Sharks School Rugby

Top schools drive innovative new rugby festival

Durban –  Schools rugby will bask in the spotlight on Wednesday, 6 March 2013 when an innovative new schools rugby tournament at Kings Park showcases the early season form of some of the provinces top rugby schools, encouraged to play expansive and enterprising rugby in a novel shortened format of the game.

Each match at the McCarthy Toyota KZN Top Schools Rugby Festival on Wednesday 6 March will comprise two 20 minute chukkas, with experimental new rules regarding substitutions from a squad of a maximum of 25 players, creating an ideal opportunity for schools to use their match as a trial for players in their broader first team squads.

The programme features nine Discovery SharkSmart schools, together with Pioneer High School from Vryheid. A special SharkSmart “Fair Play” award for the team that best embodies the SharkSmart slogan “Play Safe, Play Fair” will be presented at the end of the tournament.

A number of senior Sharks players will be in attendance and will visit the schools teams in their changerooms before their games.

Schools will bring their support bases to the stadium, as buses have been laid on to ferry pupils to the tournament, much of which runs from 4:30pm until 9pm on the main field at Kings Park.

“It is a great opportunity for these major rugby playing schools to to get together and play at the headquarters of KZN rugby,” said KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union CEO Pete Smith.

The tournament kicks off with the Vryheid schools side Pioneer against Port Natal, before newcomers to the Discovery SharkSmart programme George Campbell take on Clifton College. Then traditional Durban rivals DHS and Northwood square off against each other, before the Highway derby between Westville and Kearsney, and the meeting between Glenwood and Maritzburg College ends off the five match tournament.

Entry is free of charge.

PROGRAMME

McCarthy Toyota KZN Top Schools Rugby Festival

16h30 Port Natal High School vs Hoërskool Pionier
17h20 George Campbell School vs Clifton School
18h10 Durban High School vs Northwood School
19h00 Westville Boys’ High vs Kearsney College
19h50 Glenwood High School vs Maritzburg College