Ryno van Der Merwe has been appointed as Pretoria Boys High Director of Rugby. Although his official start date is 01 July, he has already been active since 16 June 2014. He will be tasked with getting rugby structures in place and coming up with short, medium and long term rugby goals for the school.
Ryno’s initial focus will be the under-16A & 1st team. During the 3rd term Boys High plays Menlopark, Maritzburg College and Affies on consecutive weekends. At 1st XV level Ricardo Loubscher and Kleinjan Tromp assist head coach Michael Housdon on a regular basis (when available), so Ryno will spend more of his time with the u16A. Skills development will be high up on the agenda.
Ryno will not be coaching any specific team down the line. He will coach the coaches, add where necessary and advise.He will also observe and do a SWOT analysis on present structure, which will be reviewed and discussed before the start of 2015. During the last few months of this year and the start of next year he will put his structures in place for the different age groups.
Pretoria Boys will NOT be changing it approach towards offering sports scholarships and bursaries, this is still a “no – go area”.
What Ryno has been task with, is how Pretoria Boys High go about attracting junior school rugby players. It has to be remembered that apart from maybe two English primary Schools in the Pretoria region, none of the other 20 or so primary schools play rugby! It’s therefore vital that in addition to all the other educational and cultural goals the schools sets out to achieve, it positions itself in the market so that Afrikaans first language primary school goers where rugby is prominent, feel comfortable making the school their first choice high school.
In 2013 Pretoria Boys High appointed a new cricket director he has made huge strides in getting good cricketers to apply at Boys High. Last year PBHS also held the Provincial under-12 cricket week on the school’s grounds and did a lot of marketing with boys and parents, the spin-off of this, was that they got 8 under-12 provincial cricketers applying at the school for 2014 – no bursaries needed. The parents and boys were able to see the beautiful buildings and grounds and they are impressive, this alone is a big selling point.
Ryno will be expected to hold festivals/clinic’s for rugby aimed at the primary schools in and out of the Pretoria region. There is hope that holding these primary school rugby festivals will have the same spin off as the cricket one did.
Pretoria Boys High are not naive to think that they will get hundreds of great rugby players, but if their initiatives result in between 10 and 20 Afrikaans speaking rugby players applying to attend the high school, it would have a positive impact on their rugby . They are not looking at the under-13 Craven Week players, but rather at the normal A-team players, who usually develop into quality players. They realise that these boys have 6 or 7 top Afrikaans High Schools to choose from, so will have to “box clever” and use their facilities and Ryno as this selling point, for boys to apply at Pretoria Boys High School.
With Ryno’s background (Super 15, Currie Cup and Cheetahs Captain) they are hoping that these junior players see that we are serious about rugby at Pretoria Boys, his Afrikaans background will hold him in good stead as well.
Pretoria Boys High is under no illusions that rugby will be rectified overnight and results will suddenly change, but his appointment shows that they do take rugby (and all of the other 13 sports offered ) seriously. They will work with what they have, hopefully gaining some good players at Grade 8 and develop them hopefully into not only good rugby players, but great Boys High boys!|
Pretoria School is still one of the best schools in South Africa. The slump in rugby is temporary. Their long-term rugby track record is outstanding. Academic and cultural side of the School is flying, 100% matric pass rate last year. With regards to the 2015 intake, the school has place for 70 odd grade 8 boarders and about 250 day boys. The boarding establishment is full for next year (with a waiting list) and they are way oversubscribed for day boys by about 240!
Newsletter on Ryno van der Merwe’s appointment here: http://www.boyshigh.com/i/assets/Director%20of%20Rugby%20Letter.pdf
@beet: goeie aanstelling of jy nou engels of afrikaans sprekend is as jy jou rugby en sport ken het jy nie taal nodig nie net n persoon met n passie vir sport en kinderontwikkiling geluk ryno en alle voorspoed aan jou
@Tang: Fantastic, that is all that is missing from the Best School In the World
@RBugger – You are spot on with the Gym. Boys High plan to build an indoor sports center with a far more suitable gym.
The current gym is not conducive to building suitably conditioned teams.
@Tang: @RBugger: I still can’t forgive PBHS for spoiling what could have been our unbeaten season in 1999…the fact that it was only by one point makes it an even more painful pill to swallow.
All the best with the new appointment.
@Tang: Boys High is one of the most beautiful schools in the Country – in terms of the schools ‘looks’ it should not be difficult to get boys.
The one area of concern, is the facilities – in terms of gym etc – when I was there, the school gym was terrible, a tiny little room with only a few weights.
Has this changed? If we are going to get proper young rugby players to join Boys High, we need to be able to show the parents that our rugby programme and facilities can match that of the likes of Garsfontein etc
@Tjoppa – I think you make an excellent point. Boys High has many Afrikaans speaking boys but are they at Boys High for the sport or the academics? Boys High will have to find a way to convince young rugby players to come to Boys High.
@Beet – Boys High have three boarding hostels. Each hostel has around 105 to 110 boarders so total boarders is between 310 and 330.
The boarders are no doubt the back bone and I would estimate that only 30% of the day boy population are real contributors to sport.
@GreenBlooded: True.
I have been involved with TAG for the last 6 years, mostly in the Cape Town townships. I still play myself. I am constantly disappointed at how SARU sees it as just a side show. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t suit the SA brand of bash it up rugby, I guess. But I have seen some individuals develop skills and rugby brains through it, and as important, if not more, as you have mentioned…the instinct of going for the waist in the tackle.
@Playa: Growing in popularity here in KZN too. It’s attractive to the cautious parent because there is no contact. It is also a great way to teach kids how to create and use space and also, when they do eventually get into contact rugby, the natural instinct is to tackle around the waist as opposed to jersey tugging and going for the neck area.
@beet: If SARU took something like TAG Rugby a bit more seriously it would go a long way in alleviating that gap. I heard it’s quite extensively played in the junior ranks in Australia and England.
@Tjoppa: ja en nee tjop… pbhs is groot op krieket, seunshokkie ens… in n skool met 1600 seuns MOET daar talent wees…! Ek ken ryno persoonlik baie goed, en eks oortuig daarvan dat hy n moerse verskil gaan maak… ek hoop ook so, want sedert paul anthony weg is het dinge met pbhs se rugby in reverse in gegaan… hulle onderpresteer beslis…
I’ve heard before that the 400+ boarders at PBHS are the backbone of their sports. 400 is a lot of boarders. How does this compare to the other major rugby schools in Pretoria in terms of size?
@beet: A similar concept as the “Bakers mini cricket”- a rugby version, so to speak? Invite teams to play in the 22 mtr area at venues where “big” rugby is taking place @ 20 or even 15 minutes a side. I see no reason why they will NOT participate.@Rugbyman: You say that we have it all wrong, but then go on to confirm what we have said? This all just confirms that SA rugby is under far greater threat than what even I thought.@kosie: The truth is that unions will have to continue to “poach” players from unions where rugby is first choice among “learners of colour” , but its the governments responsibility to promote rugby in those English medium primary schools
The good news – Excellent choice PBHS will look far to find better.
The bad news – Appointing a Afrikaans speaking coach will help zero/nothing/ziltch. Boys High’s demise was due to the rising of Garsfontein and Menlo Park. The boys normally not making A side at Affies will defect across the road early in gr 8. But with the rising of Gapsies and MenloPark this will not happen anymore. And unfortunately quality boys are not as available as everyone wants to believe. If we look at Waterkloof’s junior teams a definate decline is showing. Again due to the other schools rising. Unfortunately if Boys High want to compete, read top 20, they will have to start playing the field. Everybody else in Pretoria is.
@beet: I dont think they’re interested… so they wont throw the net…
@Rugbyman: No I disagree. If you don’t throw out a net, you don’t catch anything.
When something isn’t working one does not have to give up and accept. Some outside the box thinking is needed here. Schools might not buy into rugby so beg them for just 6 weeks of their year and come up with a form of the game that at least gives kids an introduction to rugby even if its not a contact sport. The English medium schools seem like the best positioned to uncover PDI talent.
Fantastic News!!! It is about time the special Candy Stripes come back onto the rugby scene.
I am confident the Boys High Boys will be back.
well done PBHS – long may you keep your nose out of the snout. The school sells itself and does not need to enter into the dirty rugby recruiting wars.
@beet: English speaking primary schools in the Northvaal have always played soccer first and foremost and then a few of them may offer rugby after the soccer season for a short period and then even less will offer rugby before soccer. This is why your junior teams at KES, Jeppe, PBHS etc get klapped out of sight by Affies and Monnas etc – they catch up quickly though!
@BOG: I just counted all the public primary schools in Centurion. There are 17 if I include Valhalla which is officially in Pretoria.
Of the 17, 7 are English medium. Of those 7 I know of only 1 that plays rugby. (Uitsig). They have in the past produced a couple of Craven week players. It use to be an Afrikaans medium school, then parallel medium and since 2010 English.
English primary schools just do not seem to want to play rugby. A couple of Afrikaans medium primary schools boast well over 1600 learners each. They are Wierdapark and Rooihuiskraal. In fact Rooihuiskraal has over 2000 learners if you include Gr R.
@beet: great appointment for PBH! Ryno will make a huge difference!
On the matter of english primary schools in pretoria… sorry guys but u are very far from the realities in pretoria… english boys in pretoria are just not intersted in rugby that much… dont know why, but its been like that for decades… there are also very few english primary schools in pta, remember pretoria is mostly afrikaans speaking… in the entire east of pretoria there is only one public English school… The others are private and I can count them on my one hand…
and as far a rugby being played with limited contact… it is a contact and collision sport… if u dont like that, dont play it…
@beet: A similar concept to “Bakers Cricket” ?
@beet: A concept similar to “Bakers cricket”??
@beet: Similar concept to “Bakers cricket” ??
@beet: Almost like “Bakers cricket” ??
@BOG: Ja Bog it is scary. Just one consecquence re:English Primary Schools: amongst all this big talk of transformation that seems to brainwash many into believing that sports in SA at the highest level should be about satisfying politics first and merit second and all the window-dressing that goes with it, it seems like a fundamental of genuine honest transformation has been overlooked, namely grassroots level rugby. In the most populated region of SA, at the schools that are best positioned to grow the game, it’s not being played at all.
I think SARU must come up with a version of rugby that is fun for kids, with minimum contact involved and cost effective and start it out in the Gauteng English primary schools that don’t play rugby at all. At least then kids get an intro to rugby and talent can be more easily identified. It’s impossible to get more and/or better players to come through at the top level of the sport without widening the base
A bit of “useless” and frightening information that jumped out of this article, is the fact that only 2 English medium primary schools play rugby, in an area the size of Pretoria. It goes a long way to explain the need to import players of colour for representative teams. Most of these players attend English medium schools, and this region is no exception in facing this dilemma.
Sorry, I just read the article in the link. He indeed coached at Garsfontein. I really hope he can make a difference at PBH as they deserve to become the force they once was.
@Rugbyman: Help me out here. Did Ryno not assist in coaching at Garsies. I can’t find it in the article above, but I am almost certain he coached at Garsies before taking the job at PBH. If I am wrong, sorry.