The TAG Foundation difference

 

My Sporting highlight of the weekend?

Well, two passes in the Test matches on Saturday – Russell to Sione Tuipulotu and Williams to Edwill Van der Merwe – were gorgeous, confirming for me that rugby has, at the least, equal rights with soccer to call itself the “beautiful game.”

But it has to be the Junior Springboks winning the U20 World Championship for the first time in 13 years.

Watching the Vusi Moyo masterclass in the final and reflecting on the fact that he and the hooker, Esethu Mnebelele, are both old boys of King Edward VII School, reminded me of the role that KES has played in rugby transformation in recent years.

Moyo and Mnebelele played for the SA Schools and U18 teams last year (Mnebele also did in 2023). When Golden Lions captain, Chinedu Amadi, made the SA Schools team at the end of the Craven Week this year he became the 16^th KES player to do so, beginning with Lee Barnard in 1974 – the 1^st time a national schools side was selected.

Amadi is at KES on a TAG Foundation bursary, as were Moyo and Mnebele. Thabang Mphafi, who made the SA Schools team in 2022, was also a TAG boy, as was Thando Biyella in 2023 (he was in Italy with the Junior Boks too this year). That means five of the last six KES boys to make the SA School team were on TAG Foundation bursaries.

Here’s where I get a little hypocritical around the edges. I’ve come out hard against the practice of schools recruiting rugby players on bursaries to strengthen their teams and claiming they are being altruistic.

I have, however, declared that there are exceptions. The TAG Foundation is one of those. Sure, they look for talented rugby players to assist, but no player is approached unless there are also compelling financial reasons. I spoke to the headmaster, and to someone at KES who has been very involved in the programme last week (ironically while we were watching a festival of teams who play the other beautiful game), and they described the family circumstances of all those boys. None of them could afford to go to the school on their own dime.

Not all the TAG beneficiaries are rugby players of course, and great care (along with donor-funding) makes sure they all fit in at the school and leave it after five years as the sort of men we have come to expect KES boys to be.

If it weren’t for TAG, none of those SA Schools players would have attended KES and we wouldn’t have seen Moyo and Mnebele in action in that final on Saturday.

All five of them were at KES since Grade 8, which means they were spotted as potential stars, who stood out despite their challenging circumstances, when they were 12 or 13 years old. That’s remarkable, and a huge feather in the cap of those who did the talent identification.

The majority of primary school rugby stars never make it to top high school levels, however, so the KES rugby programme had to help them over the next five years to reach their potential.

And TAG looked after them every step of the way – financially, pastorally and in their academic careers.

How’s all of that for a highlight?