Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival

The Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival, KERF to the schools rugby public, is KwaZulu-Natal's showpiece Easter gathering, hosted by Kearsney College at Botha's Hill in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. Across three match days on the College's Stott and Roberts Fields, the province's leading sides meet visitors from across South Africa and beyond, with Durban High School, Westville, Glenwood and the hosts carrying local pride against heavyweights from Gauteng, the Cape and touring sides from as far afield as Zimbabwe and Ireland.

Few festivals have grown with such purpose. Recent editions have welcomed a record twenty-eight teams, pairing a dozen first XVs with a full primary schools programme, and in 2025 KERF became one of the first major festivals to add under-16 girls' fixtures to its bill, a deliberate statement about where the game is heading. The rugby itself is strength against strength, and the festival has become a reliable stage for the province's best: DHS left Botha's Hill unbeaten three years running through 2026.

Renowned as one of the best-organised events on the calendar, KERF is equal parts sporting occasion and community gathering, packed banks above the fields, launch days with Sharks royalty in attendance, and an organising machine famous enough to clear the wreckage of an overnight tornado and still kick off on time the next morning.