Parents chastised for ‘displays of opulence' on rugby touchline

Times

6 days ago

The headmaster of South Africa's most expensive school has urged parents to 'ditch the opulence' after sofas and liveried waiters were spotted at the side of the rugby pitch during a match against its closest rival.
In a letter to Hilton College parents and old boys, George Harris said he had noticed that the rivalry with Michaelhouse was drawing as much effort off the field as on it, with a 'growing tendency towards one-upmanship in the scale of hosting and catering'.
'When hospitality and generosity become self-serving displays of opulence, they begin to pull us away from who we aspire to be as a community,' Harris, who joined the school in 2017, wrote in a note that has circulated on social media.
Security staff had also reported verbal abuse from spectators and 'growing levels of aggression and entitlement', the headmaster said, highlighting a 'distressing' amount of litter. Refusal to comply with parking guidelines had resulted in a jam that took two hours to clear.
Billed as the oldest uninterrupted schoolboy rugby rivalry in South Africa, the Hilton–Michaelhouse derby in KwaZulu-Natal province has been contested since 1904. The fixture is played twice a year, home and away.
In a blunt message printed in the programme for the latest clash, hosted by Hilton on June 21, Harris wrote: 'Let's allow the boys to play — unhindered.'
Following the match, which his school won 29-20, Harris appealed to parents and former pupils to make simpler plans for next season 'and determine to ditch the opulence in favour of a wholesome hospitality devoid of showmanship and loud extravagance'.
Peter Storrar, from Hilton's staff, told South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper that the response to the principal's letter had been 'overwhelmingly positive'.
Richard Bates, president of the Michaelhouse Old Boys' Club, said it also backed 'a move away from displays of excess', such as restricting spectators to bringing only what they can carry themselves to matches.
Hilton College, near Pietermaritzburg, was founded in 1872 by William Newnham, a British teacher and cleric, and Gould Lucas, a naval officer who had survived the wreck of HMS Birkenhead, which sank off the coast of South Africa in 1852. Its annual fees for boarding and tuition are £17,500.
Michaelhouse was founded nearby in 1896. Both schools have produced a number of players who have gone on to play for the Springboks, the national rugby side.