21 Nov 24.
The Grey Rugby Festival 2025 is still in the fixture planning phase. The table below contains provisional fixtures from earlier in the week.
Grey traditionally alternates its festival dates between the start of the school holidays and the holiday period around the annual public holidays from 27 April to 1 May. In 2025, the festival will take place at the start of the holidays, overlapping with the high-profile NMI Toyota Noord-Suid tournament instead of the Absa Wildeklawer event.
As a result, Johannesburg’s leading boys’ schools, Jeppe and KES—regular participants at the Grey Easter Rugby Festival—have opted for the challenges of Noord-Suid in Stellenbosch. St John’s College are also out as they will tour the Eastern Cape earlier in the month of March 2025.
Among the Eastern Province schools, Brandwag and St Andrew’s College are notably absent. SAC has home fixtures against Bishops and Michaelhouse planned for the same period, while other local schools like Framesby and Nico Malan have committed to Noord-Suid as well.
On the positive side, Grey has attracted an impressive contingent from KwaZulu-Natal, with no fewer than seven tier-one rugby schools from the Sharks region set to participate. Only Glenwood and Maritzburg College will be missing from the line-up.
There’s also a much-anticipated return for Selborne College from East London. Of course, when discussing rugby in a national context, few names in schoolboy rugby carry as much weight as Bishops. They are certain to be a major drawcard on matchday two!
| GREY RUGBY FESTIVAL | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 : Sat 29-Mar-2025 | ||||||
| 1 | BOR | Queen’s | vs | St Stithians | LIO | |
| 2 | BOR | Dale | vs | Northwood | KZN | |
| 3 | BUL | Pretoria BH | vs | Kearsney | KZN | |
| 4 | EP | Graeme | vs | Hilton | KZN | |
| 5 | EP | Kingswood | vs | Durban HS | KZN | |
| 6 | BOR | Selborne | vs | Westville | KZN | |
| 7 | EP | Grey HS | vs | Michaelhouse | KZN | |
| 8 | KZN | St Charles | vs | Port Rex | BOR | |
| 9 | BOR | Hudson Park | vs | Muir | EP | |
| Day 2 : Mon 31-Mar-2025 | ||||||
| 1 | KZN | Westville | vs | Dale | BOR | |
| 2 | BOR | Selborne | vs | Durban HS | KZN | |
| 3 | BOR | Hudson Park | vs | Kearsney | KZN | |
| 4 | BUL | Pretoria BH | vs | Queen’s | BOR | |
| 5 | EP | Kingswood | vs | Northwood | KZN | |
| 6 | WP | Bishops | vs | Michaelhouse | KZN | |
| 7 | EP | Grey HS | vs | Hilton | KZN | |
| 8 | LIO | St Stithians | vs | Port Rex | BOR | |
| 9 | KZN | St Charles | vs | Hudson Park | BOR | |
| 10 | EP | Muir | vs | Ithembelihle | EP | |
MY COMMENT WAS TONGUE IN CHEEK.
My comment was meant as a joke. PBHS have not had much to celebrate from a rugby perspective over the last few years. PBHS vs Queens is always a brilliant fixture. As far as I recall, PBHS have played Queens 13 times. PBHS have won five, lost six and there have been two draws.
@RuggaFreak (Comment #10)
I’m not saying that St Stithian’s are strong, as all the Jhb privates (other than St John’s) have dropped a notch in the past few years, as they no longer play KES, Jeppe and Boys High – only one of the three each year. That said, I think that they had a particulary poor game v Queens this year – they probably played all their reserves, as they were on tour. I say that because their results against other E Cape oppo were reasonable – e.g. beat St Andrew’s quite easily (Queens had a narrow win v same), beat Brandwag and had a narrow loss v Hudson Park (like Queens).
@Tang (Comment #9)
Emphasis on tougher, our day 2 game is a good tough one, I wasn’t referring to that game. On day 1 we play Saints again, last year we put a cricket score against them so I see no point in playing them again when we can rather get two heavyweights. If your opinion is that Queen’s isn’t tough then that’s your opinion and we will see, tough good fixture in my eyes.
I HAD EXACTLY THE SAME THOUGHT
I had the same thought for PBHS. Pity they weren’t given tougher opposition.
@Dion (Comment #7)
It will nice to see Grey High have a 2025 season worth of the school’s national rugby status.
Two former top players have the chance to become 1st XV starters at their new schools : Cole Moultrie and generational talent Travis Pheiffer. This is hopefully a recent trend Grey is working hard to end. IMO kids should want to come to Grey and not leave.
Awsuum line up next year….Grey facing 2 tough apponents aswell…gonna be a good one…we should see a few of Grey u16 players from this year taking the step up to 1st team 🙏🙏🙏🙏💯
It seems like Dale will be at the Grey Festival so some fixtures will probably need to change.
Also Kearsney plays their Methodist brother school St Stithians in an annual interschools derby so the two won’t want a game in Gqeberha
This is a great lineup. I love the mostly EC vs KZN matchups.
I wish Queen’s was given a tougher fixture list.
@Skywalker (Comment #1)
Northwood are at Grey, KES and Wildeklawer!
I think Grey is the best placed of the three on the calendar as its at the start of the main school holiday. The other two holidays are short breaks during the term.
Based on how the terms work out in 2026, there is a change that the Grey Fest and Wildeklawer may overlap again, forcing NW to make a choice.
Great to see Selborne back. Two tough games but I’m sure the boys will be up for it. Absolutely ecstatic for Port Rex. Expecting Rex to be decent next year as well with most of the players from this year being u17
Wow so many KZN teams. I question whether Northwood needs 2 festivals though, with KES and now this one. Hopefully we have the depth to cover this and now let our domestic season slip.