{"id":31071,"date":"2023-12-05T20:47:04","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T18:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=31071"},"modified":"2023-12-05T20:47:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T18:47:04","slug":"exciting-tweaks-for-2024-graeme-rugby-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=31071","title":{"rendered":"Exciting tweaks for 2024 Graeme Rugby Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Graeme College<\/strong> have tweaked the format of their annual rugby festival for 2024, but it, as always, still offers up a series of mouth-watering clashes to herald the start of the schools season next year.<\/p>\n

What was once the Graeme Rugby Day, played over a Saturday in mid-March, has become a multi-day festival of the sport, providing the perfect platform for Eastern Cape teams to gauge their status for the forthcoming season.<\/p>\n

The 2024 festival takes place from 14-16 March in Makhanda<\/strong>, but the region\u2019s first teams will be in action only on Friday and Saturday (15-16 March).<\/p>\n

Graeme 1st XV coach and festival organiser Jonty van der Meulen<\/strong> explained the format in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially we planned to run the festival on the same lines as 2023, where we split the first team matches over three days, and some teams played twice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it then came to light that Bishops<\/strong> are holding a festival to celebrate their 175th anniversary<\/strong>, the next weekend, and there is also the North-South<\/strong> Tournament<\/strong> that weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is followed by the annual Easter festivals around the country and many of the teams were a little concerned at having too heavy a workload at this stage of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what we have done, is to provide the first teams with just one game each, playing on the Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we will still have three days of rugby because the age-group matches (from u14 to u16) will take place on Thursday and Friday on the Somerset<\/strong> and Marais<\/strong> fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have done this because of the u13 festival on the Saturday, which will take place on the Marais fields.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with a slightly abbreviated programme, the festival will still deliver an exciting start to the season, with all of the Eastern Cape\u2019s top schools in action. A number of fascinating contests catch the eye.<\/p>\n

As is their way, Graeme have not shied away from setting themselves a proper challenge and they will wind up the festival against the always powerful Selborne College<\/strong> on the Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

In fact, that match is a repeat of the finale to the 2022 Rugby Day, when the teams played to a 7-7 stalemate. No doubt, both will be motivated to complete unfinished business when their March date rolls around.<\/p>\n

The first team matches on Friday throw up some intriguing encounters, finishing off with a clash between Grey High<\/strong> and East London’s Hudson Park<\/strong>, which was also on the 2022 programme.<\/p>\n

On that occasion, the Gqeberha school enjoyed a 27-7 win, but the rematch presents a golden opportunity for Hudson Park to make a statement against one of the region\u2019s perennial powers.<\/p>\n

In the build-up to that match, Kingswood<\/strong> and Marlow<\/strong> have all the ingredients for a serious showdown, while running rugby will be the main drawcard of the clash between Dale<\/strong> and Nico Malan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After a good 2023 season, Queen\u2019s<\/strong> will be aiming for a positive start to 2024 against Pearson<\/strong> in a Saturday clash, while St Andrew\u2019s<\/strong> and Brandwag<\/strong> should deliver a proper arm-wrestle in the main curtain-raiser.<\/p>\n

FIXTURES<\/strong><\/p>\n

15 March, Somerset Field<\/strong><\/p>\n

09:00: Graeme 2nd v Port Alfred High 1st; 10.30: Port Rex v Mary Waters; 11.45: Union High v
\nDaniel Pienaar; 13:00: Kingswood v Marlow; 14:15: Dale v Nico Malan; 15:30: Grey High v
\nHudson Park<\/p>\n

16 March, Somerset Field<\/strong>
\n10.30: Cambridge v Muir; 11.45: Stirling v Framesby; 13:00: Queen\u2019s v Pearson; 14:15: St Andrew\u2019s v Brandwag; 15:30: Graeme v Selborne<\/p>\n

Age-Group Fixtures<\/strong><\/p>\n

14 March, Somerset Field<\/strong><\/p>\n

09:00: Graeme u14A v Selborne; 10:00: Mary Waters u15A v Port Alfred; 11:00: Graeme u15A
\nv Selborne; 12.00: Pearson u16A v Port Rex; 13:00: Brandwag u16A v Cambridge; 14:00: Stirling u16A v Muir; 15:00: Graeme u16A v Selborne<\/p>\n

14 March, Marais A Field<\/strong><\/p>\n

10am: Brandwag u14A v Cambridge; 11:00: Stirling u14A v Muir; 12:00: Stirling u15A v Muir; 13:00: Pearson u14A v Port Rex; 14:00: Brandwag u15A v Cambridge; 15:00: Pearson u15A v Port Rex<\/p>\n

15 March, Marais A Field<\/strong><\/p>\n

09:00: Nico Malan u14A v Dale; 10:00: Kingswood u15A v Marlow; 11:00: Nico Malan u16A v
\nDale; 12:00: Union High u16A v Daniel Pienaar; 13:00: Queen\u2019s u14A v Framesby; 14:00:
\nQueen\u2019s u16A v Framesby<\/p>\n

15 March, Marais B Field<\/strong><\/p>\n

09:00: Union High u14A v Daniel Pienaar; 10:00: Nico Malan u15A v Dale; 11:00: Kingswood
\nu14A v Marlow; 12:00: Union High u15A v Daniel Pienaar; 13:00: Queen\u2019s u15A v Framesby;
\n14:00: Kingswood u16A v Marlow<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graeme College have tweaked the format of their annual rugby festival for 2024, but it, as always, still offers up a series of mouth-watering clashes to herald the start of the schools season next year. What was once the Graeme Rugby Day, played over a Saturday in mid-March, has become a multi-day festival of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":31072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}