The professionals should be producing the pros, not the schools

An article on the All Out Rugby website last week made for interesting reading:

https://www.alloutrugby.com/why-school-power-doesnt-translate-to-pros/

It’s by Brendon Shields who is a rugby match statistics guru who makes a good case for using the numbers that come from a statistical analysis of games as a coaching tool.

The gist of his article is that the mismatches that have resulted from the widening gap between our top schools and the rest are bad for the development of young players because they don’t learn to think on the field – their physical dominance means they don’t have to – victory (by a big margin) is guaranteed anyway.

He’s absolutely right. It’s one of the major side-effects of the emergence of “super schools”. The justification of the expense that’s needed to produce and sustain them is, of course, that they have to win every week. And if they can win by 50 points or more everyone is that much happier.

That, he says, is why our dominance at school level doesn’t translate into dominance at international level, post-school. I’m a big fan of Brendon’s work – that kind of in-depth analysis is right up my street. He suggests that SA Rugby should get involved and that some sort of premier league be established which will see the top schools play each other every weekend. There won’t be easy games anymore and the sides will be evenly matched, physically, so they will have to learn to think on their feet.

Absolutely. Coach players that way and organise their match schedule so that every game is a close contest and we will no longer see players trying to bash their way through all the time.

Where I differ, though, is in his proposed solution. It would be perfect for the production of professional rugby players, which will lead to better performances at Super Rugby and Test level. That’s not the job of the schools, though.

Rugby at the higher levels has become big business. It’s an entertainment industry and the players, coaches and referees are being paid to perform. It’s an attritional game, so you need a pipeline of new recruits coming through, constantly. The paying customers – the fans – demand success, and they vote with their feet if they don’t like what they see, as Super Rugby has found out recently.

Those who are putting on the show, and making money from it, are surely responsible for its growth and sustainability. They have shifted that load to the schools, and everyone seems to be falling for it. The business of schools is education. Sport can be part of that, of course, and rugby is a good game to use as an educational tool – it teaches lessons and instills values that have been articulated many times. The objective of any game is to win, nothing wrong with that. But from an educational point of view it’s not all-important.

Rugby is meant to teach valuable lessons, it has a spot for all shapes and sizes, it gets large numbers of boys and girls active, in the open air, and it’s how school spirit is built and how tradition and healthy rivalry with other schools is fostered.

So, I’m afraid, that while recognising the way school rugby is structured so that the good schools play against each other every week in some sort of national “league”, will make for better professional players, it should never happen.

The professional rugby structures should be nurturing their future pros, the educationists have other things they should be doing.

So, stop justifying the dishonesty and unethical practice that we all know is going on in schools in the name of serving the future needs of SA rugby. Admit that what you really want is for your first team to win, first and foremost. Any explanation, justification or proposal concerning school rugby that includes the production of future pros is irrelevant. Do your job as an educator and leave the development of professional players to those who should be running the professional game – they are taking you for a ride.

In the meantime, though, you can do worse than look at Brendon Shields’ methodology. Many coaches spend most of the game looking for fault in the referee, or for dirty play by the opponents – I know I did. It would have been great to sit down on Monday and have a look at what really went down during the game.

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