Border gives the vultures another opportunity to circle

Well life just got a little easier for those richer high schools from other provinces who are hoping to lure talented Border schoolboy rugby players to their institutions under the banner of so-called “better opportunites”.

Border’s u17 Sevens team did not pitch up at the Sevens Inter-Provincial Tournament (IPT) held in Potchefstroom on 28-29 September 2018. The other 15 provincial teams were all present and took part in the event.

According to the DispatchLIVE article
https://www.dispatchlive.co.za/sport/2018-09-29-border-boys-miss-rugby-bus/
Border called off their trip to the North West Province at the last minute because they did not have enough money to pay the bus transporter to take the 12 players and 3 technical staff to the tournament.

The Dispatch News went on to report that the secretary of the Border Schools Rugby blamed SARU for not depositing the subsidy of R14000.00 on time and stated that the transporter would not render services without being paid first.

In total R18 000 was required to fund the trip and so the players’ parents were asked to pay in money as well.

Parents had to fetch their kids from Port Rex Technical High School in East London after things were called off at the eleventh hour on Thursday, the day before the Sevens tournament kicked off.

Being organised and sorting out finances well in advance is important.

By denying talented players these sorts of prospects that rugby boys from other provinces are able to take advantage of, spells bad news for the Border region, where schools are already under pressure to hold onto their best players.

It is a real pity because there are several top schools in the region who are working extremely hard and succeeding at develop their players and providing them with good exposure and outstanding opportunities on par with anywhere else in South Africa.

One of the step ups for last year’s top national u17 players is that South Africa will have a team at the 2018 Youth Olympics u18 Sevens tournament, which takes place over three days from 13-15 October 2018 at the Club Atletico San Isidro in Argentina.