There’s no
reason why you should remember it, but I offered my two cents worth of opinion
in this space back in May about the practice of recruiting schoolboy players as
if they were full professionals, commodities in the marketing strategies of
schools who use the results of their first rugby teams to differentiate
themselves.
Here’s a
link to that blog – the gist of it was that it might be wise to consider the
way they do it in Auckland where a player from a “premier” school cannot play A
team sport at a new school unless the principal of the school he came from
signs off that he or she is happy that the move was above board.
I’ve put
this old scratched record on the turntable again (only the old toppies among
you will know what that means) after attending the Iqhawe Week in Joburg last
week and having a chat with Stefan Terblanche, the CEO of the SA Rugby Legends.
The Iqhawe Week and the Vuka rugby programme are the brain children (can you
say that?) of the Legends.
They
encourage and promote rugby at schools where the game used to be played and is
now under threat of disappearing, and they encourage schools that don’t play to
introduce the game. There is no shortage of coaches and mentors among their
members and they raise the money to fund the exercise.
Vuka is the
interschool programme they run and the Iqhawe Week is an under-15
interprovincial week, run on the same lines as the Craven and Grant Khomo
Weeks, featuring only players from schools who field four teams or less.
This was
the third one I’ve attended and the standard of play has definitely improved.
Terblanche reckons it the best he has seen in the six years it’s been going.
What interested
me – and I’m getting to my point now – was seeing some familiar faces there,
the same ones I saw at the Craven Week in Paarl. The scouts from the top
schools were there, scribbling in their programmes, and adjusting the cheque books
in their back pockets, while running their practiced eyes over the players on
display.
They were
looking for black African players to recruit. Those are what the quota
regulations require nowadays and it’s easier (if you have the money) to
manufacture rather than buy.
One of then
told me that the Legends are happy with their presence – if a player is spotted
there and get an offer to go to a top school, that’s good for him. I asked
Stefan Terblanche about that and he concurred, but added a condition – the interests
of the player have to come first and they will give their blessing if they are
happy that he will be helped to fit in and that he won’t be discarded if he
doesn’t fulfill the promise seen in him.
It’s
complicated. You can’t begrudge a talented player who is at a non-rugby school the
opportunity to realise his potential but, at the same time, taking him away is
not helping that school’s rugby to improve.
I may be conflicted
about that, but I have absolutely no doubt about how I feel about the movement
of players between well-established rugby schools – they must just stop it!
Tinus Diedericks,
the chairman of the Golden Lions Schools Rugby Association, tells me they have
adopted the Auckland model in the North Vaal schools association and this year
a player who was not signed off by his former principal was not allowed to play
in the 1st team of his new school.
That can
only happen with centrally-run leagues like the North Vaal run. In places where
games are all friendlies, arranged by the two schools involved, you have to
depend on the heads to act ethically. They don’t all do that, I’m afraid.
I can think
of two examples in the season that’s just ended of players from good rugby
schools turning up at other good rugby schools without the heads of their
formers schools hearing a word until they were gone.
If those
players were scouted at the Iqhawe Week I could understand (if not totally
accept it) but they were already receiving good coaching and playing against
top opposition. They were recruited for one reason only – to help their new
teams win matches.
Worse, the
heads of the new schools were there when it was agreed that players can’t move
without the knowledge and approval of the principal of the school they came
from.
If you can’t
trust people to comply with self-regulation you have to impose laws. That’s
what they do in Auckland, and in the North Vaal leagues. Maybe, now that the
season’s over, it’s time to start doing something about it, instead of just
letting it all happen again next year.
That’s what
I said back in May.
