The popular selecting of an Academy Week team after the conclusion of the event is back this year. It’s not sure what the team will be doing but even if the announcement is just for prestige is will be a feather in the cap for the 22 players named.
In years gone Academy teams have played against the SA Schools team, played at Craven Week and even had an international under-18 match against France.
Wanneer word akademie span bekend gemaak.Maandag om die draai.wen vir GRIEKWAS-GRENS-WP-BLOU BULLE EN BOLAND.Dinsdag wen vir- E.P CD-BORDER CD-VALKE-SWD-EN BOG SE STAAT.
@Ludz: You can find more info on the talent at the Academy Week here. http://www.hssm.co.za/news/rugby/national/2013/12-standout-players-day-2-u18-academy-week
The most impressive player for me was the WP fullback and Captain, Dante van der Merwe. If one sees the diminutive boy off the field it’s hard to believe he is a rugby player. But he has guts and a big heart, brilliant skills and vision, and blessed with speed off the mark. An excellent leader as well. But if he has stopped growing his small size will count against him.
@Nemo: To my knowledge, a high performance squad will be selected – 50 boys in total who will then train together and have trials – a lot of rugby in a short amount of time
can anybody shed light on the selection of the SA Schools team – will it be announced after the Craven Week (as in previous years) or will a squadbe announced to play trials? if the fixtures of early August are accurate, there seem to be little time for full trials.
@beet: @RBugger: They have changed the selection of the Academy side from time to time. it was originally picked from the Academy Week but at some point it became an effective SA Schools B side picked from Craven Week. This was certainly the case in 2007 and the SA Schools side won comfortably at Newlands.
The following year, 2008, the SA Schools selectors picked an SA Schools side and a North and South side from Craven Week (ie two B sides who were meant to play each other but never did) and the Academy XV was again selected from the Academy Week for provincial B sides. In 2008 the Academy side won comfortably against the SA Schools team led by CJ Stander at Kings Park.
Any of the men who were at the Week, who can shed light on the standouts at the week
@beet: There is already a provisional schedule set out by SARU, we will be playing Wales U18, England U18 and France U18.
The provisional dates are:
9 August – First set of fixtures
13 August – Second set of fixtures
17 August – Third set of fixtures
What would be very interesting is to see how many schoolboy rugby players each province has. I’m willing to bet KZN is one of the smaller provinces by numbers with WP far ahead….that would show the strength to numbers ratio…
Well done to the KZN Academy B team. IMHO they would have won today if they had been selected from the start with the other teams and had more practices.
They almost came back against Boland after trailing 26-0 at half time. The replacements seem to make a big difference. Tries went to Martin (2), Gouws and the late replacement player from Glenwood. Final score 40-28 to Boland.
@Grasshopper: @vatikaki: In fact the Academy Week team will plaay the Craven Week team I’d told. The int schedule has however not been set yet.
@RBugger: That’s 100%. I’m taking liberties.
@Beet: It must be remembered that the majority of the SA Academy Team, if not all, played at CW for their respective provinces.
It was in fact an SA Schools B Team as such, not really an SA Academy Team as the name would suggest.
Yeah, let them play at Craven Week and see what they can do, will shock a few methinks…
Should let them play Craven week yeah.