Which province?

[DLW]

what determins which province a young south african rugby player plays for?

 

[unrated]

Before professional level it is the geographical area of the players school that determines the province they would play for in a tournament such as Craven Week.

 

[DLW]

but now? are high school grads free agents who can choose the highest bidder? Or is their some other kind of restriction?

 

[unrated]

Yes they are essentially free to go where they please, but regional allegiances coupled with the fact that high school players with the potential to go pro has probably spent a lot of time in the structures of the provinces Union where they play at. So people like the Sharks academy starts to Foster relationships with the schoolboys and get them into the system as soon as possible. But they every now and then lose some players to other unions. For example the Sharks stole PSdT at schoolboy level and got him into our academy. Players tend to go to the unions where their schools are located.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Yes they are essentially free to go where they please, but regional allegiances coupled with the fact that high school players with the potential to go pro has probably spent a lot of time in the structures of the provinces Union where they play at. So people like the Sharks academy starts to Foster relationships with the schoolboys and get them into the system as soon as possible. But they every now and then lose some players to other unions. For example the Sharks stole PSdT at schoolboy level and got him into our academy. Players tend to go to the unions where their schools are located.

This. But also the schools have an agreement with the provincial rugby union. The rugby union provides the schools with support and training and coaching. When a player turns 18/19 and wants to go pro, the local provincial union, has first rights to that player. They have a period of about 3 months to make agreements with the player before any other union can contact the player. And when that period lapses, the other unions still need to get permission first from the local union to contact the player. The local union can then still approach the player first, but if they don't want/need that player, the player can then go to other unions.

The issue is that some areas have more top rugby schools than others, so those unions can't approach all the kids in their region. So they set up a drafting sheet, and look at each position and the areas where they have a great potential in that position, and then they inform the kids who might make the cut, then the kids who are overlooked also know that they have a chance with other unions.

Bear in mind however, that this is only for the duration that the kid is still in school. After he matriculates, and wasn't approached, he can go to any union/club he wants to without going through the whole permission process.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

The Western Cape produces half the of the players of any sort of caliber.

They tend to not stay put in the Fairest Cape however.

 

[TRF_heineken]

The Western Cape produces half the of the players of any sort of caliber.

They tend to not stay put in the Fairest Cape however.

Closely followed by Gauteng, but because geographically the Bulls, Lions, Leopards, Pumas and Valke are all so close to one another, there isn't a union up here that boasts as much about their talent pool as WP.

But there are some schools who just produce better rugby players in that the school itself is driven by the sport. Schools like Grey Bloem, Affies, Paarl Gym, Paarl Boys, Monument, Maritzburg College are just a few of the schools who on a frequent basis produce top quality players. Plus it's also about rivalries and derbies. I think the Cape Schools have a much better derby system than the schools up north. I know of a bunch of schools who for example refuse to play against teams like Affies or Monument, for fear of having huge scores and the kids getting hurt.

And that's where the size of the schools and the amount of kids playing rugby has been factored in, in tournaments such as the Virseker Trophy, where schools of the same size play against each other.

This has also caused a lot of old rivalries to die off, as some schools just can't compete against the elite schools anymore. Prime example is in my hometown. We have 2 prominent rugby playing schools, but the technical high school went through a bit of a slump in the past, and for more than 10 years the schools didn't play rugby against each other because the technical school's teams lost by margins over 50 from age groups 14y/o to 1st teams.

3 years ago the rivalry was restarted after many former players who are now parents, demanded that the derby day be reintroduced as it was a big event for the town, and had a lot of social implications attached to it, in a campaign to get more people involved with school activities who didn't necessarily have kids in either school. The margins of victory is still considerably high, but it does seem that the technical school is starting to make a lot of progress.