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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?

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