Humble beginnings

Nine years ago, research identified a gap in the schoolboy/student market and the concept of the Classic Clashes was born. FNB entered into this sponsorship/partnership, and initiated the FNB Classic Clashes concept with some 20 schools countrywide with ten games played during the season. Since then, that number has grown to an astounding 46 FNB Classic Clashes in 2010!

The FNB Classic Clashes concept was developed around traditional schoolboy rugby 'brawls', and FNB looked to steer their sponsorship focus to enhance these games. This sponsorship also allowed FNB the opportunity to develop relationships with each school, its teaching staff, the parents and the communities around the school.

It was soon recognised that schoolboy rugby had a great following and regularly drew crowds of between 1 000 and 20 000 strong!. The concept took off and nine years down the track FNB enjoys a rugby partnership with 90 schools countrywide.

Scope for development

FNB, being a Proudly South African bank, was keen to extend this concept to schools from various communities who played a good game of rugby and were highly competitive.

To this end, FNB has included the following schools on the FNB Classic Clashes fixture list:

• Ndzondelelo High in Port Elizabeth
• Itembelihle High, Zweliyandila High and Ntsonkotha High from East London
• New Orleans and Klein Nederburg in Paarl
• Weltevrede and Bergrivier from Wellington
• Schoonspruit and Wesbank both from Malmesbury
• Carlton van Heerden and AJ Ferreira in Upington
• Kasselsvlei and Bellville South from Cape Town

Making it their own

The FNB Classic Clashes not only targets the rugby game, but allow the different areas of each school to promote themselves and raise funds for particular projects, while providing a platform to attract spectators to a feast of rugby.

To add to the excitement, 5 live FNB Classic Clashes are broadcast on on DSTV’s SuperSport. The schools involved enjoy the coverage not only of the game, but have the opportunity to profile their school and their traditions. In addition to the live coverage on SuperSport, the FNB Classic Clashes magazine programme is broadcast every Monday night at 19h00 on SuperSport 1 from April to October and profiles 2 clashes per episode. The opportunities for these schools are immense!

Festivals of rugby

FNB also partners three Gauteng schools to host the Easter Rugby Festivals (King Edward VII, St John’s College and St Stithians College) which attract participation from some 36 schools countrywide. FNB sponsors the inclusion of a development team at each of these Easter Rugby Festivals, giving them the opportunity to be part of a festival that adds a new dimension to their rugby game. To make things even more exciting, each festival is covered on SuperSport.

Roving all over the land

In addition to the three Gauteng festivals, a roving festival has also been introduced, further entrenching the concept and showcasing it in other regions.

• The FNB Grey Bloemfontein Rugby Festival – part of their 150th Anniversary celebrations,
• The FNB Cape Schools Week – part of Selborne’s 100 year celebrations.
• The FNB Grey High School Rugby Festival – part of their 150th Anniversary celebrations
• The FNB Queen’s College 150th Rugby Festival – part of their 150th Anniversary celebrations

From boys to men

FNB decided early on to focus on taking schoolboy rugby that much further by developing young talent for the platform of student rugby. The bank initially partnered two traditional rugby playing universities – the University of Stellenbosch (Maties) and the University of Pretoria (Tukkies). This sponsorship encompassed the university rugby club, the koshuis league, the development programme run by the university and the branding of their particular stadium. FNB initially sponsored five major inter-varsity clashes, but moved on to the FNB Super Bowl which evolved into the FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International and is now involved with 8 rugby playing universities

• University of Stellenbosch (Maties)
• University of Pretoria (Tukkies)
• University of North West – Potchefstroom (Pukke)
• University of Johannesburg (UJ)
• Free State University (Shimlas)
• Tshwane University of Technology (TUT)
• University of Cape Town (Ikeys)
• Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU)

For more information on these exciting events and how to get involved, have a look at the www.varsitycup.co.za site.