I spent a cold but pleasant evening at Pirates Rugby Club on Wednesday at the finals of the Pirates Schools Challenge competition.
One thing I have learned as I have grown older is that some of the things educators have always believed so strongly in when it comes to sport are not seen in quite the same way by players, and their parents.
What struck me was the notion that schools rugby games should be played as friendlies may have run its course.
The size of the crowd on a freezing night, the passion displayed by the players, and the contrasting ecstasy and despair at the final whistle showed that playing for a cup (something we always equated with selling your soul to the devil) is perhaps what the people want.
In any event, there’s nothing very friendly about many of the friendlies played between schools anyway - go to the big derby between St John’s and KES (over the weekend past) and you’ll see that, while sportsmanship won’t be forgotten, those boys are going to fight tooth and nail for every point, and every inch of territory.
The Pirates Schools Challenge was the brainchild of two teachers who were also under-20 coaches at the club. They unashamedly concede they were trying to recruit players from schools in their part of town.
What it’s grown into now is an 11-school league, in two sections, which uses the traditional fixtures played between them as the pool stage of the competition, with the top two schools in each age group meeting in the finals at the end of the season.
So, it’s normal English schools rugby, except that there are points awarded for the A team games. And there’s a finals day when the players get to turn out, under lights, in front of a big crowd.
That’s the thing. So much attention is given these days to the ‘super schools’ that we tend to forget that rugby is played at many other schools. They may not be as professional in their approach, and they certainly don’t throw money around to recruit players to ensure victory, but they are still there.
And the final between Northcliff and Rand Park on Wednesday was a cracker. There were boys on both sides who can play a bit, and the collective effort put in by both teams was immense.
As importantly, there are six teams in the B section of the competition - their finals were played last night - and among them are a few schools where the game has been in danger of disappearing altogether.
The guys at Pirates told me they want players at the schools in their immediate vicinity to feed into the club, so it’s essential to them that rugby at Greenside and Roosevelt keeps going.
Those are schools that once ruled the roost in Joburg co-ed schools rugby, before demographics changed and player numbers dwindled. Both played in the Pirates Challenge this year, though, and the club is committed to supporting them and making rugby a sustainable activity there.
And it’s all part of the transformation process too. We all see, every Saturday, that the majority of players turning out in schools rugby games at the English schools in this town are black. And I’ve come to find that in most of the games I watch the best players on the field are black. That’s the natural consequence of the demographics of the country.
So, why do we battle to get players of colour into representative sides in big enough numbers after they leave school?
One reason is that playing club rugby doesn’t appeal to young men, of any colour, that much these days.
Pirates Rugby Club are trying to do something about that in their community. More strength to them, and if it means we have to play for a cup now, that’s also okay. - Independent Media