All the hardwork has finally paid off. Durbanville will officially be recognised as one of the tier-one rugby schools in the Cape when they gain promotion to the elite Western Province Premier League in 2026.
From the Durbanville FB:
RUGBY
WP RUGBY PREMIER A-LEAGUE 2026
At their official WP Rugby meeting held at Newlands last night, WP Rugby confirmed that Hoërskool Durbanville will compete in the WP Rugby Premier A-League next year.
We are thrilled, but at the same time deeply grateful to everyone involved in Durbanville High School Rugby who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes over the past few years to make this a reality – thank you for your contribution.
We are especially thankful to our Old Durbies who, in recent years, have believed in the process and worked hard to build a positive legacy at the school – in the jersey, but also for future generations of Durbies.
A heartfelt thank you to our loyal sponsors and Durbie supporters who have stood by us and supported our vision. Thank you for being willing to walk this journey with us – we are truly grateful.
To our coaching staff, thank you for the time and effort you put in behind the scenes. To our Durbies, thank you for showing up in numbers week after week, eager to learn, committed to the hard work, and for running out on Saturdays to represent Durbanville with pride!
There’s still hard work ahead, but our focus now shifts to this coming weekend’s rugby fixtures against Paarl Boys’ High. All the best with the preparations, Durbies.
We are proud!
This is not a league system, so no one gets promoted / relegated. This is purely based on the amount of teams a school can put out on a Saturday morning & not how they have been performing. Southern Suburb schools tend to work in waves with regards to very talented sides, the past few years its the Bosch & Wynberg show, SACS will be back as there U16 sides are very competitive, not sure how Bishops are going to turn it around without spending vast amounts of money.
This is why its important that a school like Durbanville gets brought into the system to spread the talent. In the old days schools like DF Malan, Jan van Riebeeck, Brackenfell, Tygerberg & I’m sure a few more were all competitive however, due to economics / bursaries etc these schools lost a lot of talented boys through the years.
Hopefully Durbanville can now hold onto a number of junior boys to add to their rugby program & they don’t lose boys because they are not a part of the WP Premier league system.
@yesnomaybe (Comment #6)
Is no one moving down? As you know in NV end of season last on the log moves down and vica versa.
Im not sure exactly the science behind it. But what i do know is that the Southern Suburb Schools play each other home & away. They then play the other schools once. The winelands schools play everyone once incl. Oakdale, sometimes Drostdy & Outeniqua.
There are festival matches plus the yearly traditional long distance matches vs Affies, Grey Bloem, etc where the whole school either hosts or travels to the opposing schools. You add in Craven week matches, its quite a long season.
Im not sure exactly the science behind it. But what i do know is that the Southern Suburb Schools play each other home & away. They then play the other schools once. The winelands schools play everyone once incl. Oakdale, sometimes Drostdy & Outeniqua.
There are festival matches plus the yearly traditional long distance matches vs Affies, Grey Bloem, etc where the whole school either hosts or travels to the opposing schools. You add in Craven week matches, its quite a long season.
@yesnomaybe (Comment #3)
Will the other A schools not playing them already be forced to give them a fixture in future? If so, they either need to play one more Saturday or give up an existing fixture?
As far as I’m aware
Paul Roos, Paarl Boys, Paarl Gym, Boland Landbou, Stellenberg, Wynberg, Rondebosch, SACS, Bishops & now Durbanville.
This is down to the number of teams that they can put out on a weekly basis, think u need at least 4 teams per age group for the U14, 15 & 16’s & at least 5-6 teams in the Open division.
Let me apologise now if I’ve left some school out.
This is not necessarily due to strength.
Wat se skole is almal in die A Liga?
Great news. I remember the Durbanville sides from the 80s, always a tough team to beat.
Hopefully now the parents & boys of the junior schools surrounding the high school don’t get lured away like they currently are so that you can prevent the bus leaving to Paarl & Stellenbosch everyday. If you can do that, then the school could easily be in the Top 10-20 every year.