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Daar kan geen twyfel bestaan dat die suiwerste vlak van rugby in Suid-Afrika dié voetbôl op skolevlak is nie. 

Buiten die feit dat rugby sy ontstaan in Suid-Afrika grootliks te danke aan skole het, lok die spel op skoolvlak meer toeskouers as Curriebeker- of SuperRugby-wedstryde op ‘n weeklikse basis. Die spel wat op skoolvlak opgedis word is ook nog suiwer, met heelwat minder beklemtoning op verdediging en spelpatrone. 

Op skoolvlak is daar nie ‘n suiwerder toernooi as die LSOB-week (vir leerlinge met spesiale onderwysbehoeftes). Feitlik geen van die agente wat tydens die Grant Khomo-, Akademie- of Cravenweke die land se volgende proffesionele spelers se handtekeninge sal jaag sal van Maandag af in Vanderbijlpark wees nie. Geen van die seuns is met beurse na Belvedere, Jan Kriel, NJ Heyns, Suiderberg, Elandspark of Jim van Tonder vir hul vermoë op die rugbyveld gelok nie. 

Elkeen van die spelers wat van Maandag af in die Isak Steyl-stadion aan die toernooi deelneem, asook administrateurs wat betrokke is, doen dit vir die liefde van die spel. Daar is dus geen ander toernooi wat onder die Suid-Afrikaanse Rugbyunie (Saru) se vaandel aangebied word wat sy #LoveRugby veldtog so beklemtoon soos die LSOB-week nie. 

Die Valke is verlede jaar as die nie-amptelike kampioen gekroon en behoort weer vanjaar ‘n sterk aanslag op die titel op sy tuisveld te loots. Die span het verlede jaar vir Boland in die hoofwedstryd in Durban met 25-12 die loef afgesteek. Daar kan vanjaar ook ‘n sterk aanslag van die Westelike Provinsie verwag word. 

Die Valke sal op die eerste dag van die toernooi in die hoofwedstryd teen die Luiperds te staan kom. Die gasheer het vroeër vanjaar die Goue Leeus BO (buitengewone onderwys) met 68-0 in ‘n opwarmingswedstryd kaf gedraf. 

Die bepalings: 

Maandag, 25 Junie 2018

09:00 – Blou Bulle vs Pumas
09:00 – Sharks vs Valke XV
10:20 – Goue Leeus vs Vrystaat
10:20 – Goue Leeus BO vs Griffons
11:40 – Westelike Provinsie vs Oostelike Provinsie
13:00 – Boland vs Suidwestelike Distrikte
15:30 – Valke vs Luiperds

BO = Buitengewone Onderwys

Paul Roos Gimnasium het met sewe lede die meeste spelers in die Westelike Provinsie se uitsoekspan vir vanjaar se Coca-Cola Cravenweek wat van 9 tot 14 Julie in die Paarl. Die land se voorste skolespan volgens School of Rugby se ranglys behoort ook vanjaar ‘n hele paar spelers tot die SA Skole-span by te dra.

Die sewe Paul Roosers is Kade Wolhuter (heelagter), Brendan Venter (senter), Juan Mostert (losskakel), Hanru Jacobs (vaskopstut), Robbie Rodgers (loskopstut), JJ Kotze (haker) en Tiaan Pretorius (vleuel).

WP stuur vanjaar twee spanne na die Cravenweek in Paarl. Die uitsoekspan sal in die hoofwedstryd van die eerste dag op die Hoër Jongenskool Paarl se Brugstraat teen die Pumas te staan kom. Die XV-tal sal eers op die tweede dag in aksie wees. Dié span sal teen die Goue Leeus se XV-tal in aksie wees.

Venter se pa, ook Brendan, het in 1986 ook in die Paarl aan die Cravenweek deelgeneem. Venter sr. het in 1987 vir die tweede keer vir Transvaal op die Cravenweek verteenwoordig en het daardie jaar ook die SA Skole-span gehaal. Venter sr. het natuurlik ook die middelveld vir die Springbokke beman.

Nog ‘n oud-Bok Heinrich Rodgers se seun, Robbie Rodgers, sal in die Streeptruie se skrum sak. Rodgers sr. wat skool gegaan het op Harrismith het Oos-Vrystaat op die Cravenweek van 1980 verteenwoordig. Pretorius se pa, Riaan  “Torros” Pretorius, het lank vir Suidoos-Transvaal se seniorspan gespeel. Hy het ook die unie op die Cravenweke van 1993-94 verteenwoordig. Pretorius sr. het aan Ben Viljoen op Groblersdal gematrikuleer.

Die Hoër Jongenskool Paarl se kaptein en slot, Adrian Alberts, is een van slegs twee spelers wat verlede jaar in Johannesburg ook op die Cravenweek in aksie was. Alberts het verlede jaar ook die SA Skole-span gehaal. Buiten Alberts is dit slegs die buitesenter, Dawid Kellerman, wat ook verlede jaar vir die Streeptruie op die toernooi in aksie was.

Die spanne is: 

Westelike Provinsie: 15 Kade Wolhuter (Paul Roos Gimnasium), 14 Thoubaan Gabriels (Rondebosch Boys’ High), 13 Dawid Kellerman (Paarl Gimnasium), 12 Brendan Venter (Paul Roos Gimnasium), 11 Stravino Jacobs (Paarl Gimnasium), 10 Juan Mostert (Paul Roos Gimnasium), 9 Dylan Alexander (Paarl Gimnasium), 8 Evan Roos (Hoër Jongenskool Paarl), 7 Mhlali Mgolodela (Rondebosch Boys’ High), 6 Justin Muller (Diocesan College), 5 Adrian Alberts (Hoër Jongenskool Paarl), 4 Juan Beukes (Paarl Gimnasium), 3 Hanru Jacobs (Paul Roos Gimnasium), 2 Jason Alexander (Wynberg Boys’ High), 1 Robbie Rodgers (Paul Roos Gimnasium). Plaasvervangers: 16 JJ Kotze (Paul Roos Gimnasium), 17 Luthando Woji (Wynberg Boys’ High), 18 Roubert Bester (Hoër Jongenskool Paarl), 19 Dylan de Leeuw (Stellenberg), 20 Romauld Ntumba (Milnerton), 21 William Rose (Diocesan College), 22 Tiaan Pretorius (Paul Roos Gimnasium), 23 Darren Hendricks (Boland Landbou).

Westelike Provinsie XV: 15 Remy Engelbrecht (Paul Roos Gimnasium), 14 Tharquin Manuel (Stellenberg), 13 Luca Liebenberg (Diocesan College), 12 Erik Lambrecht (Boland Landbou), 11 Marcquin Titus (Brackenfell), 10 Nivan Pietersen (Stellenberg), 9 Abduragheem Ismail (Milnerton), 8 Matthew Cordy (Paul Roos Gimnasium), 7 Thys Kitshoff (Boland Landbou), 6 Dean Nieuwoudt (Paarl Gimnasium), 5 Emile van Heerden (Hoër Jongenskool Paarl), 4 Nahum Johannes (Stellenberg), 3 David Ige (Rondebosch Boys’ High), 2 Cullen van der Merwe (Hoër Jongenskool Paarl), 1 De Wet Wolhuter (Hoër Jongenskool Paarl). Plaasvervangers: 16 Alastair Williams (Hoër Jongenskool Paarl), 17 Seth Christians (Rondebosch Boys’ High), 18 Jovan Bekker (Paarl Gimnasium), 19 Tyron Maritz (Hoër Jongenskool Paarl), 20 Arman Posthumus (Hoër Jongenskool Paarl), 21 Morné Titus (Durbanville), 22 Mikyle Vraagom (Milnerton), 23 Juandré de Klerk (Durbanville).

Powerade launched its first leg of Performance Academies taking place across major cities in the country. The Academy, hosted at the Kingsmead Cricket Ground, saw several performance experts running an interactive one-day seminar.  Among these experts was Craig Joubert, South African Professional Rugby Union Referee and a Referee Talent Development Coach at World Rugby, who challenged and empowered the Durban-based coaches with critical knowledge to optimise their players’ performances.

For the 2018 campaign, Powerade has drawn attention to coaches by Celebrating Everyday Coaches. This campaign will see the everyday ‘ordinary’ coaches who do extraordinary things by refining young talent that goes on to do exploits on world stages. This is because coaches contribute greatly to the success of their teams/athletes and act as mentors and influencers for many sportsmen and women.

Craig Joubert – World Rugby Referee Coach

(Question) What was the objective of your session with the coaches?

(Answer) I wanted to teach the coaches about how we managed to produce a high-performance environment. We have a team of rugby 7s referees that we are taking to the Olympics in 2020 and we want to create the best high-performance environment for them to operate in. Individually and as a group we want them to be the best that they can be.

I wanted to share with this group of coaches at the Powerade Performance Academy some of the learnings that we have taken out of how to create a high-performance team.

Our first objective was to create an optimal performance team. I wanted to share ideas as to why culture is important to an effective team and some of the key values that they live by that contributes to success in their environments.

There are a lot of similarities between the team that we are sending to the Olympics and what the coaches find at their schools.

Hopefully the coaches learned something from my presentation and they take it back to the schools to create effective and high-performance teams.

(Question) What feedback did you get from the coaches?

(Answer) In my environment we use the teams “Trust” and “Honesty”. I was pleased to see that a lot of the feedback and questions that I got were around “Trust” and “Honesty”.

In a team “Trust” and “Honesty” needs to start with the management team and coaches. When athletes see you embody “Trust” and “Honesty” and they start to emulate you.

“Honesty” does not only mean that you don’t lie to a player, it also deals with information that you give to a team. This includes good and bad news. You earn respect when you are honest and transparent in difficult decisions that you have to make. An example of a difficult decision is where you look a player in the eye and tell them about a selections decision that you have made as to why they did not make the team.

We have found that through “Honesty” players respond well, and they trust you more and are more honest with you.

Even when someone gets bad news, if you do it in an honest and transparent way, it will inspire them to improve.

(Question) One of the things that you talk about is getting the players to learn from themselves, how do you get the coaches to enable the kids to learn from themselves?

(Answer) All the values and behaviours that we have as a referee team were not dictated to by the management instead we allowed the team to come up with them themselves and because they came up with the values themselves they can hold themselves accountable to their own values.

The job of management is make sure that they continuously commit to the values that they came up with.

School children respond well if given the responsibility to review their own performance. If they do well then, they must look at why they did well, if they do something less well then, they should look at what did not work out, learn from it and do it differently. This responsibility makes them far more committed to changing what they do and improve.

For very young kids you can ask them to tell you “what the team is all about” once they have done that you will see them work towards that goal.

We often underestimate young people but by giving them the responsibility to create their own team goals you will be astounded as to how they react, and you will benefit from it.

(Question) How do you deal with pressure and how do you learn from criticism?

(Answer) Criticism is a big challenge for school sport coaches.

Coaches give their time freely and willingly. Parents should be appreciative for what a coach does to further a kid’s development. Some criticism from parents and school sport players can be quite vicious which is similar to what referees can get. I encourage the coaches to try to put the criticism into perspective. The fiercest criticism for a referee comes from the guy that is on his couch at home. They have access to all the replays and all the technology that they need to complain.

For school coaches you will find that most parents will only come through on weekends and not during the week. Some of them think that their kids are better than what they actually are. The reality is that their kids are most probably not as good as what they think they are. What they don’t know is that coaches are trying to do their best to help these kids and these are not the people that you should worry about.

I tell coaches to surround themselves with the people whose criticisms they respect. You never stop learning and constructive criticism will help you become a better coach. Be selective about who you listen to. A lot of people out there with opinions and they are not knowledgeable in the sport that you coach, and they also are very emotional because you are coaching someone close to them. Respect these peoples emotions but do not listen to them.

The next leg of Powerade Performance Academies will take place in Port Elizabeth(July), Cape Town (September) and Johannesburg (November).

For more information, visit Powerade Facebook page (@PoweradeZA) and #AlwaysForward. 

Junior Springbok vice-captain and centre Wandisile Simelane, who capped off the World Rugby U20 Championship with the honour of being the joint top try-scorer with six tries, looked back at the competition with fond memories as the team prepared to depart for South Africa on Monday night.

The Junior Springboks finished the tournament – hosted in the south of France – in third place after delivering a strong performance in the bronze playoff to defeat New Zealand 40-30.

“It is a fantastic tournament,” said Simelane, who scored a hat-trick in the team’s second pool match against Ireland.

“We came all the way to France as 20-year-olds, and we were based in a very small town called Gruissan. This experience allowed us to learn about different cultures and meet new people, even though the language barrier was a challenge.

“From a rugby perspective, this a mentally and physically demanding competition. There are only four days in between games, so it asks a lot of the players. But it was a great experience for me and the team.”

Of being handed the vice-captaincy after Damian Willemse was ruled out because of injury, Simelane said: “It was easy because everyone played their part, so it was a fantastic experience. This was the first or second time that I took up a leadership role in a national team, and it motivated me to bring that 5% extra every time I had the opportunity to do so.”

Simelane shared Junior Springbok coach Chean Roux’s disappointment of not advancing to the final, but he was pleased that they finished the tournament on a winning note against New Zealand.

“It was awesome to finish the competition on a high note,” said Simelane.

“We lost by one point to a very good England team in the semi-final, which was heart-breaking and very disappointing for us. But to bounce back and beat a very good and motivated New Zealand team was fantastic.”

Looking forward, Simelane said he hoped to meet up with his team-mates in a few years and look back at their experience in France after building a brotherhood since their preparation began in February.

“The bonds we created as a group were very special,” said Simelane.

“We got closer as a group in the five months we were together, and one could see how we grew together as a squad. It will be nice to catch up in a few years and talk about our experience in Gruissan.” 

The Junior Springboks will arrive South Africa on Tuesday afternoon.

Issued by SA Rugby Communications

This is our last rankings for this term. There was not a lot of rugby on Saturday, but there were a few insightful results.

Helpmekaar defeated Menlopark in Pretoria by 32-20 which sees them moving into our Top 20. Glenwood kept their unbeaten record by thrashing Maritzburg College by 41-0 moving closer to the third position on our rankings. Monument is back to winning form after beating EG Jansen by 62-36 in Boksburg.

Please note that we don’t take matches against international opposition into consideration in our rankings. These games will however still be recorded and shown in our results.

This rankings is not an official ranking as there is no official ranking on schoolboy level and this is only to get the discussion on school rugby on South Africa flowing. We however take our responsibilty on reporting school rugby very seriously.

To see each team’s results so far this season click on their name in the rankings. If you see any results missing please don’t hesitate to contact Hannes Nienaber via e-mail on hannes@schooolofrugby.co.za – and please feel free to discuss and differ from us in the comments section.