Let me tell you two stories. Names and places have been
changed, they may not even be true, but you’ll agree that they probably are.They tell of the sorts of things that go in schools rugby these days.
Both involve grade 8 (standard 6) boys, both are black, both
have the potential to be very good rugby players one day (well both are going
to grow up to be big men, anyway), both are from impoverished backgrounds with
uneducated parents who are working poorly paid jobs.
The first took place a few years ago and was reported in the
Sunday papers. The youngster was from the South Western Districts region and
was spotted at the primary schools Craven Week. He was offered a bursary to
attend a school in the Northern Cape and ended up there in January the next
year.
It was an alien place to him. His family may have been poor,
the article said, but they created a warm and loving home. He had brothers and
friends and was loved in the community. At the school they didn’t speak his
home language. He looked different to the other boys and they didn’t try to
make him welcome. He was unhappy and wanted to go home.
The school wouldn’t let him. They had, after all, spent a
lot of money on him. The scouting process involved travel and accommodation
costs, they had bought him a school uniform and books, and sports equipment.
And they had given him a place in the hostel that might have gone to a
fee-paying pupil. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of cash
incentive for the parents as well.
It was a standoff, and the reason why it made the national
press was that his father subsequently drove across the country, broke into the school, and
spirited his boy away in the dead of the night, with just the clothes he was
wearing. What a thing to happen to a 13 year-old!
The other story happened a few weeks ago. It’s less
dramatic, but if we were to find out what really went on it would probably
leave as bad a taste in the mouth. The boy was also spotted while at primary
school in a rural area and ended up on a bursary at a rugby school in the big
city. That school has a reputation, and a system, for helping boys like him fit in and he seemed to be, I hear, quite happy there.
To cut it short, he is also no longer at the school that
recruited him. His team went off to play in an under-14 tournament in another
city during the recent holidays. On the Thursday he helped his side beat the
host school and on the Monday he was there, attired in his new uniform and
settled in to their hostel. I guess he was playing rugby for them by the next
Saturday.
There was no communication between his new school and his
old, although there was supposed to be, according to an agreement between the
heads of schools. His parents obviously agreed to the move and you have to
wonder what was offered to make that happen. The boy was already at a good
rugby school, remember, and he was happy there.
Most will agree that these sorts of things shouldn’t happen.
We all know that they still do. 13-year old kids are being bought and traded
like professional football players. The schools will tell you they are acting
in the interests of the children and, sure, they are giving them a better
education (or at least the schools believe they are) and they will receive the
coaching that will help them reach their potential as players.
If only that was the real motivation. They real reasons, I
suspect, have to do with one thing only – ensuring a pipeline of players that
will ensure that the school’s first rugby team carries on winning matches.
Well, it’s also to create the illusion of transformation, and the provincial
unions, weighed down by quota compliance issues, aren’t innocent in all of this
either.
Similar stories. I hope they aren’t true but they probably
are, I’m afraid.
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