Here’s a blog based on a few conversations and observations I had this past weekend
Woeful Westville has a shining light
Talking to a few people over the weekend, it came across Westville losing to a struggling Pretoria Boy’s High (who themselves had not won a game this season prior to beating Westville), in the 6-3 low scoring fashion simply had to be “rock bottom” for the Durban based school. Westville has a few more big challenges to come before their season wraps up at the end of the second term so the “rock bottom” theory might still be tested. One thing is certain, Westville will bounce back. It may not be this season and there may be some difficult/unpopular decisions that need to be made about the 1st XV rugby’s future path but it’s guaranteed that lessons are being learnt from these experiences. Not that anyone will remember much more than the result but there were also mitigating circumstance ahead the PBHS game that contributed to WBHS’s downfall and it had nothing to do with travelling to Gauteng twice in two weekends or questionable game-plans. There were plenty of injuries to first choice players including a shoulder injury to highly rated wing and captain Tonny Mahlangu, which effectively rules him out of Craven Week. The shining light story is that of Westville’s prop Donovan Grant. Last season he was very much a fringe player 1st XV flank who faced the prospect of watching games from the bench this year as well. He however switched from the backrow to the frontrow and has not looked back. He isn’t the first school player to do this and he won’t be the last but his successful positional transformation has helped his school out of specialist position spot of bother and in a season where KZN also find themselves short of viable options at loosehead prop, Grant has a chance to plug that hole at the provisional under-18 week. His appearance in the main final trials match this coming Wednesday is testimony to the reward being reaped for the hard work he’s put in.
Leopards region Humpty Dumpty
It was just a few weeks ago that I was convinced Lichtenburg were amongst the overachievers of the SBR season. I included them on the closed shop 70 school RADAR and they reaffirmed that believe by claiming the PUK Prestige Reeks title just before the end of the first term. Building on that, I felt they would ease through their second term Leopards Region Large Schools matches to claim a spot in the Beeld playoff stages. Well it’s not happening. Two one-point defeats in subsequent weekends to Potch Gim and Potch Volkies respectively has put pave to those Lichtenberg chances of adding to their silverware. Potch Gim who soared to great heights last season, produced poor results during Term-1. They are now an enigma having seen off Lichtenburg 31-30 and then easily disposing of Klerksdorp 22-3. It just goes to show what influence the return from injury of a few key players can have on outcomes.
The battle for Cape Town hots up
I realise that nationally it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and there are wishes for more rugby from different provinces but personally I have been really grateful to SSL for their streaming coverage of Western Cape rugby. That said how I wished the SSL equipment could have been stationed at SACS this past weekend for 28-28 draw against Rondebosch. That must have been some game and so significant in the context of who will eventually end up being Cape Town’s numero uno for2016. SACS has been a reasonably stable team so far this year and with Wynberg not living up to preseason billing, the oldest school in the country was looking like odds on favs to retain their unofficial Cape Town won last year with the help of that Triple Crown in round-1 of the Southern Suburbs big derbies. However Rondebosch who started 2016 late as a result of an overseas tour, seem to be everything but predictable. The draw against SACS means they are joint leaders at this early stage. Talking unpredictable Bishops are unlikely to be CTA top dogs but could dent the chances of either of the two leaders so watch out for them in the surprise results category. The last three Saturdays in August 2016 when the Southern Suburb schools focus on playing each other could be huge. Then there’s also the main Northern Suburbs contender Stellenberg to consider. The Bellville school has quickly built up their profile and are not shying away from taking on any top rugby school. With Outeniqua and Boland Landbou on the way to finish off May 2016, Stellies would have locked horns with five Top 20 ranked schools in five matches. However surprising Stellenberg has no interaction with the four Southern Suburb powerhouses at all in 2016, so how does one measure their success in determining the CTA number-one???
Dale’s graveyard master is the ref
Dale College is celebrating an outstanding 17-3 home shut-out type victory over a strong Queen’s College, an age-group team Dale struggled to overcome recent lower age-group seasons. These kind of Dale 1st XV turnaround in fortunes results are often attributed to the connection that inspirational legendary coach Griffy Griffith has with his players, which seems more powerful that than any drug on the market, as the Old Dalian head coach is able to get his boys motivated to play very close to the peaks of their abilities. In addition to this Dale generally plays an attractive to watch brand of rugby as well, worked around quickness of hand and high tempo, making them a neutral’s favourite as well. However it’s not all fairytale stuff. At the risk of upsetting Dale supporters and dedicated referees around the country who are in short supply, it has to be mentioned that there is a concern/frustration/general state of unhappiness about playing at the Graveyard, Dale’s home ground in King William’s Town. This result against Queen’s is another one where the feelings relayed pointed to that of a referee’s decision-making favouring the home team to the extent that it overshadowed the contest as a fair one. It’s reputation stuff now Dale! I’m not sure how that gets rectified though?
Tough weekend for Tuks Reeks teams
Looking at a few of the 1st XV results shows that the popular Tuks-Reeks teams were on the receiving end in local Noordvaal games:
Klerksdorp 3 – 22 Potch Gim
Centurion 10 – 20 Wonderboom
Florida 3 – 14 Noordheuwel
Pietersburg 3 – 52 Helpmekaar
Obviously I realise that the Tuks is far more than just a 1st XV rugby competition but these results do serve to show the diversity of Noordvaal rugby and how difficult it is to fit all the pieces in the right places when it comes to rating them.
Komaan Helpmekaar, Beeld Large Schools participation has reached its sell-by-date
This may become an annual tradition soon: finding out why Helpies are not in the Makro schools league of the Beeld. As it stands Helpmekaar is part of the Large Schools lineup even though they don’t play Lions Regional Large Schools round robin matches and receive an automatic ticket to the playoff stages. In the meantime Helpies kept themselves busy with interschools results like 52-3 against Pietersburg and 44-25 against Ben Vorster. The private college from Braamfontein is surely going to make a mockery of the Beeld Large Schools knockout competition later this year. I thought the idea behind grading schools was to create a better strength versus strength environment?
@QC86: Each to their own sir!
@Ludz: You should have a need to say things when you win,now it just sounds like sour grapes.
It didn’t swing the game, but no excuse for poor refereeing, rugby is a game of small margins, getting off the line quicker than you should makes a critical difference. Look I don’t think Queen’s were clinical enough on the day, but the ref didn’t help our cause either and if we can’t address that because Queen’s weren’t clinical enough on the day, then we have a big problem. Bad refereeing is bad refereeing, the guy was a little biased to Dale and how his assistant and himself failed to see Sotyelelwa grounded that try on the line is beyond me. A shocking decision which could have rendered this a different ball game! Queen’s got the quality, need to be a little more clinical! Hopefully they’ll do better in the next few weeks. The ref was diabolical though and it needed to be said!
Gents QC lost the game not the Ref, was not there but have seen how they have played this year and they have themselves to blame.
There play is very one dimensional and I believe they have lost out on a lot this year because of that, hopefully they can come right they will have a second bite at Dale in the 3rd term let us see if they can make us proud.
QC losing to Dale I can accept but the mess against Grey PE does not taste lekker in my mouth.
Dale will have my 100% support come Grey PE time in a few weeks.
not really,in Ludz’s own words “the ref was not the deciding factor ” so whats the problem,???he make mistakes hell yes ,was he bias hell no. I in principle hate articals that blame the ref or comments about the ref, just shows bad sportsmanship.QC only have themselves to blame for their loss ,fix it on the training field ,and move on old boys, and gentlemen
@QC86: @Ludz: Seems like there’s quite a bit to contest…thank goodness I wasn’t there, and therefore don’t have any 2 cents worth to add
@QC86: He had let it go sir, got called back by his assistant on the touchline! He didn’t see it, he was running like behind the fullback to go and award the try before his assistant brought the knock on to his attention. Never condone shouting at the ref, but that stems from frustration at bad calls as well!
@Ludz: and the clean break the Dale 15 made from another QC mistake and was called back by the ref ,late in the second half ,when we all thought it was knocked back wards off a QC hand ??if he was one eyed he could have just let that one go and no one would have complained .QC players shouting at him did not help their cause either.
Westville is very welcome to contact me in regards to turning their teams around as I am officially a KZN resident now.
I said on Saturday that I thought Dale were full value for their win considering their commitment on defence and absolutely clinical nature off our mistakes, but that ref along with his assistant were abysmal to say the very least. I left the ground fuming and luckily I did not see one of them because I would have absolutely given it to them. Legit try not given and momentum at times broken by poor refereeing decisions, the try which was clearly grounded on the line being one. He wasn’t a deciding factor in that game, but he was far from fine!
@QC86: That’s why parents and coaches have no business chatting to refs during the game. Each team has a captain for that.
Funny i find the Grey Bloem age group reffs abit dodge,spent alot of time thinking about it,and came to the conclusion that Grey is really the only school in the OFS where a up and coming young ref can get a half decent game to blow,if he stuffs that up he finds himself out in the wilderness,so he just passes the 50 -50 calls onto Grey.A fews years back our u16 a side was given Grey a run for their money and at halftime 2 Grey masters stood with the ref on the halfway line chatting,well the second half was a nightmare for us.
@QC86:
you’re kidding right? 
@Playa: I must say,i don’t get that feeling at Dale. Refs are appointed by BRU so the oke arrives there and blows,no fault of Dales,but i must just say that the standard of reffing in the age group games is shocking through out the Border.Flippen oke arrived at QC v Selborne u14 game in QTN without a whistle and no watch last year.First half was like 45 min and the second half about 20 min,there was alot of abuse shouted at the poor oke.
@QC2000: Leave ou Butch out of this
He used to make some laughable decisions, but he always meant well. I remember him telling us that Selborne didn’t have big players – it’s the stripes that made them look big. He went further by saying women don’t wear striped clothing for that very reason 
@QC86: Thanks for the feedback. My hope was that if indeed the ref was dubious, I just hope it was not enough to swing the game Dale’s way. There was a lot of backlash 2 years ago when Jonathan Kaplan called a forward pass which could have led to a QC try at the end, and killed a reunion party in the process. I myself thought the pass was good at the time – but the video showed that it was indeed forward. My biggest concern, however, was this being labelled as a regular occurrence at Dale’s home games – one can accept a ref having an off day, but it’s difficult to accept constant ‘homeground advantage’ being granted by refs.
In my day…the worst refereeing experiences were at Hudson Park.
@Playa: Thanks for the updates.
@QC86: @rugbyfan: Will agree with Rudi here QC seem to be there own worst enemy here watch them play Kingswood and they lost that game as well to one dimensional and some very stupid things that happen, you cannot blame the ref.
Dale deserve there win and that is that, who is coaching the QC 1st team at present as I see a similar pattern of play as Selborne play.
Hope there results pick up as they have the team to do it.
And I will say this what Griffy does with Dale is really great hats off to him must be one of or maybe the best schoolboy coaches around by along way.
Yes Komaan Helpmekaar. This is a question that have been asked on numerous occasions. I have to agree with @tzavosky. They are currently a Great 1st Team due to a very strong Grade 11 group and still will be a strong team in 2017. BUT that is where the problem begins. As been explained before they do not have the depth of Macro schools as only about 300 boys play rugby. The battle to even put a third team together. Now I have asked this question a couple of times and have not yet received a proper answer. The way I do understand it is that the school compete in a league on the number of rugby players (boys or total pupils) in the school?
This is apparently the reason why Helpmekaar is playing in Large schools and not Macro schools!? If I understood the person correctly they are actually a medium school and not even a Large school. So they are already playing a level up.
Believe me I would love nothing more than to see them participate in the Wildeklaver tournament next year. You do not prove your skill beating schools with 52-3. Helpmekaar love playing against Macro schools and believe me that before such an event the anticipation is high. They rather loose against a Macro school than beating a Large school. I am proud to be a Helpmekaar supporter but I do not think it is the schools choice but more the system. Would love to hear response from more informed people.
@QC2000: That’s great to hear. Playing Queen’s in QTN is one of the better schoolboy rugby experiences but the officiating always left a lot to be desired. It’s unfortunate that we still get cases of biased officiating but that’s a rugby phenomenon. I’m just still surprised at how well Dale College are doing. This is the same age group that couldn’t buy a win.
@QC86: I wasnt at the game but just heard the end score, I thought we were never in it. Then from what I hear from you and then reading in the Dispatch this morning it seems like we were all over Dale. It now seems to be coming a habit dominating games and then losing them, like against Grey. The few games I have watched of QC this year they have all been down early on, against Marlow, Selborne and Graeme. They then seem to catch up by half time and then dominate the second half. It’s really worrying that they are losing games that they should possibly be winning.
Two games in a row the opposition have scored points off our basic errors. Surely you cant be doing this week in and week out at first team level. I’m in agreement here with Rugbyfan that the coaching is very worrying. From what I gather the current first team coach is only hear for a year and then he leaves for PE. What is worrying for us old boys is that there is nobody that seems to be waiting in the wings to coach the side next year. This was meant to be a good side, but they seem to be having an average season.
@Outside Looking in: I think QC has addressed this by ensuring that all 1st-3rd team, as well as all A team games are reffed by referees appointed by the BRU, albeit they come from the Queenstown region. This is obviously a problem when there are not referees to ref. Very little staff ref as its mainly volunteers. I think all schools have a reputation for their refs being one sided. In our day if you played Selborne and had Mr. Kockett as a ref you could put a loss next to your name, or Butch Wiggett from Dale. In the same breath I’m sure when our rivals played QC they used to hate having Mr. Twalo as a ref. Iguess thats just the way the cookie crumbles. I did hear that the coach of QC u9’s approached the ref at halftime and told him if he did not stop cheating he would take his team off. I heard it was atrocious, and this came from an old Dalian.
On my final note well done to Dale. It’s great to see how they showed such pride in their jersey when they had everything thrown at them. They having a great season!!!
I watched the game on Saturday and thought the ref was absolutely fine,Queens can only blame themselves for the loss.They had atleast 85% of the ball and 90% of territory.I agree with rugbyfan, they playing a one dimensional game very similar to Selborne and it’s the easiest to defend against,which Dale did brilliantly.Qc are lacking vision in the backs and leadership in the forwards.Dale lived off scraps and scored 2 tries off dropped balls by QC, but thats how they play this year,good for them , but to suggest the ref was bad is not fair on Dale.I saw alot of proud old Dale boys after the game( white) and they loved the victory.
@Playa: I was not at the Graveyard on Saturday so I cannot comment on the Ref but did have a chat to someone who was and he said it was quite shocking but you can only take that at face value. I did hear the 2nd team ref was even 10 times worse.
I do not want to upset any of the Queens folks and mention that a lot of there woes are coaching related, and just to blame it on the ref is only part of the problem, against Grey they threw away a game which they should have won by 20 points.
Please don’t shoot me just my opinion.
@Playa: It’s hard to comment on something I haven’t seen but I’ve always felt that officiating in KWT when playing against Dale has always been fair. Maybe that’s because in my time as a scholar in EL, we always got beaten fair and square. Funny that Queen’s has always been the one school that’s often been accused of having a 16th man. I hope this has changed……
Beet, regarding Helpmekaar (and for that matter all Northvaal schools playing Beeld) you have to take into account that Beeld is not only about 1st teams.
Helpies may well “make a mockery” at first team level [there was a similar prediction two years ago when they were knocked out by Tuine in the play offs!], but they lost heavily against BV at both u.16 A and B level this year and closely at u.14 level, so that part is not clear cut.
I haven’t been following the junior teams’ results, but I’m pretty sure Klerksdorp and Transvalia will come into the picture at u.15 level as well. The “grading” you refer to is therefore an almost impossible task if taken over all age groups.
Heard various reports of the shocking display by the ref yesterday.It’s disappointing and puts a great victory in bad light.This blog seems to suggest that this is a regular occurance at the Graveyard.That hasn’t been my feeling in the few games I’ve seen in recent years.Maybe someone who has been a more regular spectator can shed more light.
I note that the four southern suburb giants play most of the other northern suburb schools. Stellenberg always had an annual fixture against SACS and last year played Wynberg as well. Why there are no fixtures this year, I don’t know but I’m sure it would have been very competitive. The SACS games in the last couple of years were very close and it’s a pity that it won’t happen this year.