Email received from a Pretoria Boys’ High supporter who attended the interschools.
Good Morning Beet
Hope you are well, this past weekend Pretoria hosted Maritzburg College, with 17 games of hockey, 28 games of rugby , golf, squash, table tennis, mountain biking , chess, debating, public speaking and finally music ensembles.
Two very like-minded schools get together it makes for a fantastic weekend, no animosity between the schools what so ever.
Yes, I pop my head in at the table tennis and squash, but spent most of Saturday watching rugby and hockey.
On the rugby side Maritzburg College had the better of Boys’ High and won 75% of the 28 games of rugby.
I watched the U14G’s and while a rugby connoisseur, would have scoffed at this game, the great Danie Craven would have loved it, the boys don’t know how to kick properly yet, so its pass to the other boy before I get tackled and dirty my shorts!
As the day lead up to the first team clash, I really felt that this would be a titanic battle, especially after the two teams games leading up to this match. In the first half both sides threw everything at each other and 15 – 8 was a true reflection of the score.
During the 2nd half I noticed how the fatigue had caught up with both sides and suddenly the very tight defence from both teams started to show signs of cracks.
It was Pretoria Boys who started to fall off a few tackles and holes started to appear that up until this match had not being appearing. Yes, PBHS have lost both captain and vice-captain, both very inspirational and key players in this team. Both boys were injured against KES. (a game by the way that both teams played poor rugby and looked very lethargic!) The loss of these players, while very important, wasn’t the reason why Boys’ High lost to KES.
Anyway, back to the Boys High/Maritzburg College game, what did worry me was the niggles (light injuries) that could have being kept in wraps if fewer games had being played. These suddenly started taking their toll on the Pretoria Boys players and one or two Maritzburg College boys.
I had noticed, that half way through the 2nd half the Maritzburg College coaches, started taking off their key players. (Even with all their reserves on the field the lead at that stage was too big to catch up)
The reason I mention this is the these College boys had to return home by bus, late Saturday afternoon and then four days later embark on a trip up to Kimberley, to take part at the Wildeklawer festival, so resting them was vital.
Pretoria Boys, depart on Wednesday for the Grey High festival, fortunately they are flying.
Sorry, I am moving off the topic.
While we need to expose our top school boy rugby players to the highest level of competition, I have checked on your fixture list and some schools have had between 9 and 10 games in 27 days???
This is beyond me, would any professional outfit allow this number of games in such a short period. We expect our schools to put an “unprofessional” player through this task.
He still has to attend school, hopefully he would have played a summer sport, yes school boy rugby is not professional, but watching the Noord / Suid and even the past two weekends, these games are “flipping tough”. I played a fairly high level of rugby many moons ago, and there is no doubt in my mind, this school boy rugby is far harder.
It would be interesting to hear a medical view on these sorts of things, can a 17/18 year’s old body keep receiving the bangs and bruises week in and week out?
One of my biggest worry is the repercussions, on these boys further down the line. Boys who have bumps and bruises can be patches up, but and a big but what happens when for crucial games, boys hid niggles or their coaches persuade them to play and promise to rest them later in the season.
While hopefully us as educators would not do something as drastic as that.
I fully understand that Joe Public want to see school X take on School Y, but at what cost( body wise, we don’t even want to mention the financial cost to attend all these tournaments).
Hopefully SARU will come up with a structure that puts the best interest of our boys first, a suggestion that could work is playing only two fixtures at an Easter festival and maybe only one at say the Noord/Suid.
There is also a suggestion that only one festival can be attended during the Easter holiday.
Right, time to get off my high horse and stop preaching, but hopefully 21 /22 games in the season will return to 16 games in a season.
Let’s see what SARU comes up with in the next few months.
@OUD ANKER: thanx pella. There is no right or wrong
@Kantman: klink omtrent spot on
As ek moet opsom wat ek lees is dit dat:
)
2-3 wedstryde van middel Maart, vriendskaplik om voor te berei, ernstige atlete is nog besig, maar krieket is klaar (begin al 5 Januarie en het 8 weke).
2 wedstryde in Maart vakansie op ‘n “toer”, verkieslik 3 dae uit mekaar (Noord-Suid), of speel jou Paasnaweek wedstryde (maksimum 2). Maar nie beide nie.
2 wedstryde in April in jou streek, en dan 2 by Wildeklawer of soortgelyke toernooi.
Maart = 4, April = 4.
Van hier af speel jy liga of beker
4 in Mei
2 in Junie (Noordvaal moet eksamen skryf
Nou is jy op 14 wedstryde, redelik versprei.
In Julie/Augustus speel jy nog 4.
18 wedstryde is dus redelik?
Good support for picking your March/April tournaments, but limiting it
Some support for changing provincial trials
No support for June “tours”
Very little support for Junior Tournaments outside June/July window
@kantako: O genade, sal graag wou hê dat Garsies ‘n groot budget kon hê. Laat weet groot asb waar dit gekry kan word!😃😃
@skelmbos: Talle skole gee ekstra klasse in die Septembervakansie, sommige verpligtend. Wys net hoe ernstig hulle is oor akademie.
@skelmbos: dit is moeilik om dit te se. Onthou met 7s is daar net 1 Senior span in die skool (O/17) en 1 junior span in die skool (O/15) wat deelneem. En 1 coach per span. Dit beteken in n hele skool is daar 24 seuns betrokke by rugby(gelykstaande aan 1 span in seisoen). Dis so bietjie anders as, in seisoen wanneer daar 10 spanne, of 15 spanne, of in Affies se geval 430 spanne op n naweek speel.
Dit is dan ook die krieketseisoen wanneer goeie rugby spelers, eintlik op krieketbeurse is, en bietjie in die son moet staan. Dit is ook wanneer die atletiekseisoen begin met Top 30, en Naboom, en Puk ens (Menlo Atletiek hou mos nooit op nie). En belangrikste van alles, dit is wanneer die afrigters ook so bietjie in die klas moet wees ter voorbereiding van eksamens ens.
@jakkals op skolevlak kan jy nie minute gebruik nie, want coaches coach om te wen en gaan hulle beste spelers druk tot in die 72ste minuut. Elke game. Daarom ek my opinie gee dat 4 wedstryde per maand. Dit gaan as SKOOL algeheel beteken hulle moet beter beplan, en kan nie al die wedstryde aanvat nie. Wanneer n maand soos nou in Suid Afrika n langnaweek het, is daar nie regtig tyd vir 4 wedstryde nie en dus kan hulle by Wildeklawer 2 wedstryde speel in 4 dae. 🤷🏼♂️
Ons sal nooit die perfekte model he nie
@Wonder: My oudste 2 kinders is onlangs deur matriek en hulle het beslis nie tydens die September skoolvakansie boeke gevat nie. Die laaste week voor die vakansie gaan daar gewoonlik ook bykans niks op die akademiese kant aan nie, want die onderwysers is besig om vraestelle te merk van die toetse wat die voorafgaande 2 tot 3 weke afgelê is. As die laaities tyd het vir 7s toernooie (wat lyk my soos onkruid versprei), het hulle seker tyd vir regte rugby ook?
The pros manage workload by looking at minutes played amongst other things. Might be more difficult to manage for schools with smaller budgets but SARU could also regulate minutes per time period (7, 14, 21 days) and not matches per month…as you’ll find some players will play 70min x 4 while others will play 50min x 4…it’s a whole match worth of difference in playing time.
Team manager can just note substitution times to keep track if they don’t have gps pods.
The whole squad system discussion then comes into play again
@skelmbos: love some of these suggestions!!! Especially about canning provincial trials and moving SARU weeks to later in the year. It should be the culmination of the season. If September is too late maybe August can work? Many schools are now considering the 3rd Term a 7s Rugby season anyway so the Rugby doesn’t really stop for most schools…some Gr12s are still playing well into Rekord Esksamens…at their own choice…
I think SARU should regulate how many matches are allowed in a 7 or 14 day period and schools then have to prioritize fixtures and plan accordingly. It will negatively influence your results and performance if you bite off too much so the schools and coaches will buy in….the sponsors and supporters must just accept it.
@kantako: Your comments and suggestions are spot on!
I think it is much more complicated in a school setup to just re-arrange the fixtures and the season. A school has a specific budget towards rugby, (Garsies maybe a bit bigger) and apart from the budget and travel issues, the school is not a rugby institute
Academic calendar, athletics program, netball, and hockey program and all their respective provincial tournaments, some schools host weeks during the Easter holiday, some schools host other festivals as well as open days, cricket matches etc etc. A lot of these rugby boys are also doing athletics, and playing cricket in the same year. Throw in a grade 11 leadership camp and grade 12 exams, the year is over before it started.
For MOST of these boys, playing rugby in school will be the last time they ever play rugby. Festivals have been going forever, all schools play 3 matches during the Easter holiday on different tours all over the country. This is the marketing window for schools, and the exposure window for players, to hopefully be seen by a scout, or Province, or Varsity.
Rugby is a career, and due to different reasons, unfortunately Craven week is no longer your pathway into a rugby contract, and the boys have much bigger chance getting picked up in the normal school season.
Do I think they play too many rugby matches ? NO
Do I think they play too many matches in a short period ? YES
But then again the times have changed. There is not a single school in the top 20 who does not have
– own gym or HP centre
– own full time physio/doctor/s&c coach
– video analysis
– recovery program
Then schools even have GPS units, hostels where boys get 3 balanced meals, ice baths, freezer rooms, yoga sessions, wrestling, boxing, mental coaches, eye coaches, and the off season program would have been as tough as playing all these matches. I think boys are prepares well enough to play these games in a season.
My opinion will be to allow a school a maximum of 4 matches per month. If you want to play 3 matches at KES and 1 at Noord/Suid in the same month then so be it then no more. This might help coaches to select carefully the matches they feel has value and might open up a match or two at Wildeklawer and Noord/Suid for a smaller school to play a once off match.
@Wonder: Wat sal kan werk?
@skelmbos: Some very interesting proposals.
@Wonder: Die ouens in die Kaap speel net rugby, akademie is ‘n bysaak.😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃🙂
@skelmbos: Rugby in September sal nie werk nie, rekord eksamen en eind eksamen sal prioriteit wees. Julle ouens in die kaap speel moes nie vir bekers nie.
@Kantman: Some good suggestions.
As you have correctly pointed out, the problem is not necessarily the number of games, but rather that some teams have agreed to season schedules that do not allow for sufficient rest & recuperation between games/ festivals, in other words the spread of the games.
Personally I am against any rugby in the April school holidays since the pre-season then interferes with the summer sports (the props should be shot-putting, the locks should be discuss-throwing, the loosies javelin-throwing & running middle-distance, the backs sprinting & jumping).
Easter falls within the April school holidays once in a blue moon.
Easter festivals should be limited to 2 games per team.
Noord-Suid could be moved to Easter to prevent the temptation of over-extending your team by having them play both.
Alternatively it could be moved to 1st few days of June school holidays with Craven week possibly scheduled for the last week.
In my view in the age of streaming, trials for Craven week are both lazy (selectors should watch all matches) and a waste of time (you can tell very little from games where players don’t know their teammates, play with no practised game-plan and feel under pressure to stand out – dit is tipies ‘n getjommel…).
The best time for Craven week may in fact be the September school holidays, when all the contenders for provincial honours have had an opportunity to show what they can di against their main rivals AND there is no disruption to the schools’ teams for the for-some most important end-of-season derby matches. The SA Schools team can then tour to Europe at the end of the year during the Northern Hemisphere season.
Alternatively the Noord-Suid could move to September and change its format a bit to become the official school championship tournament with 4 knock-out and placing rounds played over 17 days including the school holidays (round of top 16 ranked at end of regular season, QFs for cup & plate, SFs for cup & plate & bowl and then finals including lower placings).
Just some more food for thought…
@Kantman: Very good ideas. Spreading the load is the key. April is just nuts! I still feel the ideal number of games is 12 maybe up to 16 across the year. 12 local and 4 festival/tour and there MUST be a week gap between each game. Season finale vs a UK or NZ or Oz school
The way I see it, is that the schoolboy rugby has changed significantly the past 10-20 years and we have not adjusted appropriately. New tournaments have been established, teams are semi-pro since rugby is a potential career, junior week trials are taking too long, rankings have become important to schools and supporters are expecting more strength vs strength games..
The end result is that we have loaded the first part of the season with too many games, and they are mostly competitive.
You have 5 months of Saturdays, from mid March to mid August, equating to roughly 24 Saturdays. Currently most teams have completed 50% of their games (avg 8/16) by end April / beginning May, mainly because of the tournaments. That leaves four months where the remainder is spread out, while June holidays have been handed to SARU for their junior tournaments.
I will be laughed at and I have a snowball’s hope, but I would suggest that June is the ideal time for one of the Tournaments to be held. This will spread games more evenly over the season, allowing for recovery weeks and better attendance where supporters can plan for a week rather than a long weekend.
For that to happen, you would need a rethink about Junior Tournaments and including June holiday games in rankings (traditionalists are gonna trash me, but is simply not fair on some schools that contribute disproportionate numbers to provincial teams). Schools could use the June games to play against non-traditional rivals, play with all ages and without their provincial players. Also an opportunity to test other combinations, build some depth and get a view on the next year.
Then, if it was up to me, I would make the Academy week under 17, play on alternate days to U16 and Craven week, and have it all at the same venue with three days between games (Sat to Sat). Previous attendance have been poor and venues (ideally not schools) should be accessible to more supporters and ‘interested parties’.
Lastly, unions contribute significantly to schoolboy players’ welfare. It does not make sense to me within the current reality to have 3-5 days of trials mid-week, followed by 2 pre-tournament games and 3 games in 5 days at Junior week. All of this from mid-May to June. I think others have expanded better on new approaches in previous blogs and I will leave it there.
I will listen on the radio.
Agreed – there’s too much rugby for these boys. And very shortly the dumbest thing of all will happen when they start playing provincial trials on top of all these tough fixtures!
I see mention always made of 17 & 18 year olds but there are also many 16 year olds playing – and sometimes against 19 year olds. It is what it is but these age gaps make it tough too.
The PBHS hooker I see moved to flank & captained the team – he had another very good game. I hope your 8 & 10 recover as both are very good players.
@Jakkals: Definitely, Grey only have 3 games in April. Kwaggas have 5. Far better than 8 to 10 that some of the others have committed too. Good week gaps for the rest of the season. Well done to both schools for using their heads on this…
Did anyone notice how the top 2 teams in SA (GCB & Outeniqua) have managed their playing load a lot better than the schools below them…?
By the time the game against College rolls around on 6 May, that will be Glewoods 10th Game in 36 days and that includes travel from Durban to Pretoria, Balgowan and finally Kimberly. That is poor decision making and if I was parent of a boy in the 1st XV Squad i would be very tempted to tell the sports staff to go fly a kite, my kid will be at home physically recovering and maybe hitting the books for, you know, his kind of important matric year!
@Dixon’s: Spot on. I would rather play College and Westville twice in a season and have all teams play than get a win vs some side we’ve never played before. Also, ensure ALL traditional fixtures are in place, that means DHS too, put pettiness aside. DHS have been strong the past 3 years and probably would have beaten Glenwood. A win vs DHS, College, Westville is far bigger than just one side beating Dale, just as an example. 12 weeks and 12 fixtures for all sides, maybe 15 for the 1st team including 2 festivals.
iv always said Schools should prioritise full fixtures over tournaments and festivals. its just as important for the under 14 D side to play in a local fixture as it is for the 1st XV to be on TV and playing some big name school. i love the idea of the full weekend all sport fixture like College and PBHS just had this weekend. I know the travelling is always tough on the boys. but I would much rather schools do that spread over the whole 2nd and part of the 3rd term than have a jam packed March and April
@Kaya 85: I agree 200%. Absolute madness. I’m a huge PBHS supporter myself and I said on this blog at the beginning of the season that the PBHS playing schedule is going to kill them. PBHS have 3 BIG derbies (in my opinion), i.e. Maritzburg, KES and the biggest of them all Affies. Nobody has forgotten 2019 when PBHS beat Affies, that is the ultimate victory and PBHS has/had? a chance with their 2023 team to repeat the 2019 heroics against Affies, HOWEVER I’m afraid to say with the crazy schedule PBHS will be so depleted by injuries by the time Affies come along that their chance of victory will be small. My selfish “win-the-important-derbies” comments are obviously on top of the more important player welfare issue linked with these mad schedules.
This dude is spot on! It’s madness. 1 game a week & maybe 2 in an Easter festival. It takes at least 4 days to recover from a battering, day 2 is when the lactic acid build up is at its worst. I would even question all this gym work from the age of 13. I’m going to see if I can get a professional opinion from a bio kinetic expert or doc. Glenwood for example had a great Easter festival but now in local fixtures are flat, devoid of passion & edge. 8 games in under a month. Local derbies count the most for old boys, stick to those & get those right as it then includes all the schools teams. Maybe one out of province tour a year to a similarly minded school who can match down the line & in term 3.
Very very necessary conversation. Agreed, the games are very hard and the boys are being over extended. Yes, it’s fantastic to see the cross-regional fixtures but I think schools will realize they’ve gone too far this year. The physical demands are brutal, if SA rugby does not provide some sane preventative guidelines we could see serious injuries and fatigue destroy the thing we love so much.