Max Tripepi – Durban High School Captain

Player Profile

Durban High School (DHS) travel down the Ridge Road to Glenwood on Saturday for an eagerly awaited FNB Classic Clash. Of Italian decent Max - he was christened Massimo - Tripepi captains DHS from the back of the scrum.

The Italian connection is still alive and well in the Tripepi household. Max’s father still does business in Italy and his brother has played rugby in Italy. Max even speaks some Italian.

Max Tripepi was born in Durban on 9 April 1988 and attended DHS Prep School. He is currently in Grade 12 and is a school prefect. He lives at home with his parents.

Max played for the North-Natal regional Under-12 and Under-13 teams but has not represented KwaZulu Natal at any age group level. An injury prevented him from playing this year’s final Craven Week trials, meaning he will go no further than his older brother did.

Max is playing in his third year in the 1st XV having begun as an Under-16 in 2004. He rates his positional play as excellent and his ball carrying and leadership abilities as good. His rugby hero is an excellent one in New Zealand skipper Richie McCaw, arguably the best loose forward in the world.  

Max says DHS have a well-balanced team this season with a very good spirit. They are in the middle of a good season with only two losses to date, one a disappointing, according to Max, 23-24 defeat by Affies and the other to King Edward VII (KES). Their best result to date is their win over Glenwood at home a few weeks ago. 

With the schools so close together the rivalry between the teams is intense and Saturday's game is the biggest of the season, although Max is particularly looking forward to their one-off encounters against Kearsney and Michaelhouse later in the season.

Varsity College and the Sharks Academy offer two scholarships to Grade 12 pupils at DHS every year and Max is hoping to obtain one of these for 2007. If not he will still study at Varsity College but ply his trade at DHS Old Boys instead. When he has finished studying project or sports management he wants to go and play rugby in England or Italy.

Having lost previously Glenwood are really up for this one but Max Tripepi was oozing confidence when we spoke to him early in the week. Let's hope his players feed off that confidence in what could be a fiery cauldron come Saturday afternoon!

For a general profile of DHS, click here.