Wherever you look at the moment, the Hoër Tegniese Skole (HTS) are having a tough time in schoolboy rugby.
HTS Drostdy – Western Cape
Truthfully Drostdy are still looking in pretty good shape as a rugby power. There problems were however highlighted last year when they had to play 7 matches in 14 days.
There are a couple of reasons for this seemingly.
They have outgrown their Boland opponents in terms of strength for want of a better way to describe it. That means the Donkeys have to find fixtures outside their provincial region. Unfortunately closest neighbours Western Province Premier League schools are have a chockoblock fixture list, severely limiting opportunities to get a match during the season. This is even before discounting those who are not over the moon with the quality of the Boland refs in Worcester.
HTS Daniel Pienaar – Eastern Cape
The oldest technical high school in South Africa is based in Kariega (formerly known as Uitenhage) is a shadow of their former self. Daniel Pienaar have produced Top 10 national teams 20 or so years back. They once attracted a full house of 360 students to the three boarding houses. Now they have about 50 boarders and as one can imagine have severe fund restraints. The school is fighting to keep out normal school subjects out, as they pride themselves on being a purely technical school. This restricts their ability to increase the number of learners and recover. Their rugby is really weak at the moment.
HTS Middelburg – Noordvaal
The Pumas region powerhouse is no longer competing in the top tier Noordvaal competition. A few other things have gone wrong, Covid being a big one, but in large financial constraints are at the heart of the Rooibulle demise. Like fellow Pumas big guns, they may have to spend a bit of time in the lower league, while they work out ways to rebuild their warchest for rugby spending.
HTS Louis Botha – Free State
A few years back the Bloemfontein school was the Free State feeder school for players of colour for the national youth week teams. They were only ranking second to Grey College on an annual basis for the highest number of Craven Week players from a single school. This resulted in them being the second best team in Bloemfontein and decent school rugby rivals. However the wheels fell off. Poor academics and issues of discipline started to plague the school’s image and soon the funds for rugby dried up to a large extent.
Some good news. The mighty Port Rex Technical High School is having a resurgence in its rugby after being the East London whipping boys for more than a decade. They have a decent crop of u16s and u15s this year.