Skip to main content

Another derby, another great day, much like the last one

 


Much of what I’m going to say here I said last year this time. That sort of repetition used to be a no-no, back when I was newspaper reporter. But I’m not one anymore, and what I experienced on Saturday at the King Edward VII School vs Jeppe High School for Boys rugby derby at KES was so similar to what happened at Jeppe in April last year, that you really couldn’t tell the story differently this time around.

Anyone who was there – and anyone else in Joburg who might have wanted to go to the game wouldn’t have found a spot to watch it from any way – was treated to the same spectacle; a riot of colours (mainly red), a cacophony from the stands and, on the field, the same passion and commitment and skills levels.

Those skills, admittedly were less than perfectly executed at times, but if you are going to hold that against those 17 and 18-year olds, under that pressure, in that cauldron, then you were obviously not one of the 9 000-odd people shoe-horned into the school on Saturday.

It was the same again, right down to the outcome – KES scored in injury time to snatch victory when it looked like they were going to lose, with Jeppe again falling short of closing out the game after they had been so very good at everything they had done until then. In fact, this is the third time in a row that KES has won from the last play of the game. That speaks volumes for the indomitable spirit that the coaches there manage to build into their players.

And like last year, and the others before, it was a proper derby. I’m not going to get into what I mean by that, but the Paarl Gim vs Affies game that was on at the same time as this one and which has been billed one of the Premier Interschools “Derby” games, was not a derby, as great a game of rugby as what it apparently was.

No, a derby means that the schools are neighbours, so are the old boys, the parents and the other spectators. They may not live next door to each other, but they are from the same part of town. The stakeholders and supporters of schools that are so similar to each other operate in similar circles. Many of them know each other well, some are related, and just about all of them work or study at places where they are going to meet one of the other lot at some time or other, and will be able to brag, or have to take a bragging, all year-long (well, at least until July 28 when the 2nd leg of the derby takes place).

And the boys know each other too. They meet twice a year on the rugby field, and at other playing venues in the summertime. And because of the schools' proximity (I Googled it for an earlier version of this story – the schools are 5.7km apart by road, less than 4km as the crow flies), they exist as teenagers in the same circles, with all the benefits and challenges of that.

That’s a proper derby. It brings our quarter of Joburg to a standstill twice a year and I’m one of those lucky enough to go along and watch it play out each time. Anyone want to bet against it going more or less the same way, irrespective of who wins the 1st team game, on July 28?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Queen's unexpected win was the highlight of a great school rugby week

  My sporting highlight of the week? …. It’s been rugby all the way and I got excited for various reasons, on Thursday already, about the Muir College vs Parktown game at Grey High, knowing that it was likely to be eclipsed as the long weekend unfolded. Then, on Friday night the Lions beat the Pumas in the Currie Cup. It’s always a highlight for me when they win these days, and that they stopped the defending champions made it more special. But the real stars this week were aways going to be the schoolboys and weren’t there some cracking games? Hilton holding out against nearly 10 minutes of ferocious attack from Michaelhouse to win 20-17 and extend their unbeaten run in the Midlands derby; and Jeppe scoring two tries in the final minute to snatch a draw against Selborne when the game looked gone for them, were two of them. At the Wildekalwer Festival in Kimberley where the big guns were playing, things went pretty much as expected, with no upsets. The Grey College vs Garsfon...
Post a Comment
Read more

It's rugby trials time, and I don't miss the cold

  My school sporting highlight of the week? It’s more a time of year, rather than an event, and I love it because of the memories it stirs: provincial rugby selection season. When the first chills of winter begin to bite, as they have this week, you know the Craven Week trials are on. I spent 10 years on those selection panels and the one consistent memory of those times is that it was bloody cold. On a typical U18 trials day the final game will kick off at around 5.30pm – sunset – and you’d have been on the side of the field in places like Alberton, or Krugersdorp, or, worst of all at UJ, deep in the valley and next to the Westdene Dam, all afternoon, steadily cooling down. We’d whinge, but I used to look forward to it all year, and from year to year.   It wasn’t easy. Trials are definitely not the best way to pick a team and, as the years passed, the task was made more difficult because racial quotas had to be met – it’s much worse now. And you’ll never please everyone...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meeting old friends has been the highlight of the weekend

  My school sports highlight of the weekend? …. The rugby festivals, obviously.   Everything about them, really, but in particular, for me, seeing some familiar faces, men and women who have spent much of their lives in service of sport at schools. There are too many to list them all, but I know there will be no offence taken if I’ve left someone out. I spoke of the guys in the KES Festival office the other day, Derron van Eeden, Neil Darroch and Ian Sim – people with weighty jobs over the festival weekend – but always gracious and courteous in all their dealings with everyone. And while I was at KES I saw Tinus Diedericks, the Golden Lions Schools Rugby chairman, Brad Ireland and Ian Rickelton, long-termers at St David’s, Hans Coetzee – a rugby coaching legend in these parts, and from the school cricket world, Niels Momberg, who is commentating on SuperSport Schools. Down the road at St John’s, I had a word with Arnold Geerdts, who has been the announcer there for the last 15...
Post a Comment
Read more