Ahead of the much anticipated annual Uplands/Penryn derby, the latter played host to the annual Imperial Toyota Nelspruit ISRF 2019 last weekend.

ISG Pumas off to a winning start

The ISRF (Independent Schools Rugby Festival) started in 2017 when independent schools from across the country saw the necessity of not only competing with other schools in their sphere, but to do so in a festival atmosphere to take emphasis away from winning as the sole purpose.
The first festival was held at St Andrew’s School.

The host school is always an independent school, which then invites a public school to the festival to make up the numbers and to carry over the traditions of Independent Schools Rugby to public schools.

In this case, the public school was Hoërskool Lydenburg. Along with the latter, Uplands and Penryn, Cornwall Hill College (Pretoria), Glenwood House (George) and St Andrew’s School (Bloemfontein) took to Penryn David Wylde Founder Field.
Even though winning is not the sole purpose, players still fought tooth and nail for bragging rights. Lydenburg were undefeated, and beat Cornwall, Uplands and Penryn convincingly.

The hosts narrowly beat Glenwood on day one, 16-13, but ran into trouble against St Andrew’s on day two and Lydenburg on day three.
Uplands beat St Andrew’s on day one, and Glenwood on day three, which will make things interesting during their clash this weekend, hosted by Penryn.

“Uplands is looking forward to the first of two derby fixtures with Penryn College. This week we travel to Penryn, hoping to maximise the potential of our rugby, hockey, netball, tennis, debating and chess teams, after a period of considered preparation. “The derbies are intense, with lots of noise and emotion. While seeking to thrive off the positive energy of this, we also wish for games to be played in the right spirit, and for an opportunity to maintain our strong relationship,” said Uplands’ head of communication, Sandile Maluleke.

“It’s that time of the year where we come together for a festive, family-friendly weekend of sport. The Penyn-Uplands Derby is a calendar favourite for both schools to test our mettle against teams from a rival school – this time much closer to home. This derby is the first of two, with the first one being hosted at Penryn this weekend and the second one being hosted at Uplands on May 17 and 18.

”This particular derby is very close to our hearts. There is a lot of excitement leading up towards the Penryn-Uplands Derby. Our scholars so look forward to the opportunity to play against their peers at Uplands, but more importantly to make memories and to be part of the incredible spirit and camaraderie of the day,” said Albert Pienaar, Penryn College head.

Here are some of the action captured by Stefan de Villiers