On any given Saturday in winter, you’ll find Johannesburg’s schools coming together for rugby matches. What’s special about these matches is the community that comes out to be part of the tradition. Alumni and their families and friends come out in numbers to soak up the vibe, making rugby matches some of the most popular things to do on a Saturday in Johannesburg.
In one of the biggest clashes of the season, around 10 000 people turn up to watch Jeppe High School for Boys take on their arch rivals King Edward VII School. With these numbers, the entire neighborhood is parked up for miles around, the schools filled to capacity. Both these schools use the game weekend for their alumni reunions, as well as a kind of informal prospective open day - seeing the schools at their best.
It’s a tradition that goes back the better part of a century, these being two of Johannesburg’s oldest schools. Part of the tradition is the smell of boerewors rolls being braaied (barbecued over charcoal), the sound of pipe bands and war cries, the exhausted players stopping to eat orange skyfies (segments) on the crisp winter grass at half-time.
