Paarl Boys’ High Director of Rugby Sean Erasmus has developed a new attack-minded blueprint for the school’s entire rugby programme. This is following in the footsteps of main rivals Paarl Gim in wanting to play the same structure through all the age-groups.
Boishaai have not made any changes made to the original coaching staff this year. They have a good team in place. The main addition is former Irish international CJ Stander who has joined as a coach, not only for the first team but also to implement the new Boishaai brand in the younger age-groups. CJ focuses on breakdowns and provides assistance with the forwards.
Former pro rugby fullback Wynand Pienaar has also joined as a coach, specializing in kicking techniques as part of the Blue Trademark approach.
Gerrie Visser is responsible for skills development and enhancing attacking strategies across all teams.
Sean’s goal is to foster synergy among all Boishaai teams and to further develop the talented coaches within the school.
As a key component, the flyhalf effectively orchestrates the attack from the number 10 position, supported by strong players around him.
Next up Boishaai faces South African schoolboy rugby’s toughest challenge – an interschools against Grey College in Bloemfontein on 11 May 2024! Grey are in unbelievable form at the moment, while Boishaai, who got the season off to an excellent start, are starting to find their feet again following a series of really competitive fixtures. Obviously making the 950km trip even more difficult is that their A-teams have just returned from a festival tour in Kimberley.
This post has me confused.
Grey has been doing all the things mentioned for decades. All the teams play the same pattern/style of rugby and they invest in their young coaches. I would think that most of the top rugby schools do the same.
And teams either play off the 9 or 10 – also old hat.
@yesnomaybe (Comment #1)
Brilliant post!
@Snelvuur (Comment #3)
Yeah I was also thinking about TWE’s comment on the way home.
Boishaai has had a rugby committee for a while while it seems like its been a more recent introduction at PRG.
I was wondering which state schools would make up the Top 10 richest rugby programmes.
@TWE (Comment #2)
I also agree that a more in-depth explanation about what you mentioned regarding playing more to fund the programme could prove to be valued information
@TWE (Comment #2)
Really? I thought Paarl Boys’ had quite a lot of money pumped into their rugby programme. They might not have as much money overall as some other schools, but I think they spend it in quite a focused way on rugby (e.g., whereas a school like PRG also places a lot of emphasis on other winter sports like hockey and soccer, PBHS mainly focuses on rugby). Also, is Shoprite sponsoring another school? That would be very strange as Christo Wiese is a PBHS Old Boy (and a proud one, as far as I can tell). Not sure to what extent Steinhoff or Remgro has ever been involved in any school, although the Ruperts in their personal capacities have been involved in PRG. From what I recall (and I may be wrong, as I have not seen the employment agreements) Sean Erasmus was the best-paid schoolboy coach of all the coaches in the Cape during his first stint with PBHS. Why do you say playing more would help them generate more money? They still have the same number of home games and most of the extra games they play are played at festivals (e.g., the big difference between their schedule and PRG’s is that they also played in an Easter festival), but I’m not clear as to how this would result in extra income for them? Is the school being paid to play at these festivals?
It is myth that PBHS has lots of money to spend. They don’t, at least not in the league of schools with Remgro / Steinhoff or Shoprite funds like our neighbours. All schools in the Cape are competing for the same talent pool, so coaching helps to remain competitive. What it does have is a wonderful town to bring up your family, and an opportunity for a guy like CJ to learn to coach. The problem that you do have if you don’t have the funds is that you have to play as much as possible to ensure you can fund the program, so in that sense it has a cost. If it was to be nr 1, they would not change the style that actually brought them there – rugby based on a strong forward pack as coached by the legendary Richard Visagie, playing for penalties and driving mauls. Whether this will work is another question, but it does make for more attractive rugby, and it is probably where rugby globally will move to given safety concerns. For example, as Hopper as the resident English expert may confirm, the largest rugby tournament in the UK is the Rosslyn Park 7’s where this year more than 1100 teams played and 3700 matches over a week.
Wow, what are the rankings doing to school rugby? Firstly those rankings are crap & not accurate as not all the schools play each other. The only ranking system that would be fair & accurate is a regional ranking system where all the big schools play each other. School rugby is played by children (17/18 is still a child) & they are at school to get an education because 99% of them are not going to make a living from playing rugby yet we treat each 1st team player as if he’s already a professional. Many a 1st team player has told me the same story, all the agents come running like a pack of dogs promising you the world, people that you don’t even know say they can get you into this or that & know this guy this guy & that guy, however, with the majority of them you get nothing. When you leave school all those people disappear & you are shark-shit again if you haven’t been signed up somewhere. A number of boys might sign up to some Union (I see the Lions is a favorite hunting ground for Paarl Boys), some might go & play Varsity Cup, some might play a bit of club rugby & the others will never play rugby again. Once you leave school all those voices are gone because its a new year, more heroes are emerging & the treadmill starts again.
Is it necessary to spend the type of money that most Unions & Super A league clubs can only dream about all to become the No.1 rugby playing school in the country? Yes spend the money on good coaching but if you already have an immense amount of talented boys coming to the school & then you top it off by having an Old Boys fund that offers a number of bursaries, why do you need to spend stupid money on the best coaches. Get Old Boys that are passionate about the school, trust me, the kids will play for them & I promise you the results would not be that much different than what the current crop are producing. I’m super passionate about the game & schoolboy rugby is the best rugby you could ever watch but we are losing the plot by introducing all these professional coaches onto the scene. Rather take that money & invest into professionals that can chat to boys about life after school, handling disappointment in life, handling loss or even handling a break-up, not being picked for the A side. Real life stuff, stuff that matters. Depression is such a major issue at the moment that I fear that by not achieving the goals set out by professional coaches this will eventually affect the kids that they coach. These coaches might know a lot about the sport but speaking & dealing with an adult & dealing with a child is very different.