The final game on the first day of the festival between Grey College and HTS Middelburg was blown by international referee Craig Joubert, until he went off just before half-time with a hamstring twinge. Early pressure by Grey resulted in a try by centre Gerrie Koegelenberg, converted by fly-half Mario Vieira, for a 7-0 lead which eventually resulted in a thrilling 22-19 victory.
Middelburg then scored one of the best tries of the day when flank JC Pretorius handled a number of times in a move that swept downfield. He finished off the movement scoring just to the left of the uprights. Fullback Francois de Villiers converted to level the scores.
Speedster Dian Gouws, on the right wing for Grey, had a good run down the touchline and fullback Jandre de Beer was on hand to finish off with a try for Grey. Just before half-time wing Dawid Snyman cut his way through the Middelburg defensive line to score under the poles. A successful conversion by Vieira took them to a halftime lead of 19-7.
The second half saw HTS Middelburg rallying and enjoying some good phases. Prop JP Mans dived over from a ruck for HTS Middelburg’s second try, to close the gap to 12-19. A concerted effort on the try-line then saw flank Pretorius score his second try with two minutes remaining. Brandon Par-Bailey converted to level the score at 19-19.
In the final seconds, Grey was awarded a penalty close to the half-way line which was converted by Vieira for a narrow 22-19 win for Grey.
This ended a tremendous first day with plenty of movement resulting in some good tries and setting the scene for another great day on Saturday.
Unlike the first four matches, the game between local side Glenwood and Framesby from Port Elizabeth saw a clean sheet at the end of the first half. Mistakes by both teams and good defence prevented either side from putting points on the board.
In the second half it was Glenwood, who in all likelihood had received a tongue-lashing from their coach Rudi Dames, that started to dominate at the phases.
Their first try came after five minutes when eighth man Marco Palvie sniped over for a try, which was well converted by fly-half Jerome Bossr, for a 7-0 lead.
The ascendancy of the Glenwood
An assistant referee call saw the first yellow card of the festival against a Glenwood player in one of the rucks that led to their try. Despite this they continued to apply pressure on Framesby and came close to scoring.
A ruck on the half-way line resulted in Palvie coming away with the ball and his 50m run resulted in a try under the crossbar, for his hat-trick of tries. The conversion was missed but the lead stretched to 19-0 with five minutes remaining.
A second yellow card, this time against a Framesby player, saw 14 players unable to stop a rumbling drive by the Glenwood forwards which resulted in flank Austin Brummer diving over. The difficult conversion this time was converted by Bossr.
A final try was scored in injury time by wing Ilunga Mukendi for a 31-0 win.
The match between two of the giants of Gauteng rugby, Affies from Pretoria and Dr EG Jansen from the East Rand, was expected to be a very close contest. In the physical encounter Affies ran away with the game with six tries to win 41-5.
Affies opened the scoring after two minutes with a penalty by centre Henco Jordaan. The two big packs of forwards then cut and thrust until the EG Jansen forwards scored with a maul from a line-out. The conversion was missed but they led 5-3.
After the Affies centre had fallen just short of the try-line, the ball from the ruck was moved quickly to Louritz van der Schyff who went over in the corner. With the conversion by Jordaan successful, Affies led 10-5.
Jordaan then charged down a relieving kick and fullback Pieter Coetzer beat the defenders to the ball to add another five points to the total. Just before half-time a try by Jordaan, after a movement with backs and forwards combining, resulted in another try for Affies to lead 20-5 at the break.
In the second half it was all Affies as EG Jansen did their best to curb the waves of attack by their opposition. Wing Jacobus van Staden scored two tries within two minutes, both converted by Eddie Fouche, for a 34-5 lead.
In the final minutes of the game, Van der Schyff scored under the uprights, again converted by Fouche, for a final 41-5 win.
The third game saw local side Westville taking on festival newcomers Menlo Park from Pretoria. In a cracking and exciting game Westville narrowly won 27-25 on full-time.
Westville spent much of the first 20 minutes defending. It was Menlo that went ahead in the third minute when centre Stean Pienaar cut through the defence to score and with the conversion by full-back Andell Loubser successful, an early seven point lead.
Westville struck back almost immediately when fullback Shane Ball ran down the left touchline to score. Menlo’s inside centre Wayne van der Bank then scored to leave the Gauteng visitors 12-5 in the lead; which was increased to 15-5 following a drop goal by fly-half Brian Bouwer.
For the second time Westville struck back when Ball scored his second try with a kick ahead and pace to beat the Menlo defender to the ball. Centre James Wheeler then left the defenders behind with a run of 40m. Craig Schlemmer converted to leave Westville 17-15 in front at half-time.
They increased their lead to 24-15 after wing Tonny Mahlangu scored in the first few minutes of the second half. Once again it was converted by Schlemmer.
The drama was yet to come. Loubser converted a penalty to narrow the gap to six points. A good move by Menlo saw Loubser combining well with his two centres to go over under the poles and convert the try to leave Menlo 25-24 in front with just a few minutes remaining.
A crucial penalty to Westville on fulltime saw Schlemmer hold his nerve and convert from 40m out, for Westville to win 27-25.
The second match on the first day of the festival was between South Africa’s oldest school SACS and Dale College, the latter which traditionally plays an exciting brand of rugby. It was SACS debut match at this premier schools Easter festival.
In their 153rd year of rugby and wearing the blue and white hoops that gave Western Province their colours, SACS opened the scoring when flank Dylan Hadzigrigoriou came up with the ball, following a maul that collapsed over the try-line.
The visitors from Cape Town followed up with a second try by hooker Liam Larkin, this time converted by fly-half Jordan Chait, for a 12-0 lead. Chait increased the lead to 15-0 following a penalty.
Dale gradually started winning more ball and their flair was exhibited when a good line movement ended with centre Jonathan Booysen going over near the corner flag. This left SACS 15-5 ahead at the half-time whistle.
After a closer second half, SACS again opened the scoring with a try from James Brewer which Chait again converted, to increase their lead to 22-5.
Dale eventually scored their second try just before full-time, when Steyn scored and converted, to leave SACS 22-12 surprise winners.
pack saw them having territorial advantage and the second try was again scored by Palvie after continuous pressure on the Framesby try-line. A more difficult conversion saw Bossr split the uprights for a 14-0 lead.
The opening game of the eighth annual Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival took place in ideal conditions between the hosts and East London visitors Selborne College. The latter with a heavy pack of forwards and an electrifying three quarter line, had too many skills for the home side, to eventually win.
Kearsney opened the scoring with a try by hooker Joshua van Vuuren, when he found his way over under the poles. Fly-half Cameron Richie added the extra points for Kearsney to lead 7-0.
The pace of right wing Tristian Coetzer saw him run 40m rounding the defence, to score close to the uprights. The conversion was missed, but Selborne had narrowed the gap to 5-7. Left wing Thakga Boloko followed this a few minutes later to score in the left corner to take the lead to 10-7.
As the half progressed, so Selborne began dominating the exchanges and Coetzer broke the Kearsney defensive line to pass to flank Heinrich Nieuwenhuizen, who showed a fine turn of speed to score under the crossbar. This time Andile Koyana made sure of the conversion to take his side into a lead of 17-7 at half-time.
Early in the second half the 126kg prop Daniel Voigt used his weight to force his way over following a ruck on the Kearsney line. This was converted by scrumhalf Joshua Alderman for a 24-7 lead.
Kearsney had their chances but mistakes cost them the last four tries scored by Selborne. A kick ahead by fullback Michael Botha after a Kearsney mistake saw him beat the defence to the touchdown. Centre David Brits then again capitalised on a Kearsney error while on attack, to score the sixth try. Two further tries followed, both by Botha, in the left corner ensuring Selborne were convincing 48-7 victors in the first game of the festival.
Scorers:
Selborne College 48 – Tries: Michael Botha (3), Tristian Coetzer, Thakga Boloko, Heinrich Nieuwenhuizen, Daniel Voigt, David Brits. Conversions: Joshua Aldermann (3), Andile Koyana. Kearsney College 7 – Try: Joshua van Vuuren. Conversion: Cameron Richie.
SACS 22 – Tries: D Hadzigrigoriou, L Larkin, J Brewer. Conversion: J Chait (2). Penalty: Chait. Dale College 12 – Tries: J Booysen, Morgan Steyn. Conversion: Steyn.
Pretoria Boys’ High bagged their first victory of the St. Stithian’s College Easter Festival with their 22-12 victory of Windhoek High School from Namibia. 
In the fourth match of the second day, Affies took on SACS and it looked like men against boys, as Affies out-sized and out-weighed the smaller Cape Town team. But in what developed into a fantastic game for the large crowd, one of the festival’s most fancied sides upset the Western Cape newcomers.
In the Beeldtrofee final re-match, between Nelspruit Rhinos and Garsfontein, at the St. John’s College Easter Festival in Johannesburg the Rhinos came out on top by 28-16 thanks to a brace of tries in short succesion by winger, Eduan Engelbrecht. 
St. Andrew’s College of Grahamstown got their campaign at the St. Stithian’s College Easter Festival off to a winning start by beating St. Alban’s College of Pretoria 31-12 in the opening match of the oldest Easter Festival in the country. The team from the Eastern Cape lead by 14-5 at the break.