As they say, teamwork makes the dreamwork. Spectators arriving this morning at the final day of the 2026 Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival would have been largely unaware of the extraordinary overnight recovery to clear the devastation caused by high winds and 30mm of rain from last night’s tornado that hit Botha’s Hill and surrounding areas.
Plumbers worked through the night clearing blocked drains and removing debris from the main water systems; maintenance crews pumped water from the medical centre and changerooms; sponsors’ marquees were reinstated; and hay bales were strategically placed in technical and high-traffic areas to stabilise ground conditions.
DAY 3: FIRST GAME
HOERSKOOL TRANSVALIA 7– HOERSKOOL FRAMESBY 10
Grey skies, cool conditions and a pristine Stott Field pitch greeted Hoërskool Transvalia and Hoërskool Framesby on Easter Monday at the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival (KERF), thanks to work done deep into the night by the grounds crew after a major overnight storm.
Framesby, rejuvenated after a win over Glenwood High on Saturday, took it to Transvalia early, keeping the Vanderbijlpark side pinned deep inside their half for the first eight minutes of the clash.
After a bit of back and forth in the middle of the park, they eventually reaped a reward midway through the opening stanza. From a lineout, they were repelled through eight phases, but they were over at the first attempt from the next lineout, through flank Josh Potgieter.
Miles Feltham turned it into a seven-point play with a neat conversion from wide on the left. Having fallen behind, Transvalia upped their game, forcing play down into Framesby’s 22. A 20-metre rolling maul got them close, but the ball was lost forward as the red-jerseyed side attempted to dot down.
They spurned another opportunity a minute from the break, outflanking Framesby wide on the right, but the final pass was spilt.
Right on cue at halftime, the Botha’s Hill mist rolled in, and light rain began to fall. Players on the opposite side of the field vanished in the soupy mix.
Picking up from where they had left off, Transvalia surged onto the attack. They were almost over from a lineout but were held up over the try line.
Five minutes in, they finally broke through when their burly centre Lorenzo Flynn forced his way over. Chester MacCammel slotted the conversion, and the sides were level at 7-7.
Framesby was almost over shortly after that, but a grubber over the try line was knocked on by 8th-man David Matyani in a furious race with a covering defender to the ball. In the difficult conditions, points were hard to come by. Framesby, arguably, made the wrong call when they won a penalty and kicked to touch instead of taking a shot at goal from 36 metres out. They went with the same option five minutes from time, but that, too, went to waste.
In the last minute, with the conditions clear once more, when Framesby won another penalty inside the 22, flyhalf Miles Feltham pointed towards the uprights.
With a win on the line, he nailed the kick, and the Gqberha boys, thumped 83-0 by Westville Boys’ High on the opening day, finished KERF with back-to-back wins.
Scores
Transvalia 7 (0) Tries: Lorenzo Flynn. Conversion: Chester MacCammel
Framesby 10 (7) Tries: Josh Potgieter. Conversion: Miles Feltham. Penalty: Miles Feltham
