The 2014 Inter Provincial Tournament will be hosted in KwaZulu Natal by the KZN Rugby Union and all matches will take place at Woodburn Stadium in Pietermaritzburg from 06-11 October 2014.
Six clubs / unions will participate for the coveted gold medal in each of the Under 13, Under 14, Under 15, Under 16 and Under 18 age groups and the tournament welcomes the powerful Roodepoort Rugby Club for the first time in the IPT history. For more info on the IPT 2014, click on this link
Hosts KZN have a relatively strong team of the tournament. Amongst the players are Cody Thomas and James Hall who apart from having played in the 2013 under-18 IPT, have both represented KZN at Craven Week this year.
| # | Player | Local Club | School | A/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andre Janse Van Rensburg | Collegians | Port Natal | 18 |
| 2 | Brenton Greaves | PMB Collegians | St Charles | 18 |
| 3 | Cody Thomas | Collegians | Westville | 18 |
| 4 | Leclue Bierman | Varsity College RFC | Port Natal | 18 |
| 5 | Shane Kennedy | Varsity College RFC | Northwood | 18 |
| 6 | Marcell Du Plessis | Varsity College RFC | Ashton College | 18 |
| 7 | Nathan Meilhon | Collegians | Westville | 18 |
| 8 | Mthokozisi Ntuli | Varsity College RFC | DHS | 17 |
| 9 | James Hall | Collegians | Kearsney | 18 |
| 10 | Gareth Simpson | Varsity College RFC | DHS | 17 |
| 11 | Dean Badenhorst | Amanzimtoti Junior RC | Port Natal | 18 |
| 12 | Alanas Alasauskis | Hillcrest Junior Rugby | George Campbell | 17 |
| 13 | Qaphelani (Blessing) Buthelezi | Varsity College RFC | DHS | 18 |
| 14 | Karl Terblanche | Collegians | Port Natal | 18 |
| 15 | Ruan Kotze | Collegians | Westville | 18 |
| 16 | Aphiwe Febana | Varsity College RFC | DHS | 17 |
| 17 | Tiaan Van Staden | Collegians | Westville | 18 |
| 18 | Aldo Grobler | Hillcrest Junior Rugby | Gelofte | 18 |
| 19 | Tanner Dunnett | Collegians | George Campbell | 18 |
| 20 | Estienne Verster | Amanzimtoti Junior RC | Port Natal | 18 |
| 21 | Luyanda Ndabandaba | Varsity College RFC | DHS | 17 |
| 22 | Nelson Mhlongo | Hillcrest Junior Rugby | Holy Family College | 17 |
@valke: The boys started today on a pre- season/medical assessment. I can confirm only the KZN boys at this stage.
Tharrat ( flank, College) ,Jackson (Loose head, Michaelhouse) ,Mazwi
Hooker, College) and Hall ( scrumhalf, Kearsney) I believe that they will be very competetive adding the local boys into the mix.
@Buffel: Any news on the EP u19 squad ?
Provinces seems to be very secretive about their squads this year. I wonder why.
Ja. Exciting times ahead for all. The province bound guys have their work cut out. A big pool of players to choose from so their work ethic is going to have to be excellent. Good luck.
@Buffel: I believe Greaves and Meilhon on their way to WP also.
Looking forward to seeing all these boys progress.
2 of the DRSU Craven week players have started their new careers in rugby,one at the EP Kings and the other at Montpelier in France. Cody Thomas and James hall, regular DRSU representatives at age group level, will be putting into practice what they have learnt at school and club level. Thanks to all that have played a part in their rugby development and we hope to see them on the big stage soon.
Cody- Good luck . Your mate is going to miss you but it is a great opportunity so grab it with both hands. I see great things in your future.
@GreenBlooded:
Awesome – we look forward to hearing his “alternative” path. what a great opportunity – and what an amazing adventure – hope he blogs the challenges and adventures of his year ahead. Would love to follow it.
Bon voyage and bonne chance.
Whilst many of the top KZN youngsters will be getting their rugby careers going in the varying U19 franchise setups next season, today is significant for one of KZN’s finest achievers. Westville 1st XV, KZN Craven Week and KZN Duikers tighthead prop Cody Thomas jet’s out to French club Montpelier this morning to begin his contract with the club’s U19 team. Cody was identified by Montpelier last season during an exhibition match between the DRSU team and Montpelier where the visitors named him man of the match. Good luck Cody.
@NW_Knight: Good news. Now ,now. EP is the hotbed of rugby development.
@Buffel: Lions and Valke will compete next year. Good chance of Namibia and Free State competing. Does anyone play rugby in EP?
@Gungets Tuft: Pop down to Riverside on Saturday and come and watch some really good rugby. Fixtures are:
Riverside 18 October
A FIELD Team 1 vs Team 2 TIME
U13 KZN Duikers vs PTA Harlequins 12H00
U14 KZN Duikers vs PTA Harlequins 13H00
U15 KZN Duikers vs PTA Harlequins 14H10
U16 KZN Duikers vs PTA Harlequins 15H20
U18 KZN Duikers vs PTA Harlequins 16H30
B FIELD Team 1 Team 2 TIME
U18 DRSU Invitational vs Tuks 15H00
@Rugger fan: Freestate and the Falcons have fallen by the wayside and hopefully they can get their act together again. It would be great to get the Lions, E.P and W.P to join as then it would have a true IPT feeling about it. Get 2 pools going and the top 2 play in a final at the end of the week.
The final was a good spectical and the quality was there.
@Rugger fan: I agree. But it must be said that the Valke withdrew their provincial side after internal politics meant they had run out of time to organize. Their feed areas were asked to submit strong representative sides, which they did. We will see the Valke and Lions competing next year, as the IPT is in JHB.
As with everything, there are bound to be a few problems. The refs were supplied by KZN and the MRSU were to supply AR’s – this did not happen, leaving KZN to sort out both.
The KZN sides fared as follows:
U13 – Silver
U14 – Bronze
U15 – Bronze
U16 – Gold
U18 – Gold
Both the U16 and U18 sides were unbeaten throughout the week. The U16’s beat the Bulls 17-10 on Saturday in a titanic struggle. The U18’s demolished a good Bulls side 43-25. Both are really good sides. I have no doubt that the U18 side is every bit as good asany Craven week side. There were outstanding players in virtually every position.
Often players do not shine if they are playing in smaller schools or teams that aren’t good. I would question the schools selection and ask how Karel Terblanche and Peter Mabhutana weren’t in the Craven Week team. Both were fantastic. Here are 2 of the many fantastic tries. http://youtu.be/u4JfIRvSGXA and http://youtu.be/v7glF4sOKDw.
Was a little sad that it was not a true IPT in the sense that there were only 2 true Provincial sides. The remainder of the teams were club invitational – or development sides.
Sad as this really weakened the field IMHO. Some good rugby – but still a good week. Also sad to see that officials again were lacking with many of the junior games not having touch judges and refs sometimes appearing out of their depth with tough fixtures.
The Kzn u18’s remain unbeaten after day 4 of the IPT being held at Woodburne.In yesterday’s game against Benoni they were made to fight after falling behind 14-0 after 5 minutes and clawed their way back to run out comfortable winners in the end. That places them on top of their pool with 1 game remaining against the perennial foe, the Blue Bulls .
A nice article lifted from a newspaper on the hostory of the KZN Duikers:
DUIKERS GET A NEW LEASE OF LIFE
After a number of years in the doldrums the Natal Duikers Club founded way back in 1956 by a legendary Durban High School old boy Leo Smithers has been rejuvenated thanks to the KZNRU agreeing to use the famous badge and club for a new schools format and will now be adding the KZNRU Youth Duikers to their arsenal thus saving the club from certain closure after a long and intriguing history.
Traditionally a club utilized to select Under 23 players that were on the fringes of being selected for Natal, the Duikers unearthed some hugely talented players in the past that even went on to play for the Springboks such as wings Trix Truter and Hannes Viljoen. However as the game entered into the new professional era the club started to play fewer and fewer games and were struggling to keep their head above water.
Current Chairman of the Duikers, Frans de Beer who played for the club as a 19 year old in their inaugural match has welcomed the move and feels it will certainly help revive the club and looks forward to generating new interest in what was once an institution in Natal Rugby.
Youth Rugby or mini rugby was founded in 1974 by the late Dr Kevin ‘Laser’ Taylor at the Berea Rovers Rugby Club now College Rovers. Taylor a dentist who arrived from England with the idea of introducing the game to youngsters at an early age soon got the support from local parents and soon the game caught on with many Natal players having been through his hands such was the success of his initiative. Taylor who was recently inducted into the Rovers Rugby Hall of Fame can even lay claim of having one international referee passing through his always enthusiastic hands namely Jonathan Kaplan.
Now years later with the amalgamation with the Duikers Rugby Club, the newly formed KZNRU Youth Duikers will be hosting the Inter Provincial Youth Rugby Tournament starting at Woodburn in Pietermaritzburg (Monday) this morning at 9am. And so with the restructuring of the KZNRU and the establishment of the Sharks Clubs XV this year, has also led to the positive foundation for the future of youth rugby. Now all that’s needed is for the schools to see their way forward and associate themselves more with the clubs to help the youth program become even more successful.
Provincial sides from all over the country have converged on the capital with the week-long tournament hosting close on 1000 youth players and one can only congratulate all party’s concerned for bringing about this wonderful new initiative that surely can only but help the game grow and prosper.
A few “unconfirmed” KZN scores (via Whatsapp groups) from Day 1:
U13 – 19 – 12 win vs UJ
U13 – 17 – 7 Blue Bulls win vs Benoni
U14 – 52 – nil to KZN
U15 – 22 – 15 win to KZN vs UJ
U16 – 68 – nil win to KZN vs Springs XV
U18 – 38 -7 win to KZN
So a clean sweep to KZN today….
Tournament starts today at Woodburn. Hope someone on the scene can keep us updated with results etc. NW_Knight?
@Westers: A discouraging tone is probably all it takes from a first team school coach. That may be so – but some of our club players were told by an assistant or conditioning coach (I know his name but not his position) that if they want to continue in the training squad for 2015 they cannot trial for the Duikers. I actually have a very well written article on this by an unknown writer. It details the number of successful rugby players at Westville who have participated in the club system. The numbers are staggering.
What also amazes me is that last season, every U14 and U15 boy who made the DRSU team and was at a second tier school was immediately offered a scholarship by Westville. I understand that the same is in the process of happening again now that the teams have been announced. Quite a few boys were from Hillcrest High School. Some accepted, some didn’t. So it seems it’s fine to use the club rugby structure to fish for talent but once caught you may no longer participate. Not lekker. Schools must stay out of club rugby matters. When the school season is over – the school cannot lay claim to the boys time or try to control what, when and how they do things.
@Westers: That’s a very interesting point there ;
Westville had 2 Craven Week players in 2014 (CT & WS), both long serving club rugby & DRSU players. 100%
Kearsney had 3 Craven Week players in 2014 (TT, JH & TD), two of which are long serving club rugby & DRSU players. 67 %
So take out Glenwood (3rd term restrictions) and the Midlands (Logistic issues) and you have an 80% hit rate at CW.
It could illustrate two things – the players are hungry and play as much rugby as they can, or, club rugby has benefited their rugby development – you decide
@Gungets Tuft:
Surprise, surprise. We need more forums like these, good going College. Honest, factual sessions, but avoiding finger pointing
@Pedantic: I think Scrum Doctor is referring to the fact that many U18 boys who had previously played club rugby do not play club rugby at all in their matric year. This has changed a bit this year as can be seen from the make up of the side with quite a few boys playing for their second year. There are quite a few matric boys who did not play club rugby this year.
@GreenBlooded: Unless one is on the inside at Westville you will not have any influence on the coaches and there views/instructions on club rugby. I can tell you that last year GB did not instruct boys to stay away from club rugby (the tone was discouraging though) but he did very strongly discourage boys from playing out of their school playing positions when playing club rugby.
Out of interest, two of this years Westville CW representatives played in the DRSU side last year and no doubt JM would have been a third had he not picked up the serious injury that has kept him out of rugby for a year now.
@Grasshopper: My sources inform that certain headmasters were very concerned about what the content might be of the talks at the College sports skop this week, to the extent that certain people may have actually been asked outright what they were going to say. There was, of course, nothing “like that” going to be allowed, it was never planned as a finger pointing session, but rather a heads up and a pitfall-pointing sessions (I am told, because I could not make the session).
Eeisch, it’s going to be an interesting start to the season. Would be so nice to actually have all the team sheets for all A, B, C teams last year, just in case ….
@star: I’m around, just been trying to get through to the Glenwood management about recruiting, hit a brick wall. In fact, even been chucked out of the OB’s group on Facebook. A few of my Westville mates are bombarding TH too….made my point so moving on now…
@GreenBlooded: Thanks .Makes perfect sense. I am little bit worried about Grassy though. His last post was at the end of September which is so unlike him. I hope he has not been ” taken out” by the green mafia.
@star: There is only one club in Maritzburg that competes in the leagues and it only came on board last year with U16’s and this year with U16’s and U18’s. So Colts rugger still needs to catch on in the Midlands – hopefully having the IPT in Maritzburg will attract some attention. But as already noted – the major reason is that Glenwood and College play in the 3rd term. That isn’t to say that GW boys don’t play Colts, there are many that do but it is very much a secondary concern for them until the school season ends.
@star: It more than likely has something to do with the fact that both College & GW play rugby into the 3rd term – a few of their players join their clubs too late to be considered for trials.
I can almost guarantee Westville would have had 3 more in the Duikers side – 3 top U17 players who had to withdraw after pressure from school coaches.
@Scrum Doctor: I’m not convinced that many players are missing because of matric … I can only think of one matric from the club season who probably would have made the side if he went to trials.
Clubs had strong Under 17 representation throughout the season illustrated by the number of former GK players in the U18 squad and you probably find those U17’s outplayed their matric counterparts.
@ Greenblooded- all the major schools seem to be represented in the U18 side except for GW and College which is very surprizing. Is there any reason for this?
@Scrum Doctor: Rugger will be good quality. If you have a gap – take a womble up to Woodburn and have a booga. It’s been many years since KZN Duikers colours have been awarded – so these boys will be giving it horns as the first KZN Duikers in many years AND it is a home IPT being at Woodburn. U13, U14, U15, U16, U18 teams will be in action. They boys stay in-camp for the entire tourney and there is a lot of fun, span-gees and the like that goes on with the older boys becoming mentors to the youngsters. It’s an awesome experience for all concerned.
While on this topic – and if you have any influence at all at Westville, try and get the coaches to stay out of club rugby matters unless they are going to contribute something positive. It was heartbreaking to see a few boys miss out on KZN Duikers colours due to being told they will be ejected from the first team training squad if they attempt to participate. It must be a very bitter pill for those boys to have to swallow.
Hard to judge the standard here – some craven week players and some school 4th team players . Many boys are not playing due to upcoming matric exams but it at least gives other guys a chance ! Be interesting to see how they fare as I guess the other teams will have similar issues with matric so it should be interesting . Good luck boys !
Pleasure – will the League stats also be updated (Try scorers) as these are also incomplete.
BTW: Awesome site – really professional.
@Rugger fan: Thanks for pointing that out – sorted now.
I spotted an error in the U15 squad – #10 and 11 is duplicated. I believe #11 should read – Jordan Taylor – Hillcrest Villagers
@Pedantic: Thanks.
@GreenBlooded: Those are a little outdated, some players have withdrawn due to various reasons including KZN 7’s duties.
Current squads can be seen at http://www.kznyouthrugby.co.za/content/provincial_teams/24
There are also U13, U14, U15 and U16 teams playing under the KZN Duiker umbrella at this IPT. The names of all the boys selected for these teams can be found here:
http://www.drsujuniorrugby.co.za/