Over-aged players shame SA schools rugby
1 Jun 2012
GARETH DUNCAN reports on the KZN over-age saga that shocked the national schools rugby scene.
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Last weekend, reports emerged that several KZN schoolboys were found to be older than the U18 and U19 age-group school and provincial teams they were selected for. One of the players was reported to be 22 years old.
These players presented fake birth certificates upon high school enrollment. However, KZN head of high school rugby Noel Ingle confirmed that one schoolboy was caught out when a particular school was compiling matric entries. A provincial investigation followed.
The KZN High Schools Rugby Association, with the support of the local schools, employed an immigration expert to carry out a verification process. This was to ensure that no players representing the province or their respective schools at any level were over age.
Siyabonga Tom
No names have officially been released, but keo.co.za’s Schoolboy Derby has it on good authority that two of these schoolboys were Glenwood captain and wing Siyabonga Tom and DHS fullback Mbembe Payi. Both players hail from Port Elizabeth and were granted sport bursaries to attend the respective schools. They both played 1st XV rugby and are KZN U18 Craven Week representatives.
Tom also made the SA Schools team and started against France U18 in last year’s Tri-Nations curtain-raiser in PE. He was then selected for the SA U18 Sevens side that competed at the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games in the Isle of Man. However, he was dropped from the latter squad as he didn’t possess an ID or passport to make the trip to Europe.
Tom and Payi have left their respective schools since being exposed and are reportedly ‘missing’. They were also absent from the Glenwood-DHS clash in Durban last Saturday, which was televised on SuperSport.
Ingle, who couldn’t confirm the names of the players or schools being investigated, said the matter was being dealt with accordingly.
‘Schools that have over-age players have been informed,’ Ingle told this site. ‘Individual schools have dealt with these matters internally in good faith, and due process will take place.
‘The schools that have been mentioned in the press are not the only schools that found over-age players in their teams. It would be injudicious of me to mention either the player’s names or the names of the schools.
‘We have completed a verification process,’ he continued. ‘The problem is not widespread, but nevertheless, one over-age player is a serious matter. The consequences of serious injury due to an over-age player are too horrendous to contemplate.’
Sharks Academy operations manager Roelof Kotze, who was the SA U18 Sevens squad’s team manager during Commonwealth Youth Games, suggested that this is a national problem.
‘If it happened in KZN, you better believe this is happening in other regions too,’ said Kotze. ‘Players, parents and even agents will do anything for the best opportunities to secure a professional rugby career.
‘There are steps that can be put in place to help solve this matter, but this problem is so sensitive. Players will start accusing each other, and innocent players who are accused will complain. We need input from a national union to sort out this mess.’
Saru does not officially manage school matters, but these are monitored by the South Africa Schools Rugby Association (Sasra).
Sasra acting chairman Thys Bezuidenhout stated that these incidents were ‘highly upsetting’ and he was dumbfounded how these players escaped the national verification procedures.
‘When a player is selected for the junior provincial weeks, they have to fill out a form with their birth certificates or ID copies attached,’ said Bezuidenhout. ‘These are then verified through Saru, who pass these on to home affairs to be checked. So how these players managed to get away with it in the first place is a big mystery.
‘I last heard of an over-age incident during the U18 Craven Week five years ago, when two boys were caught out. Since then, we haven’t had any issues.
‘Hopefully we will be able to resolve this incident. The necessary action will be taken.’
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130 Comments
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1 Jun 2012, 05:24 am
Cheating Dragons
1 Jun 2012, 06:05 am
Hang on.
I was told that SA rugby does not cheat, its just the All Blacks.
Makes you wonder , i mean Smit and Matfield could have really been 45 years old.
And another thing, are these there real names?
Matfield could have been named at birth Victor Jake “the muss” Heke and Smit could have been named John ” Im beeched as bro” Smit.
Hmmm you would never know
1 Jun 2012, 07:06 am
I knew it!!!!
Lambie looks to be at least 38yr’s old!!!
1 Jun 2012, 07:14 am
Disgusting. I wonder how many more “schoolboy” stars of tomorrow there are out there…
1 Jun 2012, 07:32 am
Yeah investigate Lambie. I reckon he is about 25.
1 Jun 2012, 07:34 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-2:
Imagine how good they would have been in ther 20s then.Maybe the two that were caught are actually kiwis.makes you think.
1 Jun 2012, 07:39 am
Two things that strike me with this news;
1. The EC is the breadbasket of corruption. Fkcukers there will do anything to make a quick bug. One of those PE pricks actually accepted the capaincy of his U18 team and the other doos accepted an all expense paid holiday at the expense of a real boy.
2. Those sharkievarkie school pricks will do anything to become competative at junior levels. Even if it means turning a blind eye to corruption and fraud. Filth the lot of them.
1 Jun 2012, 07:43 am
I reckon that Mvovo is about 28. Sithole aroung 26 and Paul Jordaan mut be the same age as Lambie, 25.
1 Jun 2012, 07:56 am
Iv got an ID book & Passport…..can I go on the next tour,I used to be a looseforward.Hopefully another Stormers loosie gets injured against the Bulls then Alistair will B forced to select me
1 Jun 2012, 08:19 am
Why prematurely release the names of just two of the players, when its clear that there must be mitigating circumstances behind what motivated them to allegedly be deceitful. I assume they are underprivileged youngsters who got the opportunity of a lifetime to study & play rugby at top schools and didn’t want their age to prevent them from doing so
Touchy subject IMHO
1 Jun 2012, 08:23 am
Very bad what was done, but they are just kids, its the adults involved that are to blame.
Their lives are basically now ruined and they will have this stigma attached to them forever, the part about how they have disappeared shows they are embarrassed knowing that their peers and friends now all know,
1 Jun 2012, 08:35 am
@RL(RL)-7:
hehe
straight shooting…?…
1 Jun 2012, 08:42 am
When I was about U15 or thereabouts we started playing rugby against some of these chaps, and let me tell you, there were some hardebaarde in those supposed “junior” teams lining up against us.
18-21 years olds easily.
As for U18 – I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some 25 years olds in those teams.
1 Jun 2012, 08:43 am
@RL(RL)-7: “at the expense of a real boy”
Is he a Caster?
1 Jun 2012, 08:46 am
@Treehugger(Treehugger)-11: Hugz newsflash – a 22 year old man is an adult.
Tell me will those cheating schools have points deducted for matches where those men were involved – or do they condone fraud.
1 Jun 2012, 08:49 am
Men? lol
1 Jun 2012, 08:50 am
Wonder what HG have to say about this ?
1 Jun 2012, 08:51 am
RL works in the Vatican
“Men”; “real boy”
1 Jun 2012, 08:54 am
This is bulshitt!!
I would not be impressed if my teenage boy have to compete against 22 year old men.
And WTF are these boys still doing in school?
There should be an age limit for school, these fhuckers should not be around teenage girls.
1 Jun 2012, 08:56 am
HG will have to acknowledge that the du plessis brothers are in their 30′s
Lambie is 29; paul jordaan 23 etc
1 Jun 2012, 08:59 am
@RL(RL)-8: you reckon the Ndungane’s are close to 40?
1 Jun 2012, 08:59 am
@Mr Black(Mr Black)-19: hell man if they were with teenage girls then they are not only cheats but legally rapist too.
Guys pull your out of those schools.
1 Jun 2012, 08:59 am
“Over-aged players shame KZN schools rugby; Sharks academy under investigation”
1 June 2012
GARETH DUNCAN
1 Jun 2012, 09:01 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-13:
probably true,
but the opposite was just as bad. when you meet the ’15 year old in the body of a 25 year old’ bakkies type freaks of nature early developers.
quite honestly, there should be rules against such freaks too imo. its no different being moered by a 25 year old monster whether he’s 15 or 25 on the inside.
1 Jun 2012, 09:01 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-21: that would explain the lack of pace noted over the years.
1 Jun 2012, 09:02 am
Theo: Headmaster and rugby coach @ Itembelihle High School.
i know you periodically blog here on Keo, can you please shed some light on this story, both Mbembe & Tom were at your school and coached by yourself and one can assume you were involved in some manner when the two Natal schools offered the “bursaries” 3 years ago.
Regards
Transformation
1 Jun 2012, 09:03 am
@viewer(viewer)-16:
boys to men…
1 Jun 2012, 09:04 am
@Mr Black(Mr Black)-19: they’re b.onking grade 10 in the KZN boy
1 Jun 2012, 09:04 am
Now you’re venturing into interracial s_ex, San Fernando Valley style
Black men are in school with your daughters
1 Jun 2012, 09:06 am
@houston, we have a problem…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-24:
I have no idea what you just said.
1 Jun 2012, 09:08 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-2: Smit was playing like he’s 45.
1 Jun 2012, 09:10 am
That will explain the unique looks of your grandkids
Your teenage daughter took a 10 inch, veins like a Bar One di_ck (and liked it too)
1 Jun 2012, 09:10 am
It doesnt just happen at 1st team/provincial level either. No names but my grandson plays for a school that played another scuool every year from under 9 to under 13. The games were close every year – great competition between the teams/schools. All of a sudden at under 13 (final primary school) this other school had 3 or 4 new players, apparently all on rugby inspired ” assisted schooling” bursaries. And they were big, very big ! I know that puberty can create imbalances at this age in boys but the difference was VERY noticable. And sorry to say it, but they were all boys from ” previously disadvantaged” backgrounds. I’d like to see what ID’s/birth certificates they were carrying.
1 Jun 2012, 09:11 am
@viewer(viewer)-10: First point. It is dodgy practice to name people ” on good authority” without their names being officially made public.
Second point. It is equally dodgy to assume anything about their motivation.
1 Jun 2012, 09:12 am
@RL(RL)-7: Typical generalization. Now is the whole EP Region corrupt because of this ? It did not even happen in their Region FFS !!
Last week a school Boy from Voortrekker High in Pietermaritzburg was banned for Racial abuse on the rugby field. I suppose by your logic the Natal Sharks or Rather the Whole Durban Region is Racist ? Pathetic.
1 Jun 2012, 09:13 am
@Taahirah(Taahirah)-14: Pinocchio.
1 Jun 2012, 09:13 am
Completely unforgivable.
Means that Siyabonga Tom was 17 or 18 in Std 6!? playing against 13 or 14 year olds.
Also means that when he played for SA u19 he was 21. The difference in develpoment between a boy of 17 and a man of 22 is huge according to the physician who is doing tests at these schools currently.
I’d like to see Tom and this other chap play against the Bulls or Stormers alongside the likes of Lambie and Whitehead at Super Rugby level who are of the same age.
They’d get annihilated.
Glenwood have always pushed the boundaries in this regard and I’m glad they are getting hauled over the coals for this one.
Rest assured though, this is only the tip of the iceberg with this story. Expect more schools in more provinces to be tested from here on in.
1 Jun 2012, 09:13 am
For what it’s worth, the schools I’m referring to are in the Western Cape/Boland.
1 Jun 2012, 09:14 am
@viewer(viewer)-10: I agree , gutter Journalism , The Daily Voice has more Journalistic Etiquette.
1 Jun 2012, 09:14 am
Another reason why so many of these “superstars of the future” fade at senior level?
1 Jun 2012, 09:18 am
Overseas bloggers. Bar One is similar to a Mars Bar
1 Jun 2012, 09:18 am
@viewer(viewer)-32: you’re full s.hit hahahaha
1 Jun 2012, 09:20 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-40: how old is chili?
1 Jun 2012, 09:21 am
Ive watched this Tom bloke play a few times, both for Glenwood and KZN.
Played wing and kicked for poles.
Was good but not ’4 years older’ good. I never thought he’d get much further than perhaps the Sharks academy. Even now he’s a little too slow for wing.
1 Jun 2012, 09:23 am
@viewer(viewer)-32: I did not have se x with his daughter.
1 Jun 2012, 09:23 am
I remember at an easter rugby tournament few years ago no1 could believe Yaya Hartzenberg was just 16 years old, at the time he was playing for Rangers. Couple years later he was playing for baby boks.
1 Jun 2012, 09:24 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-30:
early developers who are played at their age group levels yet are monster physical specimens capable of playing adult rugby. kids who are15 but may as well be 25, this is possibly just as bad for other kids’ development as well the experience for them imo.
the solution to both these problems is to instead introduce weight range groups rather than age range groups as is practised. this is done in boxing and would work in junior rugby as well.
1 Jun 2012, 09:28 am
This is the price of Schools rugby in its current form of marketing, TV commercialisation, jersey sponsors, extreme competition and steroid abuse.
Rather an older player any day than a dangerously steroid induced overdeveloped boy.
1 Jun 2012, 09:30 am
@houston, we have a problem…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-47:
Dont be stupid now. Weight class for rugby!!
1 Jun 2012, 09:31 am
I think the schools knew all along.
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