Make schoolboy rugby about entertainment
25 Jan 2013
TANK LANNING believes this spat between Durban schools reinforces the fact that schoolboy rugby should not be all about winning.
As we ease our way into a new rugby season and the excitement levels build for that first ‘real’ game, so do a few concerns surrounding the game in general return …
Player welfare and management, how to keep varsity and club rugby amateur, what to do about trying to create a global season, the selection of overseas-based players for the Springboks … to name but a few.
But this current spat in Durban that might see two of the region’s biggest boys’ high schools not play first-team sport against each other due to accusations of unethical sportsmanship, puts the spotlight firmly on what I believe to be a primary problem area – schoolboy rugby.
In short, the dispute surrounds schools objecting to Glenwood fielding SA Schools prop Marne Coetzee, whom they recruited from Waterkloof, in a 1st XV rugby match last year. Glenwood have been accused of breaking an agreement that major rugby-playing schools had with one another regarding fielding U19 players who had not progressed through the school’s ranks.
An agreement obviously aimed at stopping the recruitment of schoolboy players and fielding schoolboys who do post-matric only for rugby reasons. That they had to enter into this agreement is proof itself of the problem facing schoolboy rugby.
Classic Clashes on SuperSport, school rankings every Monday, schoolboy jerseys carrying not just one main sponsor, but a few minor ones as well, coaches abusing referees after games, agents taking on schoolboy players and negotiating bursaries at top schools, 15 000-plus crowds at big games, parents and coaches encouraging steroid use … Schoolboy rugby borders on being professional!
Hence Saru’s recent regulation stating that unions may only contract players over the age of 18, and that the recruiting of players at Craven Week is now forbidden. Also incoming is the testing of schoolboy rugby players for performance enhancing drugs.
Schoolboys!
It’s no wonder that a few of them come out of school thinking that rugby owes them a favour. And having coached at U20 level, I have seen a few of these prima donnas come properly unstuck when having to take on the local club side on a cabbage patch of a field at 12:30 in front of just their parents and a single flea-infested dog.
But more importantly, by giving schoolboy rugby so much of the spotlight, focusing on results in leagues, and making the weekly rankings such a big thing, I believe we are teaching these guys to play ‘winning’ rugby rather than focusing on skills and encouraging them to have a go from anywhere on the field.
John Plumtree, a coach who has worked with some of New Zealand’s and South Africa’s best players, had this to say about the difference between South Africa and New Zealand in a recent article by Mark Keohane:
‘If there was a difference I’d say there’s more pressure in South Africa at schoolboy level to win because of the rivalry between the major rugby playing schools, whereas in New Zealand there is a greater focus at schoolboy level on playing good rugby. The pressure here would be to win at all costs; there the pressure would be in the skills evolution of a player at schools level.’
And he is absolutely spot on!
Talent we have in spades, but many SA coaches are bemoaning the lack of skill in our players – simple things like being able to pass to the right, get one’s arms through the tackle to offload, side step and set up a switch … And I believe this is because schoolboys are now playing the box kick and chase, take the points via a sharp shooter kind of game.
But schoolboy rugby should be about enjoying the game and scoring brave 85m tries using daring skills in a festival-type environment. And in the process producing highly skilled players who can then choose whether or not to have a go at the professional game.
Pro coaches will then have more rounded players at their disposal, and might be more inclined to play a more exiting brand of rugby. But perhaps more importantly, those players heading to the more relaxed club environment, won’t have such massive expectations, and will continue to play the game.
Look, one can’t blame the schoolboys themselves. Everyone likes a little attention. So this is going to have to come from the governing bodies, provinces and schools themselves.
How about banning rankings, disallowing branding on schoolboy kit, banning the drop kick, making tries worth six points, and making penalties and conversions worth one point, and selecting teams for the televised games based on the amount of tries they score and style of play?
27 Comments
25 Jan 2013, 10:20 am
it must be boring if the players are taking drugs to get through it
25 Jan 2013, 10:24 am
I don’t watch schoolboy rugby anymore.
Simple, don’t broadcast any of the games. Do that, sponsors will disappear.
25 Jan 2013, 10:32 am
we are losing our way
people need to put their hands up and take responsibilty
this is not who we are
25 Jan 2013, 10:33 am
lots to do,
later
25 Jan 2013, 11:23 am
“And having coached at U20 level, I have seen a few of these prima donnas come properly unstuck when having to take on the local club side on a cabbage patch of a field at 12:30 in front of just their parents and a single flea-infested dog.”
You are okay tanky – I must say better than reading JC’s warped inner mind thoughts on what AC must do or what the Stormers must do
25 Jan 2013, 11:32 am
As for raising funds for tournaments or other stuff. Get the parents to spend less money on juice and more towards developing their kids as decent human beings in sport.
25 Jan 2013, 11:36 am
@PissAnt-6: ‘juice’ as in orange juice to ‘roids’
25 Jan 2013, 11:53 am
@RL-5: Phew
25 Jan 2013, 12:01 pm
@RL-7:
That tarzan juice yes.
25 Jan 2013, 12:04 pm
so jc and ryan have jumped ship and tank has taken up the slack?
tank, get ready for a rocky ride and maybe file redpu ss ys post to warm your heart when the rest of the muppets get riled up at you
25 Jan 2013, 12:05 pm
This year’s articles have been lekker reads I agree, decent rugby discussions instead of rants about coaches, agents, pdv and so on.
25 Jan 2013, 13:09 pm
Spot on, Tank
25 Jan 2013, 13:14 pm
@TooMuchRugby-12: ah, it does speak inglis.
thought i was in an asterix and obelix comic with you posting pig latin to show how cleva you are!
25 Jan 2013, 13:31 pm
@The Rangerman-13:
But you were. Aren’t you Unhygienix, the fishmonger
25 Jan 2013, 13:34 pm
@TooMuchRugby-14: i am actually.
and i will slat you with a pap snoek.
25 Jan 2013, 13:37 pm
@TooMuchRugby-14:
Can think of a couple of bloggers who fits the bill as Cocophonix. As soon as they come on everyone else disappears. And of course my favourite character, Capt. Haddock aka Skop
25 Jan 2013, 13:43 pm
“Hence Saru’s recent regulation stating that unions may only contract players over the age of 18, and that the recruiting of players at Craven Week is now forbidden. ”
Who will be “policing” ,for want of a better word, this aspect?
What is the difference between that and schools trolling the under 13 Craven Weeks and offering High School scholarships to talent they identify?
25 Jan 2013, 14:06 pm
This was spoken about a few times already over the last few years. The context was slightly different, but there was\is a definite need to evolve school-boy rugby. The knock-on effects will only benefit SA rugby as a whole.
25 Jan 2013, 15:33 pm
Keep the Sponsors, although that money raised should be used for educational scholarships.
Keep the TV broadcasts, but base it on entertainment
I agree with the changing of certain rules. When I was a kid, we always ran the ball. Then again, I went to SACS and we were pretty ****. But watching schoolboy rugby now, its boring, so so boring.
25 Jan 2013, 16:03 pm
@nortierd-16: skop is definitely Cacafonix. I think most bloggers would happily imagine him bound and gagged and tied to a tree
25 Jan 2013, 17:02 pm
It would be difficult to keep both parties happy,but I just want to know if these boys ever have time (besides their busy whey protein schedules and demanding sponsors) to study and maybe a matric farewell
25 Jan 2013, 17:07 pm
When else should recruiters recruit besides craven week! Oh wait, we could always try first break !
26 Jan 2013, 08:03 am
@@KhumieM-22: Why should there even be recruiting? I coach at a school that is not quite a top flight rugby school, but still strong enough to hang in there with the bigger schools in the Cape.
We try our best to keep our talented kids in town, but they flock to Paarl Boys or Paarl Gym in their droves because they literally get contracted. We’ve asked the Boland u13 Craven week coach for his suggestions. His answer is quite simple: give the kids a better offer. Despite the fact that we give the kids all the same opportunities, we can’t physically pay them to come to our school.
None of this has ANYTHING to do with education. Now the kids go to a school where they are taught winning is everything. Some of these schools teach their learners appalling sportsmanship. To them WINNING is everything. And they absolutely CAN’T accept it when they loose to a smaller school like us, which happens, but is never reported.
26 Jan 2013, 10:42 am
We are creating a generation of kids that are being set up to fail in real life.
The expectations they are given by being “bought” at school is so much that they make a career choice when they are under 13 and they are then not equipped to do anything else with their lives when rugby fails them.
26 Jan 2013, 17:47 pm
Very naive article. How do you “ban rankings” when any blogger can create their own team rankings? And “selecting teams for the televised games based on the amount of tries they score and style of play” is not how TV works. They’re in it for the audience, which follows the big clashes.
26 Jan 2013, 20:31 pm
@Mo Shark-25:
Easy to criticise like you have just done. This article is addressing a serious issue. The professionalism and winner takes it all approach at major schools are ruining the game here. And kids are not mentally strong enough to deal with the disappointments of loosing/playing badly where the expectations are super high.
But I agree, policing will be difficult. But then the sanction should be serious. For instance should you be caught the name goes on a list of forbidden agents/players for a certain period.
I like the last paragraph of this article.
27 Jan 2013, 04:37 am
Once upon a time the Administrator’s Cup (in the old Transvaal) was awarded to the winning first team in the Transvaal Schools U19 tournament league. None of the big English-medium rugby schools like KES or St John’s even bothered entering this tournament, and it was fought out only between the big Afrikaans rugby schools like Affies and Monnas etc. The English schools arranged their own “traditional” fixtures against each other and, while winning was always the aim, it was never the only aim. And fair play was always the proper style of these contests. Not so over in the Administrator’s Cup matches. They were no-holds-barred and cut-throat, death-or-glory brutality contests.
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