Foothold for College while Westville loses ground

Maritzburg College has made great strides forward judging by the make-up of the new KwaZulu-Natal High Schools Rugby Association Executive Board, KZN under-18 selectors and under-18 coaches panels. This while fellow KZN rugby powerhouse Westville Boys’ High appears to have taken a step backwards in as far as their influence in the decision-making process is concerned.

Maritzburg College

College headmaster Chris Luman has  been voted onto the KZN HSRA Exec. He is now one of six Exec members able to influence the direction KZN school rugby moves in. An interesting perspective that Luman has to offer stems from his time spent as a teacher in New Zealand, where his passion for rugby lead to him acquire experience of how All Black school rugby systems operate. No doubt KZN can expect to benefit from him sharing this knowledge.

Apart from Luman, the two other new Exec members are both from private schools. They are Tony Richter who is the Hilton Head of Rugby and former KZN Craven Week coach, and André van Wyk who will take up the reigns as Michaelhouse 1st XV coach in 2016, having Sharks junior rugby coaching and development rugby work to list on his CV.

Luman is therefore the only Exec member from one of the big government high schools. Each of the Big-3 private schools has a member while technical high school George Campbell who has been downgraded to KZN tier-2 status in recent years, still has two members in the mix.

The full line-up is:

Noel Ingle – Chairman (George Campbell), Dean Moodley – Secretary (Kearsney), Gerald Pyoos (George Campbell), Chris Luman (Maritzburg College), Tony Richter (Hilton) and Andre van Wyk (Michaelhouse).

A further boost for Maritzburg College is that Director of Rugby and 1^st XV Head Coach Kevin Smith, who also has extensive hands-on club rugby coaching experience, will serve as an under-18 selector. There hasn’t been a College man on that u18 panel ever since Piet Snyman decided not to reapply a few years ago.

Westville

The big blow for Westville as far as KZN appointments are concerned is disguised, so it’s not that noticeable at first. Their newly appointed 1^st XV Head Coach Roland Norris served as KZN u18 Academy Week Head Coach in 2015. He has been bumped up to Craven Week Assistant Coach for 2016. In terms of coaching this is viewed as a promotion, as Craven Week is where the main focus has traditionally lied. However here’s the thing: in KZN the Academy Week Head Coach is automatically an u18 provincial selector (one of eight on the provincial panel), while a Craven Week Assistant Coach has zero official say in team selections. So Westville loses an u18 selector. Add to  this they do not having an Exec member and to rub salt in the wounds, they no longer have any representatives at u16 level either. It’s actually quite surprising that a school like Westville can on the one hand be so vital to the development of top end rugby in the province and yet have so little say in the directing of provincial affairs. But the same statement could have been made about Maritzburg College a few months ago.

The build up to the 2015 KZN AGM suggested change was needed. Changes did take place but it appears that Westville missed the boat. The timing may not have been good for Westville. There were internal distractions that possibly affected their focus. The Westville rugby coaching structure has been undergoing a metamorphosis.

Although two of their staff members/rugby coaches Grant Bell and Torsten Sorensen applied for prominent roles in KZN age-group rugby in 2015, they have both decided to further their careers at other KZN schools starting in 2016.

The 2015 Westville Head of Rugby Jo-Ash van Aswegen did not make himself available for any of the KZN positions.

A positive for the school is that fairly new Westville rugby official Dirkie Strydom did attend the AGM in an informal capacity and showed keen interest in the processes that were discussed. This may pave the way for a bigger role down the line once Westville’s new rugby structure settles into place.