This is interesting and probably not a complete exercise either due to time constraints and human error. An analysis of 352 first choice under-18 Craven Week players from 16 regions namely Boland, Border, Blue Bulls, EP, EPCD, Free State, Griffons, Griquas, KZN, Leopards, Limpopo, Lions, Pumas, SWD, Valke and WP reveals that only 66 played under-13 Craven Week in either 2008 or 2009. So for now that is just ±19%. Incredible when one thinks of the emphasis placed by high schools on recruiting under-13 players.
List of under-18 Craven Week 2013 that played under-13 Craven Week as well.
| # | TEAM | CW no. | NAME | SCHOOL | TEAM | CW no. | NAME | SCHOOL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boland | 12 | Chemandré van Schalkwyk | Swartland | KZN | 6 | Njabula Gumede | Maritzburg College |
| 2 | Boland | 14 | Mishaun Arendse | Schoonspruit | KZN | 8 | Daniel du Preez | Kearsney |
| 3 | Border | 5 | Robert Lyons | Selborne | KZN | 13 | Matthew Reece-Edwards | Kearsney |
| 4 | Border | 7 | Jedwyn Harty | Selborne | KZN | 16 | Tristan Tedder | Kearsney |
| 5 | Border | 11 | Jerry Danquah | Queens | KZN | 22 | Corné Vermaak | Glenwood |
| 6 | Border | 13 | Somila Jho | Dale | Leopards | 8 | Tiaan Bezuidenhoudt | Rustenburg |
| 7 | Border | 14 | Lilitha Jonas | Queens | Leopards | 13 | Markus Coetzer | Bergsig |
| 8 | Bulls | 5 | RG Snyman | Affies | Leopards | 19 | Jaco Swanepoel | Schoonspruit |
| 9 | Bulls | 8 | Salmon Van Huyssteen | Affies | Limpopo | 1 | Malesela Mabokela | Ben Vorster |
| 10 | Bulls | 20 | Ivan Van Zyl | Affies | Limpopo | 12 | Jean-Pierre van Wyk | Louis Trichardt |
| 11 | Bulls | 22 | George-Lee Erasmus | Garsfontein | Lions | 6 | Dwayne Pienaar | Monnas |
| 12 | EP | 5 | Stefan Ebersöhn | Grey HS | Lions | 9 | Hamer Esterhuizen | Monnas |
| 13 | EP | 10 | Ernst Stapelberg | Framesby | Lions | 13 | Godfrey Ramaboea | KES |
| 14 | EP | 11 | Keanu Vers | Grey HS | Pumas | 3 | Conraad van Vuuren | Nelspruit |
| 15 | EP | 12 | Luan Nieuwoudt | Nico Malan | Pumas | 5 | Michael Basson | HTS Middelburg |
| 16 | EP | 16 | Arno Lötter | Daniël Pienaar | Pumas | 7 | Daniël Maartens | Nelspruit |
| 17 | EP | 20 | Matthew Alborough | Grey HS | Pumas | 9 | Rowan Gouws | HTS Middelburg |
| 18 | EPCD | 8 | Luigy Van Jaarsveld | Marlow | Pumas | 12 | Helgaard Viljoen | Nelspruit |
| 19 | EPCD | 12 | Peet Schoeman | Marlow | Pumas | 19 | Tristan Jooste | HTS Witbank |
| 20 | Free State | 2 | Andrew du Plessis | Grey College | SWD | 1 | Juandre Dique | Oakdale |
| 21 | Free State | 3 | Ruan Kramer | Grey College | SWD | 2 | Marne Botha | Outeniqua |
| 22 | Free State | 6 | Refiole Rampeta | Louis Botha | SWD | 3 | Stefan Grundlingh | Outeniqua |
| 23 | Free State | 7 | Marius Louw | Grey College | SWD | 5 | Eduard Zandberg | Outeniqua |
| 24 | Free State | 10 | Julian Delicado | Grey College | SWD | 12 | Warrick Gelant | Outeniqua |
| 25 | Free State | 15 | EW Viljoen | Grey College | SWD | 13 | Douw Schoeman | Outeniqua |
| 26 | Free State | 18 | De Wet Bezuidenhout | Grey College | SWD | 15 | Hennie Barnard | Outeniqua |
| 27 | Griffons | 7 | Gerrit Otto | AHS Kroonstad | SWD | 20 | Maurice White | Oakdale |
| 28 | Griffons | 10 | Shaun Reynolds | Goudveld | Valke | 2 | Pieter Jansen | EG Jansen |
| 29 | Griffons | 15 | Sechaba Matsoele | Bethlehem Voortrekker | Valke | 8 | Mornè Swart | EG Jansen |
| 30 | Griffons | 21 | Riaan Pretorius | Hentie Cilliers | Valke | 9 | MJ van Vuuren | Transvalia |
| 31 | Griquas | 3 | Doctor Booysen | Noord-Kaap | Valke | 19 | Eddie Mlotshwa | Kemptonpark |
| 32 | Griquas | 9 | GM Bruwer | Noord-Kaap | WP | 10 | Dennis Cox | Excelsior |
| 33 | Griquas | 13 | Dimitrio Tieties | Noord-Kaap | WP | 11 | Dewald Naude | HJS Paarl |
Hi beet.
I know you had some stats on Sprongboks wo had played U18 CW – any idea how many Boks were at the U13 CW?
A major influence is also what school did the boy attend during his schoolboy years. In Pretoria @ u/12 the week is bias towards a certain area/suburb. It changes at u/13 and so on and so on. These stats just show the clever parents. Until all politics in SBR is removed Craven Week will be used to enhance the image of the school’s in charge of that certain age group’s coaches and selectors.
Greenblooded, there is a ruck just outside a defending sides 25, the defending scrum half picks up the ball which is outside the 25, and at the time has one foot inside the 25 and one foot out, is he on or out of the 25 and on that basis can the flyhalf kick the ball directly out?
“Big good is always better than small good”, according to Jake White
@BuiteBreek: née hy was in Laerskool Outeniqua. Hy was nog altyd van SWD.
@beet: the Hennie that are currently playing for kwaggas and SWD was in Outeniqua primary school and is not from WP
@bhkgpa: There is no record of a SWD u13 Craven Week player named Hennie Barnard.
There was a Hendrik Barnard who played for WP u13 in 2008 but perhaps these are 2 different Hendrik Barnards and Hennie’s name should removed from the list of 66 players above???
@BuiteBreek: No that was Douw Schoeman I think.
@bhkgpa: Sover ek onthou was Hennie by laerskool grens en Grens cw gespeel. Eers st 6 Outeniqua toe.
@beet: Hennie Barnard played under 13 SWD and now under 18. He is not from a different province.
@Beet: A very interesting statistic. I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Just shows again why recruitment at u.13 level is the wrong way to go. A more interesting stat would be the pass through rate from u.16 to u.18-level. We all know at u.14 level teams who recruited the big u.13 Craven week boys normally win their games by huge margings, but it levels out at u.16 level. One specific school in Pretoria recruits the big u.13 Craven week players, but when they get to play first team five years later, the school is missing in the play offs. Already their strong (full of Craven week hostel accommodated) u.14 team of last year struggled to beat their opponents this year whilst their almost unbeaten (full of Craven week hostel accommodated Beeld trophy finalists) u.15 team of last year only managed to finish 3rd in the Blue Bulls u.16 league this year.
@Playa: Most of them did.
Offhand I remember Luan Niewoudt, Julian Delicado, Douw Schoeman (Border) and Hennie Barnard being from different provinces.
Beet, what would be interesting is a stat showing how many of these boys play for the same province that they played for at Under 13.
The u/13 Cravenweek is not an indicator of the real talent in that age group anymore, so sad , but by the time the boys are 16 then the playing field is fairly even as far as size is concerned. I would rather field a team with “pitbull” in them than size,.. a player of size takes one crash tackle then he realize there are small monsters with big hearts out to get him. I have witnessed this so many times before. Unfortunately the knowledge of primary school selectors are biased towards size,..also one of the reasons I dont rate primary school CW at all,..it’s become a joke.
I don’t think that the conversion rate from U13 CW to Grant Khomo is not much better, and that is only 3 years.
@Scrum Doctor: Well said
The reason for this is very clear – boys develop at different rates – when you are 95 KG at U 13 it is a huge advantage but I know of many boys who just seemed to grow earlier than others while some just continue to grow steadilly . Size does matter and is even more important at the lower age groups as the ” fear factor” also comes in then . When the boys are 17 and 18 it is normal to see a scrum half putting a No 8 on his ear but not so in the jnr ranks . That is why rugby is such a great game – it all evens out in the end and remember at the end of the day its not the size of the dog in the fight -its the size of the fight in the dog !!
WP????????????
Question is, why is there such a low conversion rate? Is it because the other boys in the team develop better? Complacency? Coaching? Or is it the continuous recruiting of players by schools in U15 and U16
I don’t see Jean-Luc du Preez here.