The downside of having super schools

A downside to the emergence of rugby “super” schools was always going to be the decline and possible demise of the rest.

Not all schools have the resources, or the desire, to become rugby powerhouses and so they have lagged behind. Parents of talented boys who want them to develop into good players no longer send their sons to the local high school like they used to in the old days and those who do start off there may well move to a better rugby programme elsewhere later on. Most switch of their own accord, but some are lured by bursaries and other financial incentives.

The result has been an ever-widening gap, rugby wise, between the top and the bottom schools to the extent that they no longer play against each other any more.

It’s been happening for a while now and it’s reflected in the fixture lists. 20 years ago Jeppe, for instance, would have played schools like Sandringham, Highlands North, Potch Boys’ High and Athlone. Those schools underwent rapid demographic transformation and rugby fell by the wayside. That’s understandable and inevitable What’s more disturbing, though, is that schools that have run healthy rugby programmes in the past are battling to cope now.

That’s been apparent over the last two weekends in Joburg as the private schools returned from their holidays and are scheduled to meet the powerhouses – Jeppe, KES, Pretoria Boys’ High. While they were away, the big state boys schools played each other, or met similar level schools from other provinces – Affies, Westville etc, and some of them will play each other again later in the year.

Now, however, they have Saturdays to fill and the opposition they are facing is not up to it. Sure, they are competitive at 1st team and age group A team level, but they don’t field as many teams in each age group as the big schools do and because it’s always been a numbers game, their Bs and Cs are getting creamed. There have been “whitewash” fixtures and 60 plus score lines and that’s not good for anyone, winners or losers.

Any mother who watches her son - who is probably being far outweighed by the opposition week after week - and sees his team lose by 50 points three weeks in a row would be justified in withdrawing him from rugby.

One private boys school, one that has produced many provincial players over the years, has declared that this might well be their last season of rugby. That’s deeply disturbing.

It’s a complicated issue, and there’s no blame to be assigned. The big rugby schools field 20 plus teams each week, they are all well coached, and they want all of them to play games regularly. The smaller schools have allowed the numbers to dwindle, for whatever reason, to the extent that they cannot supply enough opposition anymore.

It’s not unique to our schools rugby. Exactly the same issues were raised recently in New Zealand recently following a report which found that overall numbers of kids playing rugby were dropping, and that fewer schools were offering the sport.

The top schools apply the latest scientific developments, they have top coaches and the boys work very hard. We all know that success doesn’t happen automatically. Their teams play rugby that is a joy to watch and, naturally, the bulk of the selected provincial players will come from them.

You can’t expect them to back down on the excellent development they are providing. The problem, though, is that they will pretty soon have no-one to play against on a weekly basis (except each other). That would mean the end of the traditional local fixture system, but it will also mean a narrowing of the player base, and that can’t be good for the game.

There’s not much that can be done about it now. The irony, though, is that while our top schools have shown themselves to be among the best in the world, the rest of the school rugby system is crumbling.