Most of my attempts to have a friendly dig at WP SBR supporters following the KZN under-16’s impressive come from behind 19-17 win against WP at Grant Khomo Week 2015 have been taken very well and not necessarily because these folks are great sports either. There is something more at play here.
In some Province sectors, the loss is being treated as a sort of blessing in disguise type outcome. This attitude is not because they are fickle fans but rather because they are the exact opposite, people who care about the regions rugby and promote fairness. It all stems from unhappiness over the selections in spite of WP adopting a new national youth week selection process this season. “As long as WP continues winning, no one will pay any attention to the problems.” So instead of a case of salt in the wounds being felt by my comments, it been a rather disappointing thank you KZN for helping us out, let’s talk again this time next year!
The WPRU seems to be proactive in responding to situations and some might even describe them as over-reactors (remember the Bulls list of ±60 WP schools players they wanted to talk to about contracts for rugby after school), so it will be interesting to see what changes they make to avoid a repeat of this Grant Khomo situation.
One defeat hardly spells crisis though but as a backdrop it’s worth understanding that come the July Holidays, WP basically take that batten from Grey Bloem, the usual inter-schools top dogs and produce similar results at the national youth week level. It is extremely difficult to beat a Western Province Youth Week team. So much so that the term “clean-sweep” has become the flavour of the season as the WP age-group teams set about to clean up with four out of four titles in the “Majors”. The majors in rank order of most important to least important to win being Under-18 Craven Week, Under-16 Grant Khomo Week, Under-13 Craven Week and Under-18 Academy Week. The bottom-line is the bar has been set very high by WP, but there are a few close to the action who believe that it could be and should be even higher.
On Thursday, 09 July, KwaZulu-Natal plays the Golden Lions in the under-16 final.
I have to echo the WP supporter sentiment from various Lions camps. Surely the strength and performance of several traditional unions (Lions, Bulls, WP, KZN, SWD, Valke, etc.), to name but a few, warrants their 2nd teams to participate in GK. The organizers are faffing around with “country district” and other development teams that are clearly not in the league of the better teams. WP can probably field four very competitive teams at any one time. Very sad for many players who; “just missed the cut”. May the selectors, trainers and managers participating in this nepotism know that your actions are being discussed and the wheel turns. Some may say that talking about these issues are a waste of time, but somewhere actions will realize. When we stop talking about it, we condone it!
We can say whatever we want to say, we will not change the minds of Selectors. They will select according to a set of criteria not even they had a say in, as it is simply handed down to them. I have no evidence to say what I have just said and it’s purely my ‘gut’ feel or opinion.
Some boys were left home with tears in their eyes and some were not even given an opportunity to go for trails. Just saying!!!
I’m glad the Grant Khomo week is now done and dusted and we can move on. It seems we have identified some future stars, and that can never be underestimated.
So maybe the blog can select a possible team for us?
I think all provinces have a similar problem or two, but let me rather keep my mouth shut before I get a call.