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. Losing the game was not unexpected but the 24 goal margin is a gob-smacker. It has to be said that for a team sport, SA’s preparations for the event were not ideal. Matric exams took priority. Aside from this, water polo is a popular summer school sport in this country. Schools channel a fair bit of energy and in some cases large sums of money towards ensuring local success in the pool. Obvious this emphasis has not been able to recreate the level of competitiveness required to produce respectable scores at international level. Whether drastic steps are now taken to improve the quality remains to be seen. Undoubtedly such measures would have to be kick-started by schools and/or representative bodies employing the services of reputable overseas coaches, which could be expensive. For now the SA players and coaches at the FINA under-18 youth champs in Perth are on a steep learning curve. Hopefully they are enjoying the experience and will be able to share the valuable lessons being learnt, once they return home.
All youth championship scores here: http://schoolboyrugby.co.za/blog/?p=1842
Yep, Bartozs something or other was his name. He was light years ahead of the SA guys of the same age. I think he scored 11 goals in his first game for Glenwood. He even made the SA men look like rank amateurs…
Shew – a big gap – I remember someone (Grasshopper) posted about an exchange student a few years back from one of the Eastern EU countries being so much better than local guys.
Very interesting to see the gap.
Australia 15 SA 4 – in terms of score this result looks more respectable. I wonder how much closer the score would have been had our team had spent 6 months training and playing together. Obviously we would not have overcome the technical advantages that Oz had but the increased cohesion might have made us more competitive.
My Croatian team is looking good.We(SA) will grow with this sort of competition.
Was that a wp or a cricket match?
Yes, this was expected methinks. I did mention previously that the Hungarian Under15 side would beat SA Under 18 quite easily. You are right in that we need Eastern European coaches here for a few years to help out. Also, a handful of the players of exchange. In the 90’s Glenwood had one Hungarian bloke who blew everyone away. We have the size but not the required skills yet….