Just stop it!

I see that Danny Jones, head of amateur rugby at Western Province has been asked to intervene in the Paarl Boys’ High matter which has seen Wynberg Boys’ High and SACS both vow to have nothing to do with the Paarl School as a result of it’s poaching some of their rugby players.

That indicates that it’s being taken pretty seriously by the union down there, but one wonders what they are able to do about it.

The Zondo commission on state capture is on as I write this and what’s emerged out of the swill trough that it’s exposing is that only a truly independent investigating authority, with the power to arrest people and put them on trial is capable of putting a stop corruption. That, or those in power just must not do it anymore!

Maybe we need something similar when it comes to the scourge of schoolboy rugby recruitment. It’s a lower key issue, I know, but the same questions are being posed here as those asked about state corruption. Can it be stopped, and if it can, who is going to stop it?

I don’t have the solution, but I know that Danny Jones isn’t the answer. That’s a bit like former president Zuma’s internal investigation into the renovations at Nkandla. Western Province Rugby, remember, are the ones who allow unquestioned, Paarl Boys’ High and the other Boland rugby schools to stay part of Western Province in the first place. And given the union’s pride in their continued status as the undisputed kings of school rugby, I’d be very surprised if they weren’t in some way involved in the recruitment practices of those self-same WP/Boland schools.

It’s like asking the Golden Lions to intervene in a dispute between a Joburg boys’ school and the co-ed school that has lost a player to them on a bursary – everyone knows that the union condones, if not openly encourages, getting the best players into the “best” schools.

No, some one else has to take a hand it. But, I’m afraid we are a long way from that. In the first instance, we have to agree that trading in children between the ages of 13 and 18 is wrong. Some, incredibly, believe that when the reasons behind the practice have to do with the development of good rugby players and the maintenance of school winning records, it’s OK.

Then there’s the matter of authority. Who is actually in charge of a schoolboy (other than his parents, of course)? Well, it’s not the local rugby union.

There is legislation - The South African Schools Act of 1996 - and the SA Council for Educators covers it in its code of ethics, and there is the common law principle of in loco parentis. According to the latter, the parents delegate the authority to care for their children in their absence to the school, which translates into the school principal having the responsibility to make decisions (pastoral and educational) on their behalf and he/she, in return can be held liable for any harm done to the children in their care.

This stand-in responsibility cannot be shirked, any more than the legal and codified requirements can be ignored. As the leader of the school the principal has to make decisions that are in the best interests of the child. No-one else can be given that authority.

He or she also sets the direction for the entire school. If they believe the principle of luring talented players to other schools is wrong – and you cannot argue that being “bought” on the basis of rugby ability has no effect on a child – then they have the authority and the duty to put a stop to the practice.
 

Sure, the parents will claim that no offers were made. Paarl Boy’s High’s reply to Wynberg includes a statement from the parents insisting that it was entirely their son’s own decision and they were never approached by the school.

Maybe that’s true – I have no way of proving otherwise – but it’s a common response in these sorts of cases, and in all of them the child in question is a potential A team rugby (or other high-profile sport) player and it’s in the financial interests of the parents to go along with it.

Unlike with state capture, where no remedy seems to be in sight, there is a solution here. Just stop it! Don’t accept kids into your school who are coming to help your teams to win. Don’t go looking for players elsewhere. Stop lying about it; don’t be a hypocrite; and stop playing against any school that persists with the practice.

Then let it settle down and get on with your duty to advance transformation and give opportunities to those who are genuinely in need.

The real reasons why schools are raiding the Eastern Cape

My colleague at SARugbymag.co.za, Dylan Jack, opened the school rugby recruitment can of worms nice and early this year with this article on the luring of talent from Dale and Queens Colleges to, presumably, the elite schools of the KZN Midlands and Durban.

https://www.sarugbymag.co.za/natal-schools-accused-of-player-poaching/

It got quite a bit of attention, including 114 shares, so far, of the Facebook link to it, and 131 comments. And many of those who commented believe there is nothing wrong with the practice and they wonder, some of them quite rudely, what Dylan is on about.

Those who think the “buying” of players – black African boys, mainly from disadvantaged homes in this case – is a good thing cite the reasons you often hear. It’s offering the players a better future via an education at a good school, and a chance to develop as rugby players through good coaching and competition. They will get recognition at those schools and it may lead to a future as a professional player for them.

All of which might very well happen, of course, although there are some alarming cases in which that promise of a brighter future goes up in smoke when the talented youngster doesn’t develop as expected, or is injured, or simply doesn’t fit in with his fabulous new surroundings. It’s often a ticket back to the rural Eastern Cape for him then.

Many do become great players and go on to play at the highest levels and there are schools that do commit themselves to the holistic development of all their pupils and who will keep the boy on even if he flops as a player. So, you can’t condemn the process out of hand – it’s an ill-wind that blows nobody any good – but we are kidding ourselves if we believe that the raiding of the schools, like Dale and Queens, located in the parts of the country where rugby is traditionally the sport of choice among black children is being done purely for philanthropic reasons.

No. There are two things behind it: wins for the first teams of schools and the rankings that go with that and the enforced compliance with race-based quotas in representative teams at school and senior levels. And those quotas are increasingly going to distinguish between black African players specifically and generic players of colour in the future.

As a result, schools on the hunt send their scouts to the festivals and to the under-13 and under-16 provincial weeks, on the lookout for talented players who are going to win games for them in time to come. They have the support, financial and technical, of the provincial unions who know they have to select Craven Week teams according to an ever-increasing quota, and that the pressure is on from SA Rugby to field black African players in their senior teams. It’s easier to look for ready-made rugby players in the places where they already exist than to create a development progamme and nurture them there.

That’s why the talented players at Dale and Queens are being targeted and those who engage in the practice should own up to it and not hide behind noble-sounding talk of offering opportunities to those in need.

Anyone who is able to offer those opportunities should be doing so, of course, but rugby talent shouldn’t be the main, or only, criteria for deciding who is given the chance.

If serving rugby is what you have at heart, why not leave the youngsters at schools like Dale and Queens where they are getting good coaching, and games, and spread your net to take in the many talented kids who don’t have any access to the game?

A really disturbing point made in Dylan Jack’s article is that the predator schools have become very good at getting to the parents of the boys they want, making them financial offers they can’t refuse. Not much ethical behaviour and educational principle at work there.

It’s a dishonourable business and the dishonour overshadows the good that is being done in the process. Those who have power to put an end to it are the headmasters of the schools involved. They have the authority, and they should have the morality to see it for what it really is – and end it, as early as right now!