Dale
Anyone who tuned in to watch the Classic Clash between Dale and Queens on Saturday, had to have been drawn to the play of young Dalian flyhalf Courtney Winnaar. On several occasions the Border Grant Khomo under-16 representative broke the line, showing an eye for space and a good turn of speed to back it up. No doubt about it, he is a talent. Dale will do well to retain his services for the next couple of seasons, given that the school as a whole (junior and senior) has been finding it difficult to fight off the attractive offers made to their players by other schools with Union involvement not ruled out.
As grateful as we all should be to have seen Winnaar strut his stuff at first team level, where he clearly has the ability to hold his own, it’s the fact that he is under-16 that has to come under scrutiny here. The Dale College coaching staff know the new SARU age-banding rules just as well as all the other schools’ rugby officials, who have managed to comply with this Boksmart regulation. The rule is pretty straightforward. An under-16 player may NOT play in an under-19 game. Two Queens players in the big derby were under-19. Therefore Dale broke the rule and it’s hard to say they did it unintentionally either. BTW Queens won the match 23-10.
Noord-Kaap
The insight into this matter was provided by the website SchoolofRugby.co.za. So thank you to them for the good bit of journalism.
The two major rugby schools in Kimberley are Noord-Kaap and Diamantveld. It is a bit of an understatement to say that the adult support base of the two schools do not seem to get along at all. So there is quite a bit of rivalry and tension in the Kimberley air when it comes to SBR. Anyway that divide just got a little bit wider in 2013.
It all started with the televised Classic Clash played on 20 April 2013, which Noord-Kaap won 27-19. Afterwards Diamantveld turned around and said wait a minute, the Noord-Kaap captain is a post-matric. He should not have been playing in that game. Not because he is a post-matric end of story. No, because this match was for Griqualand-Wes league points. This puts the game on an entirely different level. Seemingly everywhere else in SA , post-matrics aren’t allowed in school rugby period but in Kimberley it’s a double thumbs up just as long as they don’t play in matches for local league points. If fact the player, Lehan Muller even got selected by his home rugby union to play at the Noordvaal under-19 tournament in July, so clearly there was not too much concern that he was not a bona fide school student. No worries just as long as precious Griqualand-Wes league points weren’t at stake.
Actually I lied early, Diamantveld raised an objection to the post-matric’s inclusion ONE WHOLE WEEK before the derby took place. BUT it gets even better! Noord-Kaap had been kind enough to ask the Diamonds TWO MONTHS prior to the match if there was a problem with the said player taking the field.
Well Diamantveld filed a complaint following their defeat to NK. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Kimberley Sub-union took the much sort after league points away from Noord-Kaap and awarded them to Diamantveld. With the GW league not really functioning that well due to many cancelled games, it seemed like there were only two teams in it anyway, with the points reallocation resulting in the Diamonds switching places with Northerns at the top of the table.
However believe it or not those league points are actually are worth something more than a league position. The Sub-union’s decision meant that Diamantveld moved ahead of Noord-Kaap in the league and became the new Griqualand-West representatives in the semi-finals of the Kovsie District of the Shimla-Liga. Noord-Kaap as 2012 champions of the Shimla-Liga, would not have had the opportunity to defend their title. They accepted their fate and lived happily ever after…
Okay they didn’t! Noord-Kaap appealed the decision. And lone behold get this… they actually WON! The original ruling was overturned. So post-matric and all, Noord-Kaap are back in the Shimla-Liga title chase while Diamantveld`s season is over.
Noord-Kaap now plays Voortrekker of Bethlehem in the one semi-final while HTS Louis Botha and Hentie Cilliers meet in the other semi. Both games are on this weekend and the final will be played on Saturday, 31 August 2013.
I guess the only question that remains is will we see Noord-Kaap at the Wildeklawer tournament held on Diamantveld’s home ground next year?
So much KZN-like drama I forgot what the point was. Oh yes. Post-matrics! A big no-no.
Didn’t Schalk Burger play at least 1 game for the 1st-XV at Gim for his entire 5 years there?
Anyway, it’s a stupid rule IMO. A school isn’t going to be picking a player that can’t match up physically. Why would they? All it’s doing is denying a player the opportunity when he’s ready to play at that level.
@Playa: No problems. The kid is big and strong. Can take the punch.
And Noord Kaap went on about DP playing a younger player. It sound to me like the DP vs Noord Kaap game may be canceled due to the fact that they can only play 5 teams on a Saturday and DP wants game time for all 16 to 18 teams.
I was cringing about that. I thought maybe both teams fielded under 18 players only.
As much as I agree with the Boksmart rule, and understand where it’s coming from, but this is an example of what the smaller schools are struggling with as a result of the rule. I will make no excuses for Dale if this was done knowingly, which I suspect is the case, as I assume each school does their due diligence before playing an under 16 player.
As for Dale playing the Under16 kid, Queens had no objection to it so it should Dale which would be a great pity.
Wonder about Noord Kaap with the age thing they have two boys there that came from Muir in the Eastern Cape that had played first team rugby for years wonder how old they really are. See a Tom thing happening there.
Ek wonder of die Noord-Kaap kaptein gespeel het op Kwaggadag? Dan kan ndaar seker ook ‘n probleem wees vir iemand, want die een reserwe was die o/16 senter van Kwaggas.