Monnas announces centenary rugby festival for 2021
Johan said they are excited to welcome the world's top rugby schools at Monnas.
Hoërskool Monument High, affectionately known as Monnas, has announced on their Facebook page that the Monnas Centenary Rugby Festival 2021 will be part of their centenary celebrations next year.
The rugby festival, which will be one of the highlights of the centenary celebrations at Monnas, will take place from 23 March 2021, with the final fixtures to be played on Monday, 5 April 2021.
SchoolSportsLive (SSL) will make all games during the festival available live on several platforms to ensure that schoolboy-rugby supporters worldwide are not excluded.The major attraction of the festival will feature 10 of the top rugby 1st XV teams from South Africa facing 10 top rugby schools from around the world.
Games will be played on 1, 3 and 5 April 2021, and the teams will play two games each.An U/13 festival will be held on 30 and 31 March and 1 April 2021 to which the best U/13 teams from South Africa are to be invited. The two top teams will play in the final as the main curtain-raiser for the 1stXV festival’s main game on the Thursday.
The festival will boast several firsts. All profits will be re-invested into South African schoolboy rugby while the secondary aim will be to support local businesses during the festival. Hopefully, it will help to soften the financial hardships the Krugersdorp community suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first meeting of the organising committee was attended by Monument’s principal, Johann Calitz together with Tjaart van der Walt (Head of Rugby), Bart Schoeman (chairperson of SA Schools Challenge Trust), Sean Erasmus and Chris Vorster (Group CEO of Stadio Holding and trustee of SA Schools Challenge Trust).
Johan said they are excited to welcome the world’s top rugby schools at Monnas. “We want to share with the world the school?s unique rugby traditions and achievements of the past 100 years. We want them to experience the true vibrant rugby atmosphere Monnas is known for.
“Bart confirmed that the main purpose of the Trust is to ensure that South African rugby-playing schools are the only beneficiaries of all activities the Trust participate in.
“The income derived from the Monnas Festival will be shared on an equal basis between Monnas and the SA Schools Challenge Trust.”
Tjaart said the ‘new’ concept of the festival will ensure that the South African schools will be tested to the maximum. “We aim to invite only the best schools in the world, with the emphasis on ‘best’ and ‘schools’. There will be no easy game for any of the South African schools in 2021.”
Sean, father of the idea to host an international schoolboy-rugby festival, is the surprise member of the organising committee.
“The dream of the first festival hosted in 2018 was to have the best schoolboy rugby on display.”
Sean said he is excited that the Monnas Centenary Rugby Festival will return to the ‘initial’ dream and will assist wherever he can.
Chris, a schoolboy-rugby fanatic, said the fact that the festival’s secondary aim is to support local business during the tournament is exciting and special.
“The expected influx of spectators and supporters will help a lot to soften the effect of the pandemic on our community.”
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