Premier Interschools: Preview for DHS vs Maritzburg

 Durban High School vs Maritzburg College Historic Overview

The first match of the Premier Interschools  for the season kicks off in the last outpost for a very traditional derby between Durban High School and Maritzburg College at DHS. The first match between these two schools was played in 1910 and College came out on the winning side, taking victory by 5-0. From 1913 the derbies between College and School consisted of two annual formats on a home and away basis with College dominating the earlier exchanges. In the 1920’s DHS started coming more into their own as they won 11 out of 15 matches during the period 1922 to 1931. From the 1930’s up to 1970’s the matches were very evenly spread with no school dominating the other. From the early 1970’s up into the late 1980’, College started dominating the era with only two losses to DHS in 30 matches. Since the late 2000’s they have started to play each other only once in a season again.

Results of the last ten years:

Rugby at DHS

DHS has a proud rugby tradition, but the school is more known for producing legendary Springboks and Proteas cricketers like the Pollocks and Hashim Amla. Rugby, however, has not taken a back seat and through the years they managed to produce numerous formidable players for the KwaZulu Natal Craven Week teams and the Natal senior rugby teams. To date they produced four Springboks with Jacko Todd the first from the school to represent the Springboks as left wing in a Test match against the All Blacks in 1928. It took another 69 years before their next Springbok, Andrew Aitken, took to the field against France in 1997. They produced two further Springboks when BJ Botha debuted against New-Zealand in August 2006 and the latest in Alistair Hargreaves who debuted against Wales in June 2010. Their latest young star playing for the Sharks is Phendulani “Phepsi” Buthelezi. This young man could well be DHS’s fifth Springbok in the near future.

Rugby at Maritzburg College

Maritzburg College is traditionally the dominant school rugby force in KwaZulu-Natal. The first recorded rugby match in Natal took place in the Market Square of Pietermaritzburg in October 1870. The contestants were Maritzburg College (then known as Pietermaritzburg High School) and Hermansburg School. Played on a sun-baked, wheel-rutted, gravel surface, the contest lasted more than three hours and ended in a victory for the High School by two goals to nil.

The arrival of James Mervyn (Skonk) Nicholson as a master at Maritzburg College, signalled a revival in the school’s rugby fortunes. From 1948 he coached the First XV for 35 consecutive seasons, until 1982. In 1949 the First XV was unbeaten, as were ten other teams of his, while a further thirteen First XVs during that period lost only one match each.

List of Springboks

Their latest contribution to the Springbok legacy is prop Ntuthukho Mchunu who debuted for the Boks against Wales on 9^th July 2022 at the Free State Stadium.

In addition, several College Old Boys have represented other countries: Hubert Freakes and Geoff Appleford (England), Juan Grobler and Chad Erskine (United States), Brenton Catterall (Zimbabwe), Wim Visser (Italy), Frank Goedeke (Germany) and Andrew Binikos (Cyprus).

The first netball match of the Premier Interschools season also kicks off in Durban with Durban Girls College taking on Pietermaritzburg Girls High.

The rugby and netball derbies will be broadcast live on Saturday, 25 March from at 10:55 and 13h55 on SuperSport Schools (channel 216)

Media release issued by Terras Communications on behalf of Premier Interschools.

For press assistance contact Lauren Terras on +27 82 785 2644 or e-mail [email protected]

FOR TOURNAMENT INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Robert Blair, Operations Manager Premier Interschools Pty Ltd.

Telephone: +27 (0)79 588 3703

Email: [email protected]