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School rugby quotas

5 December, 2013 beet 15

Okay this one is not as bad as the title might lead you to believe. It’s has nothing to do with politics or transformation. Instead it’s about an idea I thought of to deal with an imminent threat that has the undesirable ability to undermine the integrity and enjoyment of schoolboy rugby.

The danger I’m talking about the so-called “arms race” …

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Smaller rugby schools’ players dominate Golden Lions awards 2013

4 December, 2013 beet 3

This year’s annual Golden Lions awards ceremony turned out to be a fitting tribute to the big role smaller schools still play in developing talent for senior rugby.  Some of those rewarded for achievement in the different team categories (u19, u21 and senior) schooled at the likes of Alberton, Bredasdorp, Hartswater, Marais Viljoen, Pretoria North, Standerton and Transvalia.…

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Big Fish in a Little Pond

4 December, 2013 beet 42

I watched a CNN interview with author Malcolm Gladwell a short while back. In it he discusses his latest book “David and Golliath”. This is the same Gladwell that wrote the book Outliers in which he highlights the school age sportsman advantages of being born earlier in the calendar year.…

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SARU may have to answer for quotas

4 December, 2013 beet 5

An interesting article coming from the PlanetRugby.com website

Civil rights organisation AfriForum has warned the South African Rugby Union in a letter that its decision to implement racial quotas in the Vodacom Cup series next year

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EP Kings u19 contracted players for 2014

28 November, 2013 beet 7

The EP Kings under-19 team did incredibly well to earn themselves promotion this year after hitting form towards the end of the Currie Cup B-division season. They came from third on the log to win the title and then beat Border in the promotion-relegation play-off.  This means that their under-19 team will be playing against all the big unions in the under-19 A-division championship in 2014.…

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Slow start for Pieter Rossouw’s ‘Noord vs Suid’ Fest

28 November, 2013 beet 18

Well the idea might not be original but it’s always been a great one. Get the top schools from the Noordvaal to play the best that the Western Cape has to offer on an annual basis. These schools so seldom get the chance to meet on the rugby field, simple because of the logistics.

Putting the theory into practice has not been quite so easy. …

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Paul Roos coach to face the music

27 November, 2013 beet 5

Hein Kriek finds himself in a difficult position at the moment and there is a possibility that he could be relieved of his position as 1st XV head coach at Paul Roos.

Up until now Kriek has steadily being building a reputation as a top class schoolboy rugby coach. …

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KZN looking for a new Craven Week forwards coach

27 November, 2013 beet 32

The departure of coach Sean Erasmus from Glenwood to Paarl Boys High will leave the KwaZulu-Natal under-18 Craven Week team with a vacancy at forwards coach.

The clear cut criteria for selection of a new assistant coach has been provided by the KZNRU High Schools’ Association:…

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Why only 24 schools are part of the “anti-poaching” charter

27 November, 2013 beet 27

Email sent in:

The bloggers on schoolboyrugby.co.za are making far too much about who is on and who is not on the list of 24 schools.

What no one has noticed is that these 24 for schools are all part of the informal organisation of state-aided monastic boys’ high schools that has been in existence for about 17 years now.…

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24 schools making up the rugby anti-poaching charter

26 November, 2013 beet 83

The Burger newspaper has revealed the names of the 24 government schools that have agreed to a “ons sal nie spelers met geld lok nie” (we won’t use money to attract players) charter that is in the process of being established.…

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Sunday Times probes schoolboy rugby poaching

17 November, 2013 beet 220

“How money moves rugby schoolboys” was the title of an interesting Prega Govender article in the national paper Sunday Times. The article grouped wealthy schools and rugby unions together as it touched on the sensitive topic of poaching “black” players using financial incentives.

The paper established a tally at 37 pupils poached in recent years from the Eastern Cape and Boland. …

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Golden Lions u19 contracted players for 2014

14 November, 2013 beet 92

The Golden Lions have their 40 schoolboy signings for 2014 in the bag. 2013 Beeld Trofee winners EG Jansen from Boksburg have been a team blessed with talent in all departments so it comes with little surprise that they are best represented school in the Lions under-19 group  for 2014 with nine players. Amongst the names keep a close eye on Jansies No.8 Marco Holmes. At 1.85m and 95kg Holmes is a player similar in size and ability to Carel Greeff…

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SARU coaching survey & interest in specialist scrum coaches

12 November, 2013 beet 1

Email from SARU to certified Boksmart coaches and referees :

Dear BokSmart Certified Coach or Referee

Thank you for your contributions to Playing Smarter, Safer, Rugby.

As part of the BokSmart initiative, we have developed a new BokSmart focused Research and Communications portal called BokSurveys.com. Via this portal, we will be able to communicate important Rugby Safety related information to you directly, and will also be able to use this as a platform to perform certain Research Surveys aimed at further improving both the safety of the game and player performance. …

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Heyneke Meyer currently second best post-isolation Bok coach

11 November, 2013 beet 15

Believe it or not by the time this End of Year Tour is over, current Springbok Heyneke Meyer will be the fourth most experienced Bok coach of all time, overtaking both Rudolf Straeuli and the legendary Doc Danie Craven to claim that spot. The Boks’ 24-15 win over Wales on the weekend, also pushes Meyer up into second place since test rugby readmission. This second place is in terms of both win percentage and  a specially devised rating formula which takes the quality of the test opponents into consideration.…

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Springboks face tough test against Wales

7 November, 2013 beet 55

The Springboks will have their work cut out for them if they want to beat Northern Hemisphere champions Wales in Cardiff on Saturday night 09 November 2013 (Kickoff at 19h30). The result of this game will go a long way to determining if Bok head coach Heyneke Meyer’s second year in charge is a success or not.…