Menlopark hoping athletics gives their rugby the rapid recovery “hupstoot”

The positive link between athletics and rugby has often been discussed on this forum in the past.  Now Menlopark are pinning rugby hopes on their outstanding athletics programme and very soon they will be the only school in South Africa with an 8-lane tartan athletics track to include in the offering (Noordheuwel has 6-lanes).

Menlopark claimed the overall Pretoria Interhigh athletics title for the 21^st consecutive year in 2023. Their boys finished second to Affies, while their girls were champions for the third consecutive year running.

PRETORIA INTERHIGH OVERALL STANDINGS

1. 1. 1. Menlopark
   2627.5

1. 2. Waterkloof 2281.5

1. 3. Zwartkop 2205.0

1. 4. Montana 1936.0

1. 5. Garsfontein 1870.0

1. 6. Midstream 1737.0

1. 7. Prestige 1291.0

Menlopark rugby may be suffering at the moment and their rugby culture under all kinds of scrutiny but hope floats.

The Parkies pulled a rabbit out of the hat when they avoided being relegated from the Noordvaal Cup when the board agreed to expand the premier league to ten schools.

Its acknowledged that this is just a temporary stay of execution and they will get relegated at the end of 2024 unless some serious hard work goes into building rugby creditable depth overnight.

In the Noordvaal irrespective of how strong the A-teams are in any given season, it’s the measure of the overall strength of the A, B and C-teams combined that ultimately determines who gets relegated or promoted at the end of any given season. In this regard Menlopark went from being the strongest school in the Pro-Reg table in 2019 to the weakest one in 2023. Not only that, they also could not field the minimum required number of teams in 2023.

It’s fair to say they face an uphill battle!

Although a new rugby coaching structure was implemented during the season, a concern has to be that the very same SGB that made the previous appointments has been tasked with appointing a new Director of Rugby. The lessons learned from recent past experiences will hopefully guide them to making a strong appointment this time around.

Currently Menlo has ±1000 girls and ±750 boys. Apart from the imbalance, a number of their girls have brothers at Affies just 4.4km away. So their work is cut out for them to attract top quality rugby boys, with a national powerhouse on their doorstep.

The new athletics track is going to a major selling point for Menlo and is bound to draw in boys who will not only bolster their rugby player numbers in winter but offer the qualities to be valued contributors to the cause.