KZN

Westville who already have tremendous rugby depth in their open age group welcomed two new and very talented under-16 players from Hudson Park in East London into the fold late last year. Both boys were part of the highly successful Border 2013 Grant Khomo team that went through the under-16 tournament unbeaten, including defeating the always competitive Free State along the way.

These recruitments have not to go down well in the Eastern Cape. A positive movement to stop so called “poaching” has started to gain a lot of momentum in the Border region, where young players from less privileged backgrounds are increasingly becoming the targets …

Noel Ingle, the Chairman of the KwaZulu-Natal High School Rugby Association, has been named as an SA Schools Vice Chairman. Part of the duties include attending 10 meetings per annum where key issues regarding school rugby will be discussed and some important decisions made.…

Brandon Staples of Glenwood is one of KwaZulu-Natal’s best schoolboy rugby players. The big No.8 who is now under-17 has represented KZN at both under-13 and under-16 levels in the past. He is now very high up on England’s “must have” list. …

Current St Charles under-16A coach Deon Gericke has been appointed to replace Sean Erasmus as the KZN Craven Week assistant coach. In all probability Deon will work with the forwards while fellow newly appointed assistant coach Grant Bell (Westville) will handle the backs. …

This one will come as a huge surprise to those outside the Kearsney circle of rugby interest. The highly respected and humble Barend Steyn, Kearsney’s head coach ever since 2001 and by far the longest serving KZN tier-1 head coach, has made the decision to step down and allow his assistant Francois Lubbe to take up the reins. …

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:…

He didn’t win the Currie Cup all on his own but hats off to debut season Sharks coach Brad MacLeod-Henderson for his worthy contribution to the 2013 success story. In the process he probably achieved a first in the professional age by making the switch from a schoolboy rugby coach at Hilton College in the Natal Midlands to professional rugby cup winning head coach in less than four months.…

After just a few months in the position, Dru Nass is now officially the former Head of Rugby of Durban High School, having returned to the Eastern Cape (Queens Junior) for personal reasons.…

There are reports circulating in the media that Commercial Director Rudolf Straueli will leave the Sharks shortly to join the Lions.

If he does go, there is a chance that more details about his management style during his time in Durban will be talked about more openly and perhaps in that lies the opportunity to find out more or less what kind of a decision-making influence he exercised over schoolboy rugby in KwaZulu-Natal.…

Hilton has confirmed the appointment of AC Blume as their new 1^st XV rugby coach. The energetic young Afrikaans teacher and assistant housemaster was assistant coach to Brad Macleod-Henderson over the past couple of seasons.…

I came to hear about this over the weekend for the first time. Just remember you know the context whenever someone starts a statement with the word “apparently” so here it goes: …

Finally the adults seem to have that put their differences aside, meaning that in 2014 the boys from Westville and Glenwood can again do what they have always wanted to do all along and that is to just play some good hard rugga against each other. …

Well it’s quite possibly the most lucrative schoolboy rugby coaching position in South Africa so you can bet your bottom dollar that the list of applications received by Hilton College for the post of rugby head coach contains numerous familiar names in KwaZulu-Natal local rugby circles and from outside the province as well. Given the potential salary involved there might even be one or two very high profile coaches with professional or maybe even international experience applying for the position.…

Maritzburg College has released their provisional fixture list for 2014, giving us some an idea about what to expect next year:…

The Kwazulu-Natal Sevens team that will be participating in the national under-18 tournament to be played in Pretoria at Curro Hazeldean, from 16 -17 September is:…