Noord-Suid Rugby Tournament

The Noord-Suid Rugby Tournament is South African schools rugby's great geographical showdown, one of the country's two premier festivals, where the giants of the north cross the divide to meet the powerhouses of the south. Since its first edition in 2014 it has become the fixture list that shapes the national conversation: Grey College, Affies, the Paarl schools, Paul Roos, Garsfontein and Jeppe measuring themselves against one another before the winter season begins in earnest.

For its first decade the tournament belonged to the north, hosted by Waterkloof, Menlopark, Garsfontein and then Affies in Pretoria, before Paul Roos carried it south for the first time in 2025 to the famed Markotter fields in Stellenbosch. Each school plays two first-team fixtures across the long weekend, with second teams in action alongside, and the results echo through the season: Jeppe's famous 22-19 upset of Grey College in 2024 remains one of modern schoolboy rugby's great shocks.

Entry is earned, not bought. The organisers admit schools on the depth and sustainability of their entire rugby programmes rather than the strength of a single team, a philosophy that has kept standards ferocious as the tournament grows. Under the NMI Toyota banner, Noord-Suid has become the stage where Craven Week reputations are forged and future Springboks first announce themselves to the whole country at once.