Are the rugby youth weeks necessary?

Changes to the arrangements for this year’s youth rugby interprovincial weeks were announced this week and, it seems, there are issues at SA Rugby and its affiliate the SA Schools Rugby Association, that are deeper than just the financial woes associated with the loss of Coca-Cola as the sponsor of their annual winter Youth Week programme.

A few years ago they grouped together the under-13 Craven Week and the under-16 Grant Khomo Week; and the under-18 Academy and Craven Weeks - each pair to be played at the same venue – because it was more economical that way. A unified organising committee and reduced travel arrangements, along with the economies of scale would make for cheaper tournaments.

That was true. They are sticking to that, but the groupings have changed. The u-13 Craven and u-18 Academy Weeks will run together in Johannesburg this year, and the u-18 Craven and under-16 Grant Khomo Weeks will be on at the same time in Port Elizabeth.

No reasons have been officially given for the re-arrangement. The unofficial word going around seems to indicate that have it all wrong. They need the two elite high school weeks to be together, apparently, because of the people who have to attend them. That translates into the SA Rugby big-wigs who want to watch them. Sure, there are talent identification people who need to be there, but my experience is that there are many VIP hangers-on at these occasions who don’t. Their travel and accommodation costs are what are gobbling up the available funding.

And, you have to ask, why relegate the under-18 “B” Academy Week to a minor event (it isn’t budgeted for by SA Rugby this year, I read somewhere). Selection margins are small, and factors other than only merit go into the choosing of teams – more of that later – so saying that the important people don’t need to watch those teams play seems to be a crazy narrowing down of the talent identification process.

As for the under-13 Craven Week, why not just tank it, or turn it into two regional festivals, North and South? The relevance of a week at this level has often been questioned on rugby and physiological grounds, with research pointing out how few under-13 provincial players go on to perform at the same level in high school.

Then you have to wonder what the ongoing value of the under-18 Craven Week is. The announcement of the new arrangements includes a commitment to SA Rugby's Strategic Transformation Plan 2030. This means that each squad of 23 players has to field a minimum of 12 players of colour. It is also stated that foreign players at SA Schools cannot be included in those numbers any more.

I have often stressed that transformation of the game is non-negotiable. How it’s done is the issue, however, and forcing quotas onto elite teams without having done the developmental hard work at the levels below is just daft. Increasing the size of the quotas doesn’t mean there will be more developing of players of colour who can perform at those levels.

If the Craven Week is to be regarded as one of the places at which that development is done, or as an opportunity to identify players with the potential to be further developed, that’s fine. It just won’t be the elite under-18 rugby tournament anymore.

Some argue that it hasn’t been that for a while now. The big inter-school festivals –the Noord-Suid weekend in Pretoria and the Wildeklawer gathering in Kimberley – have taken on that role.

The 1^st teams of all the top schools in the country are at those, and while there is no 12:23 quota in place there are players of colour in action there, chosen entirely on merit. Most of those will also be at the Craven Week later on in the year.

The talent scouts are at those events now as are, worryingly, the recruitment people of many overseas rugby clubs.

Let’s face it, the Youth Weeks aren’t that much of a big deal anymore and shuffling the deck chairs around isn’t really going to stop the ship from sinking.