It’s fair to say that Heyneke Meyer has not enjoyed the best of seasons. Since taking over as Bok coach this year his reputation has taken a bit of a knock. He’s still held in high regard at Loftus though. Here his past successes as Blue Bulls coach put him in a position to influence how the Bulls go about their business both on and off the field of play to this day. Amongst his ideas implemented was an aggressive junior player recruitment model aimed at ensuring the Bulls remained South Africa’s most successful professional era team. …

In attempts to increase safety, SARU recently accepted proposed changes to school scrumming for the under-14, under-15 and under-16 age-groups. The main effect is that the hit on the engage has been eliminated. The term to describe the new form of engaging is “passive engagement”.…

ADDENDUM 1 of 2012:
SARU REGULATIONS FOR UNDER‐AGED RUGBY:
SCHOOL RUGBY AGE‐BANDING
The following document is an Addendum to the SARU Regulations for Under‐aged Rugby currently applicable to Adult rugby and are additional Regulations that apply to all School‐level Rugby played under the auspices of the South African Rugby Union, the South African Schools Rugby Executive, and the affiliated fourteen (14) Provincial Rugby Unions.…

This is extract from an article written earlier this year by Dr Glen Hagemann, Director of the Discovery SharkSmart Programme & President of the South African Sports Medicine Association. The full article can be found here: http://www.sharksmart.co.za/schoolsmart1204.html…

Although I’m a big fan of school rugby Easter festivals, I’ve sometimes felt a little guilty that my entertainment is being provided at a higher than acceptable injury risk to the players participating. Squads are made up of 22 players, there is rotation and games at certain festivals are reduced from 70 to 60 minutes. Nevertheless the best team players are often required to play all three games over just five days. It’s the kind of big ask we would not dream of making of our modern top senior professionals.…

This topic has come up in conversation with the staff from two schools that had each lost a star player this season. It revolved around the repayment of bursary money. There were different views offered by the staff on what should happen.…

South Africans wanting to get an idea of how the standard of water polo played by schoolboys here compared to those of the world’s leading countries were in for an unpleasant surprise. This score-line might not tell the full truth but provides some perspective:  Croatia 25 South Africa 1.…

A late charge by PaulRoosPa was not enough to stop Paarl Gim supporter PaarlBok from claiming the title. Paarlbok finished with a 78.95% accuracy rate and in 1152nd place overall (Top 3%). Well done Paarlbok! Enjoy the juice.…

Earlier this week the website www.saschoolsports.co.za published their final school cricket rankings for 2012. Wynberg tops the list. Their coach Eric Lefson was recently named as one of the five best school coaches in South Africa by SA Sports Illustrated magazine.…

South Africa’s under-18 water polo team got off to a losing start in their Group B opener in Perth, Australia. They went down 4-11 to Columbia after leading 3-2 at the half time break. …

Once again it looks like the winner of this contest will be decided by the tight 5. Barring a miracle our winner should emerge from one of the current top five on the leaderboard.  Paarlbok, QC86, KlofiePa, Greenblooded and PaulRoosPa …