KEARSNEY College KEARSNEY College will host the 16th edition of the Easter Rugby Festival. | Supplied
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IT is now all up to the weather gods to tame the Hillcrest area weather conditions on Thursday for the 16th edition ahead of the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival (KERF) to get underway at Kearsney College.
It has been another rainy week in Durban, but the weather service report promises cloudy to clear skies for the next four days, which should favour playing days set for Thursday April 17, Saturday April 19 and Monday April 21 in the west of Durban.
On Wednesday, organisers reported that fridges were already stocked to capacity and fields finely manicured, with the catering team ready for the blitz of 650 hungry young rugby players and thousands of supportive spectators at this weekend’s KERF.
With 27 participating teams, including 12 boys’ high school sides, 11 primary school teams and, for the first time, a girls’ high school category, this year’s event promises to be bigger and better.
The first day’s action kicks off with a battle between two festival newcomers: Milnerton High from Cape Town and Peterhouse Boys’ School from Zimbabwe.
Second up is another new outfit, Hoërskool Durbanville (Cape Town), who will play Dale College (Qonce).
The four local teams face some tough opponents in their first KERF encounters – Durban High School take on Hoërskool Rustenburg, hosts Kearsney College face Hoërskool Dr EG Jansen (Boksburg), Glenwood High are up against Hoërskool Monument (Krugersdorp) and Westville Boys’ High battle Hoërskool Framesby (Gqeberha).
Fifteen of the competing teams will be staying at Kearsney.
The festival’s ‘Boots & Balls’ outreach initiative, introduced in 2015, is again collecting new and good-condition second-hand sports kits and clothing to distribute to development teams throughout the province.
Players and visitors are encouraged to leave items at designated bright-yellow collection points next to the main Stott field.
To avoid queues, spectators are encouraged to purchase prepaid tickets online through Quicket.
Alternatively, tickets can be purchased on the day 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 will be ample parking, a fun KidZone for the little ones, as well as numerous food outlets and a field-side refreshment tent to ensure spectators can fully enjoy the weekend’s entertainment.
All games will be live-streamed via YouTube on the SuperSport Schools app.
Full and up-to-date festival news, team information, fixtures, results and match reports will be available on www.kearsney.com or from the Kearsney College Events app, which can be downloaded from Google Play or iStore.