Following the success of their 150th festival in 2023, which was an expansion of their very popular season kickoff rugby day, Graeme College from Makhanda (Grahamstown) has decided to stick with the festival format. Matches will be played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 14-16 March 2024.
The 1st XV’s will play on Friday and Saturday, while the u14’s, u15’s and u16’s will be in action starting on the Thursday.
As usual the festival will attract the who’s who of the Eastern Cape. Every one of the top schools of the province will be in action.
Read Neale Emslie’s interesting preview here:
Graeme Rugby Festival preview 2024
| GRAEME RUGBY FESTIVAL | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st XV Day 1 : Fri 15-Mar-2024 | ||||||
| 10h30 | BOR | Port Rex | 12-13 | Mary Waters | EP | |
| 11h45 | EP | Union | 06-43 | Daniel Pienaar | EP | |
| 13h00 | EP | Kingswood | 29-14 | Marlow | EP | |
| 14h15 | BOR | Dale | 29-32 | Nico Malan | EP | |
| 15h30 | EP | Grey HS | 44-05 | Hudson Park | BOR | |
| 1st XV Day 2 : Sat 16-Mar-2024 | ||||||
| 10h30 | BOR | Cambridge | 24-21 | Muir | EP | |
| 11h45 | BOR | Stirling | 00-43 | Framesby | EP | |
| 13h00 | BOR | Queen’s | 11-19 | Pearson | EP | |
| 14h15 | EP | St Andrew’s | 34-19 | Brandwag (EP) | EP | |
| 15h30 | EP | Graeme | 07-14 | Selborne | BOR | |
I knew Pearson were going to be strong this year. Outsiders may see it as a surprise, but to us it wasn’t. Pearson has a monster pack of forwards. Looking forward to see how their season progresses. 👍🏻
They also have a very good 9 and a good 10. A couple of big backs too
@Knight_CHS07 (Comment #24)
Great win for Cambridge, I would love to Cambridge finally get a win back over Hudson after so many years of falling short to their rivals.
@Palma (Comment #22)
Pearson vs Queens College was a school boy test match. Wow! What a game of rugby, both team played very well in my opinion.
@Rainier (Comment #21)
The final score was 44-5. The Supersport schools app had/has some technical issues. The Grey vs Hudson game was cut off at 39-5. The Muir vs CHS game only shows the 1st half
@Palma (Comment #23)
Muir College 21-24 Cambridge HS. Rugby is truly a game of 2 halves. Muir led 21-5 at halftime and then Cambridge came back in the second half to win.
Does anyone know the final score for Cambridge vs Muir?
Pearson beat Queens 19-11. Definitely did not see that coming.
Grey gave Hudson a hiding. Think final score was 39-6.
@Palma (Comment #13)
There’s a video doing the rounds showing a spectator slapping one of the KC players after the final whistle :/
NM 32-29 Dale
Great win for a very young team, lost some shape with replacements and injury to the 13.
Best match of the day by far, Dale probably would have won it with another 5 minutes.
@Wyvern (Comment #14)
The opposition was weak but the DP team played very well.
Nico Malan playing well into the wind – the 3rd try was delightful.
@Palma (Comment #13)
There was a bit of niggle just before the end and then it blew up after the final whistle. Did not see spectators involved but the cameras panned away.
@Palma (Comment #13)
Very disappointing to end the game like that, hopefully there were handshakes at the end of it. I saw a few spectators moving towards to scene before the stream cut.
@Rainier (Comment #11)
Good to see DP back on the scene. I was impressed with their match against GC last week!
@Rainier (Comment #12)
Very ugly scenes at the end of the game. Apparently a spectator got physical with a Kingswood player.
Kingswood 29-14 Marlow
Marlow made costly mistakes.
Disgraceful scenes after the final whistle.
DP wins 43-6 – team played well and it is a nice change after a few years in the doldrums. Might surprise a few teams.
DP and Union both have white jerseys…
@Pamos (Comment #8)
Not a great start – 13-12 loss to Mary Waters. Dominated the first 10 minutes but then MW got more ball and the game evened out.
Port Rex is going to surprise a few people this year. Their Head Coach Waldi Van Greunen has always gotten the best if not more out of his players. He does not get the praise he deserves. Rumour has it that they have a talented group this year
I like the Border v EP format – schools that will normally not play one another.
Nico Malan will be smarting after the close loss last week – 7 of the starting 15 is /17 and I believe the youngsters will get used to the quicker pace and smaller error margins at 1st team level.
@wanza_15 (Comment #5)
Not too sure. Really unlike Framesby, they normally accept any fixture regardless of strength of opposition. St Andrews are in transition, a lot of changes to coaching structures and I think they don’t want such a difficult game so early on in the season.
@Ystervark (Comment #4)
What is the reason for them pulling out so early?
@Palma (Comment #3)
Unfortunately from what I have been told St Andrews pulled out of their scheduled game against Grey Bloem a while ago, and then last week Framesby did the same.
I see the festival had to be slightly watered down due to the Easter festivals being so close. No more Grey Bloem is a bit of a shame.
@Palma (Comment #1)
Some good games to come. Hopefully the schedule is finalised soon
Some notable provisional fixtures include:
day 1
Graeme vs Stirling
GCB vs Framesby
day 2
Grey High vs Hudson
Dale vs Pearson
day 3
GCB vs St Andrews
Graeme vs Selborne