestigious events by the Noord-Suid and Wildeklawer gatherings, both of which feature two games per school.
Of the last top 10 in the rankings that came out in 2021 four schools – Grey College, Paarl Gimnasium, Outeniqua and Garsfontein weren’t at an Easter festival.
Easter 2022 has come and gone, and it was glorious, I don’t think, however, that 2023 and the future will be quite the same.
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