Noordheuwel has a chance to overtake Monument in 2024, but can they make it stick?

The Noordheuwel 1^st XV has a genuine chance to beat their Krugersdorp rivals Monument in 2024 and if so, it will help grow their reputation as one of the fastest rising rugby high schools in the country at the moment.

Noordheuwel are based on the top of the hill in the upmarket part of Krugersdorp and are very optimistic about their future potential in rugby. What remains to be seen is whether or not Nories can establish themselves as the WesRand’s number one rugby school, a title that has been synonymous with the Monnas Witbulle for ages.

Pinpointing where or when things began to turn around for Nories rugby isn’t an exact science but it seems to correspond with former Head Coach Rocky Truter arriving from Die Anker ahead of the 2016 season.

The truth was that back then, while Monnas was always known as a “rugby school” amongst the local primary school parents, the same parents referred to Co-ed Nories as a “girls’ school”.

Rocky brought with him a bit of much needed ambition. He saw the potential of good marketing, including using the top athletics programme at Nories as a drawcard. Nories athletics has a good buy-in from students and staff. They have a tartan track and hosts many visitors for practices and at least five big events each season. Rocky also helped sign up a big sponsor, updated the training equipment and kit, and transformed the rugby programme into something with a very professional appeal as far as schoolboy rugby is concerned. This was important in the quest to change Nories rugby image.

Soon the school, who top Supersport Schools commentator “Spoed” Smith once referred to as the biggest Afrikaans high school in the world, due to its numbers in excess of 2000 students, started moving up the ranks from a Macro school in the Beeld Lions “B-division”, that attended Hansieweek in Naboomspuit and had a fairly low profile fixture list, to one that gaining promotion through overall depth to the big leagues in the form of the Noordvaal’s premier league – the Noordvaal Cup, as well as playing in high profile age group festivals.

Behind just about every success story is a headmaster with an interest in rugby and at Nories, Dawie Kriel, the once Director of Sport at the school, is no exception.

The next major coach / Director of Rugby after Rocky’s departure was the vastly experienced Stefan “Botter” Lourens, who started just before Covid struck.

Interestingly Botter is not only a Monnas old boy, he cut his teeth there as a 1^st XV coach serving for 15-years alongside the man he regards as a mentor – Monnas legend Hans Coetzee. From there he got to mix with more schoolboy rugby royalty when he joined St Andrew’s College in Makhanda and worked alongside the late great Andre Jacobs, who sadly passed away in April 2023. Jacobs himself had learned from the one of the all-time greats Basil Bey of Bishops.

It goes without saying that after mastering how to get the best out of big physical boys at Monnas, Botter was exposed to the art of running rugby, complete with the skillset required to get the ball to the edges, taught to him by the finest and it left a lasting impression. After spells at St John’s, Menlopark, Florida and with over a decade worth of youth week coaching and a stint of Lions u19 coaching under the belt, Nories have a heavyweight to run their rugby programme.

Naturally amongst the first things Botter changed at Nories was the “stampkar” approach. Because Nories still fall in the queue behind Monnas and even private school Helpmekaar as far as recruitment of grade-7’s are concerned, they don’t get the biggest boys. As their profile grows, Nories are becoming better and better known for their intelligent expansive play and continue to move in the direction of being identified in the same way as the St Andrew’s or Bishops brand, it’s just that the former are the ones situated behind the Boerewors Curtain.

Botter’s contribution to Nories rugby is also one that is very much people-person based. His understanding and implementation of the concept that just as much as you need work with each boy and help develop the key relationships of trust, skill, conditioning etc., that are the building blocks of a good team of players on the field, you also need to build and maintain a good team of coaches working well together. The subtle changes he introduced to the key rugby areas have been vital to the ever-improving results across the board.

By the end of the Noordvaal Cup 2023, Nories placed just behind Helpmekaar and Monnas, in a solid third place on the overall table. They were also the only school that had a representative age-group A-team in each of the playoffs.

Included in these coaching changes was the headhunting of a new Strength and Conditioning coach Erwin Harris from Mossel Bay. Not only a star S&C coach, the youngster who Botter first worked with as a teen in the Golden Lions u18 youth week setup, is a good kicking coach and attacking coach as well. Prior to his arrival, Nories boys did not have a gym culture and conditioning was desperately in need of improvement. This appointment proved to be a huge plus and almost overnight by just having the right personality there, the results were evident, as gym attendance skyrocketed.

Other major changes at 1^st XV level revolved around seeing the potential in existing staff. This included promoting u16B coach Ian Joubert to be forwards coach and giving the opportunity to a standout cricket coach Henri Crocker, who had been at the school for a long time and done well with various rugby age groups, to move up and be the backline coach. These two coaches just got it right because they know how to work with boys and excel at the skills for their jobs.

Botter introduced the offseason training programme to develop all players starting in September.

He also convinced the school to invest in SportsCode video footage and analysis of all matches. This now give him the opportunity to go through all games on weekends, identify areas to address and meet with the coaches on Mondays. The life of a Director of Rugby!

Somewhere in the middle of the Nories change of fortunes, Hans Coetzee also had the shortest of stays after leaving Monnas but deserves a mention for a big factor, as he was instrumental in starting the rugby house opposite the school, which now plays host to 20 provincial rugby players. The highly-regarded veteran also coached alongside Henri Crocker and led the u16 team to the Virsekerbeker final in 2019.

Noordheuwel rugby is trending upwards at the moment and the 2024 match against Monument is potentially the next big stepping stone for the school founded in 1981.