Jeppe resumes its relationship with Durban High School (DHS) this weekend after a 13-year break.
DHS are one of our oldest rugby rivals. The schools began playing each other in 1938 and met just about every year after that until the fixture was dropped in 2010. For most of that time, the games were part of a double header fixture involving Jeppe and KES playing DHS and, at first Northlands High School, and later Northwood. The games alternated between Durban and Johannesburg annually and were played on the Ascension Day long weekend.
After Ascension Day was removed from the calendar of public holidays it became more and more difficult to fit the fixtures in and they were dropped. The relationship with Northwood resumed a few years agio and now, thankfully, DHS is back.
It used to be a first teams only affair at first, but this year sees a full sports exchange between the two schools, involving a couple of hundred boys, across a range of sports and other activities.
Because those earlier meetings involved 1st teams only, the school magazines from those years didn’t always publish their results. So, although there have been more than 70 rugby encounters, we only have 58 results on record and, of those DHS has won 41 and Jeppe just 15, making them one of the opponents that we have enjoyed the least success against.
Hockey was never part of those early tours, so there have been only 11 games between the schools since 1970, with Jeppe winning eight, and three draws.
A new era begins this weekend. Recent results show that the 1st team hockey and rugby games are likely to be epic encounters. We are looking forward to welcoming a sizeable contingent of boys and staff from Durban in Kensington, from tomorrow.
