A friend and colleague has in his collection all but four of the 55
Craven Week programme booklets that have been produced and he let me have a
look at the one from 1987, the last time the week was here in Paarl.
I wasn’t at that week, my first one was the next year, as manager of the
Transvaal XV, but it made interesting reading, no fewer than 12 future
Springboks played in the week, and the late Hansie Cronje was the captain of
the Free State team.
Transvaal and Natal played in the main game, which ended in a 22-all
draw, with James Small and Brendan Venter in that Transvaal team. The coach of
the Transvaal team was Niels Bornman, then at Monument, and the manager was Ian
Adam. The Transvaal XV was coached by Max Arnold with Buks de Jager as manager.
All four would become good friends of mine in the years to come.
Adam and De Jager both became headmasters, and both were chairman of the
Transvaal Schools Association later on. Bornman and Arnold, both rugby men to
their very souls have, sadly, both passed away.
I read Dr Danie Craven’s message in the programme and there it is – in
the 24th year of the week’s existence – he still insists that there should be
no winner, and that attractive running rugby, keeping the ball alive, should be
rewarded.
As I put the booklet down, Free State and The Blue Bulls took the field
at Paarl Boys’ High for their opening games, with everyone knowing that this was
in effect a quarterfinal clash and the winners, irrespective of the type of
rugby they played, would advance to the “semis” on Thursday and the winner there
would be in Saturday’s “final”.
Free State won, and they played great rugby – Doc Craven would have approved
– and they will meet the Sharks, who also played nice rugby, on Thursday.
So, no complaints there from me, except that there’s an air of inevitability
about it all, as if it’s been stage-managed, with the aim of putting the hosts
in the main game.
I said so in a piece I wrote for the SA Rugbymag website.
It generated a few comments and one reader pointed out that I’m from
Joburg, and associated with a Joburg school, and insinuated that I was having a
biased go at WP.
Maybe I wasn’t clear, but I was really having a go at the system that
manipulates the passage of the favoured team. Of course the same thing happened
in Joburg last year. The Golden Lions were given Border on day one and they won
a one-sided game 44-8. They then drew with Western Province on day 2 and were
given the main game.
The same thing is happening in Paarl this year: WP beat the Pumas 74-10
on day, and they meet the Lions on Wednesday. The plan is clearly that they
should win that one and draw a capacity crowd for the final on Saturday.
Province have a great side with some brilliant players and they would be
worthy of a place in the final game. But that’s not really the point, is it?
The concept that the big guns get priority and the rest are making up
the numbers never sits well with me. It’s not sporting, and it’s certainly not
educational. Surely the Craven Week belongs to everyone and the lesser teams aren’t
just here to fill out the programme and pass the time until the big games are
played in the late afternoon?
Here’s an idea. It’s not original – they do it at the Khaya Majola
cricket week each year. How about, on day one, matching all the top tier sides
with lower ranked ones? Draw them out of a hat so that there are no knockout
pools to eliminate threatening rivals.
Then let the fixtures committee (the SA Schools Rugby Association) use
their years of experience to do their jobs and match the teams for their second
fixtures on the quality of rugby they played while (probably) winning those
games.
Everyone will have something to play for in their second outings and the
last day’s fixtures can match the two best sides, the way Doc Craven wanted it
done.
And the lesser sides will not be relegated to the early games, playing
each other, year after year.
This was never supposed to be a knockout competition.
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