Saturday, 2 August will mark a historic milestone — the 100th time Jeppe and KES face off on the rugby field. A century of rivalry. A clash of tradition. It’s set to be epic.
Adding to the occasion, it will also be the final home rugby match for Jeppe’s beloved headmaster, Dale Jackson. A passionate supporter of the school’s sporting and academic excellence, Jackson has served with distinction and will be deeply missed when he moves on to take up the headmaster post at St John’s in 2026.
But there’s another storyline quietly brewing beneath the surface — the question of who will lead KES rugby in 2026. With just a trip to Durban to come after Saturday, could this famous local derby be the last dance at the helm in Jozi for rising coaching talent Marco Engelbrecht?
With history on the line and futures uncertain, all eyes will be on Joburg for one of the great schoolboy rugby spectacles of the year.
WE CAN ALL BE PROUD OF JEPPE...TURNING BLACK AND WHITE INTO GOLD
@theblackandwhite (Comment #22)
Pleasantly interesting was the U16A result in my opinion, it is the one that really stands out for me given the context you touch on, that result bodes really well for us.. On paper, we are strong next year with most of this current team being in Grade 11. The U14s were disappointing – a betting man would’ve lost a lot of money, but young as they are, they are quite aware.. I bumped in to the flyhalf in the line by ChipnDip, I only knew he played u14A because when I asked him how he did today he said “we drew sir”. He said they are “upset”, and were 21-11 up at the half – a valiant effort from KES, as he has hopefully now learned that against KES you bring your A-game or you will lose. I ALSO spoke with the U15A coach, Manga Ntimba, I used to sit next to him in Maths in matric in 2017, exceptional rugby player he was, got injured in the first pre season game that season vs Kempton Park making what was already going to be a tough season even tougher. He tells me he has a lot of belief in the U15s and that there is recruitment to happen in this off-season.. We must take what these coaches say with a pinch of salt because I mean what else could he have said lol, they are intrinsically bias and positive, a good thing. However, I do agree with you, the U15 result was also encouraging given how comfortably KES beat them last time and as u14s.
Spilhaus did take a step back from 1st XV to focus primarily on the u16s (which is a genius move in my opinion) but does have a hand in the recruitment at U14 as well.
@wanza_15 (Comment #20)
I really enjoyed the u16 and u15 age group games, I remember last year that the u14 lost by 30/40 points and the u15 lost by15/20 points. The gap has been closed, u16’s winning the game and u15’s narrowly losing by 5. Do you have any inside “scoop” as the improvement in the junior teams (u14 very strong this year), is this the result of Carl Spilhaus taking on the Director of Rugby role and possibly spending more time with the junior teams?
@wanza_15 (Comment #19)
That is exactly what I am saying! I have no doubt that KES under allocate to Jeppe supporters, but again I am not too concerned about what they do. The fact of the matter is that I have not been to a derby at KES for 20 years and it is partly because I can’t see – I think you have even mentioned that you prefer not to go to the away fixture unless you go early. I have several KES mates that have said the same thing about watching the game at Jeppe in the past – not enough seating for the away team. The simple fact is that the last two home fixtures have been bigger than you have experienced in Jozi. I doubt it is a coincidence that the last 2 years have been bigger than ever before when Jeppe has been “over-accommodating” as you refer to. Very good marketing strategy, all Jeppe have done is put more bums in seats. You are right though, I am not certain where they will seat people if it continues to grow, it must be at capacity now.
The game itself was its usual nerve-wrecking experience from my view on the stands.
Now with the benefit of hindsight, I think we did a lot of things right..
We started the game fast which we normally don’t do against KES, early try had us 7 to the good fast
We had a kicker on the day who was ready to slot it from the parking lot if he needed to (huge huge shout out to Hollenbach my goodness, scored 26 out of our 39 points I believe), but most importantly the boys were more than up for it from a physicality stand point.
Our lineouts were excellent.
The 2 KES yellows didn’t help their cause one bit. I think whatever hope they had was completely washed away after McGurks yellow – I think nothing worked in his absence, and when he returned it was too little too late. I think in rugby you really don’t want to lose either of your halfbacks, that is the tone and heartbeat, and something you probably don’t (or can’t) even fully plan for; the ball not moving the way it moved all week at practice from onset.
I can’t help but ask again what I asked earlier this season upon seeing the KES players constantly getting treatment all the time – is the strength and conditioning up to par at KES this season? That Grade 11 centre went off with a concussion, I saw Jackson down getting treatment, I saw McGurk down getting treatment and briefly the 6 also, all after contact collisions, what is the story because the first game was similar, and in fact the entire KES season, marred with injuries?
@theblackandwhite (Comment #18)
I think I disagree.
I’m not sure what atmosphere it adds to because (especially when at Jeppe) the KES old boys aren’t particularly that loud as far as singing and noise is concerned. If you ask me what has changed our fortunes in the fixture I’d say it is down more to a school that has become more intentional. Careful recruitment and better allocation of funds, not just players but coaches too, get buy in, and then a greater buy in from Old Boys – I think our Old Boy network/structure is very powerful and key to a lot of our “success”.
Again, what do you say to the fact that they don’t allocate us that much seating when we are in Houghton? We are more than over-accommodating. I definitely don’t think allocating them seats helps us beat them lol as your message suggests? Also, it is the first time I see this. It is not like it always happens, I was just saying in general, that Mr Jackson sure knows how to make KES feel comfortable; it is a new thing every year. ALSO, these past 2 of our home games have been the biggest I’ve seen us make this fixture since I’ve been following it at least, are you saying it has been made bigger than these 2 previous home games in the past? Yikes – the poor grounds!
@wanza_15 (Comment #11)
I don’t think Jeppe is being over accommodating at all, it adds to the atmosphere. By giving KES exactly the same thing as we do all the other schools is what has turned this fixture. Jeppe used to make this fixture way bigger than it is and since the boys started treating this fixture like any other game we started winning a lot more often. The boys in the stands don’t storm the field when we win anymore, they wait for the team. It’s no longer a case of Jeppe hoping to win anymore, we expect to win. My opinion is that this change of attitude has played a big part in the change of mentality.
@Grasshopper (Comment #16)
A little bit different as the Johannesburg schools played football until around 1930. In fact i seem to think Jeppe were late to the party only starting rugby in the mid 30’s. In the early years and especially 50’s – 90’s before schools used to travel as much as they do and the lack of festivals most of the KZN schools used to play a lot of double headers. We didn’t need to play twice a year as we had plenty schools around to play. Before 2018 the only double headers were the respective schools centenary years. If you consider Hilton/Michaelhouse played their 206 derby this year, if they only played once a year like the Jozi Derby then they would have only played 103 which is comparatively the same.
@Ringo (Comment #14)
100 games is like a start up derby. In KZN the schools are on 200 plus…
WE WON
WHY ONLY 100 GAMES
Because of the heightened animosity between the schools doulble header fixture years were reserved for special years I think the 25 year, 50th year, our century and their century then from 2018 onwards the double feature became a standing arrangement …. alot of it ia because deep down our rejexts form across the valley do nor consider their revial
@wanza_15 (Comment #11)
100% when have we ever gone to Kes and had reserved setting for Jeppe old boys with 24/7 bouncer enforcers …. I love Dale Jackson …. but reserved setting for Kes old boys was the weakest move I ever saw him pull…..but life is amazing cause the good guys won today …. next week we doing the good lord work and playing our third team against Parktown 🤪😜
ONLY 100 GAMES
I must agree with you Ringo, they’re just a teeny weeny little too friendly for my liking and I can tell you that these weird ideas are speared by Jeppe. After school when we matriculate, if our paths cross, we are bound to be friends anyway trust me, even if we “hated” each other at school, don’t force it during school – this buddy buddy dinner stuff mustn’t be happening, I think KES should have theirs, glamourize it, maybe get an Old Boy speaker, and “speak the way they want to speak” for a lack of better wording, and then the same for Jeppe. Because now this man who I am supposed to annihilate on Saturday gave me half of his dessert when we all had dinner at my place last night so I’ve got a soft spot for him. Maybe I’m talking absolute nonsense I don’t know. One of my friends today is a KES boy who when we were at school we actually didn’t get along (we laugh about it today). I must add, one thing that annoys me about Jeppe (and Mr Jackson) is how much he and they accomodate KES. He jumps when they tell him to, I have a lot of examples. And on the contrary, I know KES people are about KES FIRST. The seating allocation for today’s game is literally 50-50 between KES and Jeppe – I can share the allocation plan. That means, people high up at the school sat at a table and decided we are sharing the seating allocation. The seating arrangement at KES whenever I’ve gone is 75:25 red at best.
Big big game anticipated. Get there early lads, parking down at Jeppe Girls and take a 20 min walk up the hill, get a few boerie rolls in, few mugs of steaming tea in time for the U15A game…lots of extra seating brought in. Enjoy the rugby! BOTH schools’ pipe bands will march on before kick-off, What an atmosphere!! this is going to be the ultimate send off Mr Jackson deserves. 49D, For the Brave … Black & White into Gold. KES will be bringing their A game, despite their ordeal v Gim, these guys have busted their guts, gotten up and downed R’bosch, Noordheuwel, last week PBHS, so expect a coherent, focused, disciplined and defiant Reds. Perfect day for schoolboy rugby. Go Reds, Go Black&White!
Prediction: rugby is the winner, Young South Africans the winner, Joburg’s best!
@RuggaFreak (Comment #8)
From what I understand last week was the conclusion of the concussion protocol he was hurt in the game against the bulls at craven week….. Eish this game again it really gets the blood boiling I won’t say anything about the people from the otherside of the valley …. really cannot believe how buddy buddy it is now…..for my mental health it would be nice if our kids won tomorrow that would mark quite a nice point of inflection in our history….. 62 wins to them 31 wins to us with 7 draws …… that would be 2 wins to them for every one of ours….. We almost never win 3 in row against them so that might be a far fetched dream for us. But the more interesting thing is the war stories. Last weekend after the DHS game it was a completely awesome experience to have a beer with the DHS old boys from all walks of life and the mutual respect was admirable. But the crowd from the otherside of the valley are always such a pain not gracious in defeat and insufferable pompus arrongance when they win. But outside of that the side stories are the joy for day Dale’s last home game as a headmaster and tons of us meeting up for re-unions. The results are more secondary nature to day.
@wanza_15 (Comment #7)
Nkambule had a concussion 2 weeks ago at Craven week, protocol is 2 weeks of no rugby before being allowed to play so he should play
Well well well, here we are again. Whilst I am a student of all this stuff, and well aware of eras, and how the all time head-to-head between the schools sits (I will not be mentioning it, stop holding your breath thank you lol) for me personally, it’ll be the 17th Jeppe-KES I’ve followed, first being in 2012, Jeppe 9 wins, KES 7, a draw, and then obviously the 2 years we didn’t play during COVID – barely anything in it! Hearing that Jarrel may be back for KES is the last thing I wanted to hear. For us, I didn’t get to see the DHS game but I understand Poulton and Nkambule both didn’t play? I was at the School on Sunday and got to speak with Joel Akilo who says they’ll be good for Saturday. Joel is a huge personality, funny guy, one of the grade 11s that made CW, and back next year. He was playing the human-sized chess by himself and I noticed him.
I see they were all buddy buddy having a picnic (or whatever) and playing house with each other on Monday evening in the Payne Hall as Brent shares, but I expect them to rise to the occasion on Saturday and understand fully the job at hand – nothing friendly on Saturday – we are very expectant this weekend.
@brentsw3 (Comment #5)
Special
https://www.facebook.com/100046318366166/posts/1450869133133685/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v
How good is this?
@Roger (Comment #3)
Roger, all I hope for is a relatively injury free run.
If there is a positive to take out of this seasons injury crisis, a number of boys, sometimes under duress, have earned caps and been exposed to 1st team rugby. I’m confident the benefits of this will be felt next season.
It’s also worth noting that this years 16A’s have been a revelation, turning over a number of results from 2023/2024, most noticeably back to back wins against PBHS and a home win against Jeppe. We’ll see this weekend if they can go back to back against Jeppe. The U16’s were well represented at this years Grant Khomo week with 6 boys being selected (tied highest with Monnas). The coach is a bit of a hothead, perhaps a bit unorthodox, perhaps a bit of a rough diamond, often battles to contain his emotions, but boy, one cannot question his passion and he’s getting decent mileage out of these kids. This age group were super competitive as U14s but often found themselves on the wrong end of tight matches losing half a dozen by 1 score. They didn’t fair much better as U15s and some might argue they regressed, but this year has seen a complete turn around. Their new 10, Connor Fourie coupled with the hot headed coach and this is a different team. I have loved watching them season (with the exception of Affies)!!
Now, back to your question:
I stand under correction but to the best of my knowledge….
capped players returning next year include Siya Nkomo (1), Dylan Budler (3) Adrian Barnard (4), Ashton Vreugdenburg (5/8), Josh Snyman (6), Taig David (9), Dan Soekoe (10), Josh Wilkinson (11), Sam Smith (12), Luyanda (11/15), Josh Eykelhoff (6), Jackson? (9/11)…
U16’s who are likely to feature strongly in next years wider 1st/2nd team squad include Diederick Kleyn (7), Mphande Mbatha (8), Asa Mgwatyu (13), Russel Mgiba (11), Pierre Crofton (9), Andries Vd Merwe (2), Naledi Phiri (5), Cody Greenfield (14/15), Sochi Ogidi (8/3), Konke Ntsepe (3).
Roger, no shortage of talent! They are going to COOK!
@brentsw3 (Comment #2)
I’m sure Beet means “who will lead KES rugby in 2026”
On that note Brent – who is back for 2026 (if not the coach)!! – how many grade 11’s in the team? If I recall, the U15’s from 2024 were a fairly decent age group?
Marco’s had his detractors over the years. 2 consecutive seasons in charge of an undefeated Lions academy side is a pretty good retort. I find he can be loyal to players, to a fault, picking them despite form. For the most part he gets his selections spot on but there have been exceptions.
I’ve heard the rumours but I really hope he stays.
All the best to both teams, a great rivalry. I see Jeppe taking this one by 10.