General

There is plenty of cricket and even water polo on the go this weekend, so please feel free to add your say about what’s good in your part of the world.…

Tragically a Newcastle Gr.11 schoolboy has passed away as a result of an injury sustained during a trial match on Tuesday. The accident is being investigated but it’s believed that he sustained a fatal neck injury after being tackled.…

It’s clear that just like everyday technology, rugby professionalism at schools is not about to wait for anyone. Hardest hit may be those who resist change. …

The good news is that the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport has reported that more 100 schools in South Africa have agreed to do drug testing and that the first five tests per school will be on the house. However thereafter it could cost between R2800 and R3000 per internationally approved test. …

The South African under-18 Sevens team beat the hosts Australia 22-7 to claim the gold medal in Sydney. This was a good achievement by our schoolboys. Based on the international rugby standings of the countries that participated the SA team was always on track to win either gold or silver. …

There are several choice words to describe incidents involving school rugby players leave one high school to join another. “Poached”, “bought” and “stolen” are amongst the more popular ones used by unhappy supporters of the school losing a good player. It goes without saying that these same terms scarcely ever come out of the mouths of those who welcome the new player into their stable.…

Okay so the Lance Armstrong story is not exactly rugby but there is one or two connections to be made. …

With the coastal schools returning to school this week, the school cricket fixture list for this weekend looks to be jam-packed. Any updates or the compiling of news on which teams are doing what, be it scoring runs or taking wickets or both would be appreciated. Hopefully mother nature gives the boys a break and we have some dry Saturdays and other match days.…

Michaelhouse’s star Bruce Arnott has been ruled out for the best part and maybe even the entire 2013 season. The right wing whose outstanding performances during 2012 helped his school claim top spot in KwaZulu-Natal picked up a knee (ACL) injury last week.…

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I was touched by a sad story today. Basically a boy attends a school for four years, represents their A-team in the junior age-groups. He works his butt off to fulfil a four year long dream of playing for the first team in his fifth and final year. Now just days before the first term is about to start he finds out that his school has just-just recruited a brand new highly rated player in his position. This new guy will probably start ahead of him. Hopefully this has a happy ending somehow but for now the dream of a good kid filled with lots of school spirit is potentially crushed. …

Hey all!

We have a Superbru pool for SupeRugby.

Pool Name:                schoolboyrugby.co.za
Pool Code:                  pestpalp…

Everything you want to say about the matric results for 2012 here:…

The EP Kings have acquired the services of Eastern Province Craven Week captain and SA Schools eighthman Aidon Davis, who has just finished matric at Daniel Pienaar in Uitenhage…

Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Thursday, announced the South Africa Schools XI team after the closing ceremony of the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Under-19 Week in Potchefstroom. …

It’s fair to say that Heyneke Meyer has not enjoyed the best of seasons. Since taking over as Bok coach this year his reputation has taken a bit of a knock. He’s still held in high regard at Loftus though. Here his past successes as Blue Bulls coach put him in a position to influence how the Bulls go about their business both on and off the field of play to this day. Amongst his ideas implemented was an aggressive junior player recruitment model aimed at ensuring the Bulls remained South Africa’s most successful professional era team. …

In attempts to increase safety, SARU recently accepted proposed changes to school scrumming for the under-14, under-15 and under-16 age-groups. The main effect is that the hit on the engage has been eliminated. The term to describe the new form of engaging is “passive engagement”.…

ADDENDUM 1 of 2012:
SARU REGULATIONS FOR UNDER‐AGED RUGBY:
SCHOOL RUGBY AGE‐BANDING
The following document is an Addendum to the SARU Regulations for Under‐aged Rugby currently applicable to Adult rugby and are additional Regulations that apply to all School‐level Rugby played under the auspices of the South African Rugby Union, the South African Schools Rugby Executive, and the affiliated fourteen (14) Provincial Rugby Unions.…

This is extract from an article written earlier this year by Dr Glen Hagemann, Director of the Discovery SharkSmart Programme & President of the South African Sports Medicine Association. The full article can be found here: http://www.sharksmart.co.za/schoolsmart1204.html…

Although I’m a big fan of school rugby Easter festivals, I’ve sometimes felt a little guilty that my entertainment is being provided at a higher than acceptable injury risk to the players participating. Squads are made up of 22 players, there is rotation and games at certain festivals are reduced from 70 to 60 minutes. Nevertheless the best team players are often required to play all three games over just five days. It’s the kind of big ask we would not dream of making of our modern top senior professionals.…

This topic has come up in conversation with the staff from two schools that had each lost a star player this season. It revolved around the repayment of bursary money. There were different views offered by the staff on what should happen.…

South Africans wanting to get an idea of how the standard of water polo played by schoolboys here compared to those of the world’s leading countries were in for an unpleasant surprise. This score-line might not tell the full truth but provides some perspective:  Croatia 25 South Africa 1.…

A late charge by PaulRoosPa was not enough to stop Paarl Gim supporter PaarlBok from claiming the title. Paarlbok finished with a 78.95% accuracy rate and in 1152nd place overall (Top 3%). Well done Paarlbok! Enjoy the juice.…

Earlier this week the website www.saschoolsports.co.za published their final school cricket rankings for 2012. Wynberg tops the list. Their coach Eric Lefson was recently named as one of the five best school coaches in South Africa by SA Sports Illustrated magazine.…

South Africa’s under-18 water polo team got off to a losing start in their Group B opener in Perth, Australia. They went down 4-11 to Columbia after leading 3-2 at the half time break. …