I was at the Coca-Cola Craven Week in Stellenbosch last week and was amazed, again, at the size, speed and skills levels of our top schoolboy rugby players.
A look at the tournament booklet shows that there were a remarkable 105 18-year-olds weighing in at more than 100kg on show, and 127 who stood at over 1,85m tall. It seems South Africa’s reputation for producing monster forwards is safe (although quite a few of the 100kg-plus giants were backs).
The “final” between Western Province and Eastern Province ended in a 95-0 rout and everyone is wondering how that happened.
I don’t have the answer – EP looked like the best side on show in the early rounds – and they certainly had some quality players in their ranks.
On reflection, I was reminded of something SA Rugby’s director of coaching, Rassie Erasmus, said at a previous Craven Week: “You shouldn’t confuse attacking flair with rugby ability.”
The Eastern Province team had loads of flair. Their flyhalf, Curwin Bosch, is as exciting a player as you could hope to see, but he and the rest of his dazzling backline were blown away by the power of the Western Province team.
The EP forwards, who were great with ball in hand in their earlier games, couldn’t compete in the contact situations, so there was simply no possession for them to demonstrate their abilities with.
Add to that a regrettable dropping of their heads in the latter stages of the game, and muddy conditions better suited to the Cape Town boys, and you get a 95-0 scoreline.
I’ve been to 26 Craven Weeks, so excuse me if I have an old-fogey sentimental outlook on the event, but it seems the spirit of the week as expressed by Dr Danie Craven himself is dead and buried.
In one of the early tournament brochures, Craven wrote: “Run with the ball; put attack above defence; give the ball air whenever it should be given air constructively and play the game correctly instead of playing to win, for rugby correctly played looks after itself and the men playing it.”
The problem with that thinking is that the definition of playing correctly has changed. It’s all about winning now and a team that puts attack above defence is likely to get smashed – ask EP about it.
The Craven Week is unparalleled as a nursery for professional players but it is also true that, in any given year, fewer than 10 percent of the Craven Week players go through to Super Rugby and only three percent become Springboks.
What about the 90 percent for who this is the pinnacle of their rugby careers? It was for them that Dr Craven meant this week to be a celebration of playing rugby for the joy it brings.
I fear the SA Rugby talent-identification process has hijacked the event, and the television broadcasters’ need for a final and a champion to satisfy their viewers has killed off the traditions and spirit of the week.
I ran into an old acquaintance at the week – retired Potchefstroom Boys’ High headmaster Titch Cartwright, who now works for SA Rugby’s coaching education department.
I’d like to leave you with something, he said. He told me that when talking to coaches on his courses, he asks them if they play golf. Of course, most of them do.
“I ask them if it’s true they hardly ever win the competitions they play in, and if they find that, on some days, they inexplicably play far worse than they know they are capable of,” he said.
“The answer is, obviously, ‘yes’. So, why do you keep on playing, I want to know, and they invariably tell me it’s because they enjoy the game.
“That’s the attitude you need to instil in your players, and keep in mind for yourself,” I tell them.
Now there’s a lesson for all coaches, in every sport.