Kearsney founded in Zululand in 1921, is 102 years old in 2023. In that time, the college had only seven headmasters before Michaelhouse old boy Patrick Lees took over from the legendary Elwyn van den Aardweg at the start of 2023.
In terms of rugby, its also an interesting history of commitment to one man at the helm. Here Neil van Heerden, a relative youngster took the reins from another Kearsney great – Barend Steyn, who is owed a great deal of gratitude for the amazing job he did as the head coach from 2001 until 2022. Barend is still very much involved in Kearsney rugby as a coach and Head of Rugby.
Dating back to 1976, there have been four headmasters and effectively been only five head coaches of the 1st XV.
Headmaster Colin Silcock replaced old boy JH Hopkins for the 1976 academic year and inherited Pip Townshend as the incumbent 1st XV head coach. It proved to be a difficult first season for the then new headmaster with a record of played 14 (excluding Old Crocks and Old Boys), won 5, lost 9. When Townshend’s 10 year stint was over, in came Freddie Cocks in 1981 for the rest of that decade.
In 1991 Owen Roberts succeeded Silcock and in the same year PE teacher Kevin Smith became the new 1st XV head coach for the next 10 years. The new combination of headmaster-head coach also had a very dismal start with a played 18, won 6, lost 12 external matches record.
Roberts past the baton to Elwyn van den Aardweg in 2001. It happened to correspond with the end of Smith’s tenure and in came Barend Steyn. They enjoyed instant success. The team captained by future England International prop Matt Stevens, who one of the best schoolboy players the college ever produced, had an outstanding season. Of the 18 matched played, they won 16 and lost only 2.
Patrick Lees and Neil van Heerden’s 2023 start has mimicked 1976 and 1991 in terms of a low number of wins. In a season frustratingly noted for no fewer than 6 matches being decided by fewer than 7 points. In the end the record was won 5, lost 8, drew 1.
KEARSNEY RUGBY RESULTS EACH NEW HEADMASTER’S FIRST RUGBY SEASON
| KEARSNEY 1976 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kearsney | 44 | 3 | Brettonwood | Won |
| Kearsney | 16 | 11 | Hamilton | Won |
| Kearsney | 14 | 18 | Glenwood | Lost |
| Kearsney | 12 | 13 | Kloof | Lost |
| Kearsney | 17 | 4 | Weston | Won |
| Kearsney | 21 | 9 | Pinetown | Won |
| Kearsney | 18 | 21 | Northlands | Lost |
| Kearsney | 10 | 20 | Maritzburg College | Lost |
| Kearsney | 4 | 13 | Port Natal | Lost |
| Kearsney | 0 | 21 | Rondebosch | Lost |
| Kearsney | 12 | 23 | Hilton | Lost |
| Kearsney | 20 | 25 | Michaelhouse | Lost |
| Kearsney | 9 | 24 | Durban HS | Lost |
| Kearsney | 22 | 15 | Westville | Won |
| POINTS FOR | 219 | 220 | POINTS AGAINST | |
| WON | 5 | 9 | LOST | |
| KEARSNEY 1991 | ||||
| Kearsney | 25 | 10 | Grenswag | Won |
| Kearsney | 3 | 15 | Queen’s | Lost |
| Kearsney | 4 | 26 | Selborne | Lost |
| Kearsney | 6 | 4 | Pinetown | Won |
| Kearsney | 12 | 7 | Glenwood | Won |
| Kearsney | 6 | 46 | Grey College | Lost |
| Kearsney | 10 | 21 | Hilton | Lost |
| Kearsney | 25 | 3 | St David’s | Won |
| Kearsney | 12 | 21 | Michaelhouse | Lost |
| Kearsney | 6 | 10 | Durban HS | Lost |
| Kearsney | 6 | 23 | Kingswood | Lost |
| Kearsney | 0 | 24 | St Stithians | Lost |
| Kearsney | 6 | 15 | Maritzburg College | Lost |
| Kearsney | 3 | 6 | Alexandra | Lost |
| Kearsney | 12 | 16 | Westville | Lost |
| Kearsney | 33 | 16 | St Charles | Won |
| Kearsney | 12 | 9 | Gelofte | Won |
| Kearsney | 7 | 8 | Northwood | Lost |
| POINTS FOR | 188 | 280 | POINTS AGAINST | |
| WON | 6 | 12 | LOST | |
| KEARSNEY 2001 | ||||
| Kearsney | 46 | 0 | Shirley BH (NZ) | Won |
| Kearsney | 55 | 5 | Westlands HS (NZ) | Won |
| Kearsney | 16 | 16 | Southlands BH (NZ) | Won |
| Kearsney | 31 | 10 | Waitaki BH (NZ) | Won |
| Kearsney | 54 | 12 | Timaru BH (NZ) | Won |
| Kearsney | 24 | 9 | Parktown | Won |
| Kearsney | 25 | 7 | Jeppe | Won |
| Kearsney | 13 | 18 | KES | Lost |
| Kearsney | 15 | 25 | Maritzburg College | Lost |
| Kearsney | 41 | 10 | Hilton | Won |
| Kearsney | 39 | 3 | Zululand | Won |
| Kearsney | 38 | 3 | Glenwood | Won |
| Kearsney | 18 | 13 | Pretoria BH | Won |
| Kearsney | 19 | 11 | Durban HS | Won |
| Kearsney | 41 | 12 | Northwood | Won |
| Kearsney | 23 | 10 | Michaelhouse | Won |
| Kearsney | 38 | 0 | Pinetown | Won |
| Kearsney | 30 | 7 | Hilton | Won |
| POINTS FOR | 566 | 171 | POINTS AGAINST | |
| WON | 16 | 2 | LOST | |
| KEARSNEY 2023 | ||||
| Kearsney | 45 | 17 | Hentie Cilliers | Won |
| Kearsney | 19 | 0 | Clifton | Won |
| Kearsney | 19 | 19 | Secunda | Drew |
| Kearsney | 26 | 10 | Nico Malan | Won |
| Kearsney | 20 | 23 | Dale | Lost |
| Kearsney | 17 | 12 | EG Jansen | Won |
| Kearsney | 24 | 26 | Hartpury College (UK) | Lost |
| Kearsney | 29 | 34 | Westville | Lost |
| Kearsney | 10 | 14 | Northwood | Lost |
| Kearsney | 20 | 23 | Michaelhouse | Lost |
| Kearsney | 13 | 18 | Glenwood | Lost |
| Kearsney | 22 | 47 | Durban HS | Lost |
| Kearsney | 31 | 15 | St Charles | Won |
| Kearsney | 12 | 28 | Hilton | |
| POINTS FOR | 307 | 286 | POINTS AGAINST | |
| WON | 5 | 8 | LOST | |
| DREW | 1 |
@Vleis: I’ve been blown away by netball here, the sheer scale of it. Thousands of girls playing, Sat & Sun leagues plus school. My daughter plays on a Sunday, literally 18 courts game after game all day. The speed & skill level too, from 13 is crazy. The 12 year olds are the size of full grown netball pros & make 13 year old boys look tiny. In my 10 year olds team, two girls are 5foot10, she’s 5foot6…10! Anyway, it’s just nice to see so much involvement in girls sport. Never saw that growing up in Westville, the Westville girls all just did gym after school & left sport to a handful of girls who did everything..
@beet: no worries…..Nic & Neil is pretty close
@Grasshopper: I agree re football, where our development seems to go pear shaped after u13. I don’t agree re netball. Our national team performs a little worse than England (e.g. 4th v 3rd at 2019 World Cup held in Liverpool), but is certainly stronger than Wales and Scotland. Also, it’s generally accepted that our development in most sports after school lags the UK, US, Aus, etc, so it’s highly likely that the standard of our school netball is easily as good as England’s.
My daughter was selected to play in an u17 netball world cup, but it was cancelled due to Covid…otherwise, I could have given you a definitive answer.
@Jakkals:
Thank you Jakkals. That was a bit embarrassing on my part for a few reasons, one be being that I have actually met Neil.
@Vleis: Yep, less focus at school level and spread across many more private schools. Focused on clubs here for rugby and after full development of players. Seen as an elite sport. Football on the other hand, SA doesn’t come close. Same with Netball….
@Grasshopper: I can’t comment on the quality of UK school sport in general…but I’m very confident that the quality of school rugby in the UK is waaay behind SA.
@Kaya 85: You’re probably correct that Saints’ woke culture is a key factor re the decline of their rugby…so I’m pleased to report that St Alban’s hammered them today by 36 to 14. Saints could learn a lot from Jeppe and KES.
In watched the BishBosch game today, which was very tight with great defence displayed by both teams, but especially by the small Bosch 13 who was brilliant on cover defence. Bosch was on Bishops’ line for the last five minutes, but could not get over, so lost by 13 to 8.
@Kaya 85: Yep, the original and probably best festival there was. To be invited there was an honour. Glenwood used to go regularly and had some tough games there. Joburg is in decline so probably not the same ilk of kids going there, private school in SA is expensive. R25-30k a month is huge, especially if you have 2 kids there. Also, many of the wealthier types have emigrated taking their families with them. I’m astounded by the high level of sport here in the UK, the netball leagues are off the charts. My 10 year old daughter plays in elite events with up to 1,000 girls playing….
@Kaya 85: very interesting. If true, I wonder if there is any pushback from old boys and parents? Their cricket, hockey and tennis is certainly strong and they were always very competitive at waterpolo, rowing and swimming – just rugby that has seriously taken a back seat? To my mind, Saints has the best sporting campus in South Africa – their rugby should be strong.
The Saints Easter rugby festival was the first and original Gauteng rugby festival, since late 1980s….Saints’ standing and rugby reputation grew from there, as others have pointed out, their teams in 90s and early 2000s very strong. They regularly beat KES and Jeppe, drawing big crowds….sometime mid 90s, early 00’s…they started recruiting heavily and targeted Afrikaans boys, even offering Afrikaans Eerstetaal as a school subject. I remember they easily beat Jeppe, also at age group level, but together with this came a ruthlessness and ‘arrogance’ (from the coaching set up), quickly picked up by many of the parents and old boys who became Jerks and A-holes (excuse my French) for want of better words. This lead to incidents between spectators, refs etc. They were getting successful but at what cost?…I don’t know the names of who was calling the shots, but eventually St Stithians realized how their reputation had suffered and that this was all contrary to their ethos….so toned it down…and I feel rightly so, because it was just too much. But then in the last 10 or so years a politically correct movement has outright harmed their rugby (and deliberately sought to do so). Their fantastic rugby festival was “expanded” to include hockey, tennis, squash, soccer, and netball and many other sports, I’m not against any sport…but rugby was deliberately cut down to size and every other sport pushed to supposed ‘equality and equity’…So they still field 10 teams, but there are too many people there now (staff, SGB, stakeholders, parents) whose agenda is to prevent that type of ‘muscular masculinity…’ (they see it as’colonial’, toxic, etc.) the subtext is that rugby will not be allowed to carry the school spirit any more, or dominate school’s image.
@Beet. It’s Neil van Heerden, not Nick. Some interesting stats though…thank you
@Roger: exactly. Sad.
@Grasshopper: there’s always been a movement of Gauteng boys to Hilton and Michaelhouse – especially from schools like St Peters, Pridwin and the Ridge
– and the KZN privates have traditionally had the better of the Gauteng privates on the rugby field. But Saints rugby has surely never been as poor as it is now?
@Vleis: Methinks Hilton and Michaelhouse are doing much of their recruiting in Gauteng, rugby players who would go to Saints and St Johns are now in the midlands, hence their rapid rise from getting pumped 67-7 (Hilton) in 2014 & 56-5 (House) in 2015 by Glenwood. I remember the squealing all to well, too professional was the claim. Now it’s all fine when they win. https://rugby365.com/schools/news-sa-schools/hilton-no-rugby-with-glenwood/.
@Vleis: Saints rugby seem to have fallen off a cliff! They were more than useful in the eighties, nineties and early 2000’s – I remember them winning 5 on the trot vs KES in the early 2000’s! Now they can barely scrape together 10 teams – a school with close to 800 boys. Something’s happened?
@Vleis: a pity, because there are always talented players that get ‘unearthed’…without them knowing how good they were….
@Bush: what other results do u have from 1991?…. Would love to see a full set of NV results back then….I think Marais Viljoen had an even better team than Hmkr that year…
@Kaya 85: Yes, it’s a great pity that the monastic private schools in Gauteng have declined since those days. Indeed, I think that they’ve declined even further in the past five years. Now, other than SJC, they do not play all three of KES, Jeppe and Boys High any more. Also, the number of teams that they put out each weekend (other than SJC) has dropped – e.g. Saints put out some 18 teams eight years ago, but only seem to put out about 10 now.
A problem with the above is that some talented rugby players attend private schools for academic reasons, but those talented players (e.g. St Alban’s have two current Boks) will find it much harder to make it into pro rugby if their schools are playing in a lower tier of rugby.
Interestingly, the majority of the very powerful Irish URC teams come from a few private schools – especially from Dublin.
Re the government schools like Kloof, etc: the talented players that used to attend those schools now move to Westville, Glenwood, etc.
@Kaya 85:Helpies must have been piping hot in 91 they beat St Stithians.
Amazing that schools like Kloof, Port Natal and Alexandra had teams capable of beating Kearsney back then….and that 1991 St Stithians team must have been pretty hot.