South Africa’s young rugby players are in a class of their own

Speak to the rugby coaches, agents and scouts who have worked in England, France, New Zealand and the US, and they will tell you that the South African schoolboy players are a class apart.

The quality of the rugby improves each year thanks to greater investment in the local school programmes. Hundreds watch teams play, while tens of thousands flock to festivals across the country. The annual showdown of one local derby, between Paarl Gymnasium and Paarl Boys’ High, is held in a stadium holding 20,000.

Steps have been taken by SA Rugby to tap this resource, with the development programme of Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus having guided the likes of Damian Willemse (Paul Roos), Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (Bishops) and others from school level through to the national team.

The national system has become more aligned over the past decade or so, and the schools have become more professional in their approach. The jury is still out on whether this is good for the sport, given the young age of the players.

Gone are the days when exposure was limited to a photograph in a local newspaper or a small mention in an online report. Streaming services show most matches, while social media provides greater access. Like it or not, the hype around schoolboy rugby is growing, and will continue.

We try to equip the boys with other values that will take them far in life. In our coaching staff we have mentors who are invested in the boys’ lives

—  Pieter Rossouw

Ronnie Cooke, who represented the Cheetahs and the Southern Kings in his playing days before becoming an agent, made the point in a recent online column. “Our schools aren’t just playing rugby — they’re running full-scale rugby businesses,” Cooke wrote.

He added: “Collectively, South Africa’s top 200 rugby schools spend well over R1bn every year on their rugby programmes. That includes everything from elite coaching and specialist conditioning to high-performance gym facilities, full-time analysts, nutritionists and psychologists, and, yes, even salaries that rival those at some of the country’s professional unions.

“Today, top school coaches can earn north of R1m a year. Major festivals like the North-South Tournament attract crowds that put Currie Cup matches to shame. Sponsorship, merchandising, streaming rights — schoolboy rugby is no longer a stepping stone, it’s a beast of its own.”

The pool of competitive teams has swollen over the past 20 years. While the traditional powerhouses remain a force, a growing number of other teams are catching up.

“The gap between the so-called bigger and smaller schools is closing,” says Corné Uys, a former Stormers centre who coaches the Paul Roos First XV. “More schools are investing energy and resources in their rugby programmes, and are reaping the rewards. You look at the match schedule these days and you realise that if you lose focus for even one game, you will catch a hiding.”

Earlier this year, Paarl Gym became the first team since 2017 to beat Grey College on the latter’s home ground in Bloemfontein. Paarl Boys made a statement of their own, beating Grey and Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool of Pretoria (Affies), two of the regular top teams.

Affies drew with Paarl Gym and edged Paul Roos in recent months, while Grey have an impressive record despite those two defeats. Durban High School have emerged as one of the most consistent teams in the country, as have Oakdale (Riversdale) and Menlopark (Pretoria).

Jeppe recorded a result for the ages when they beat Grey at the North-South Tournament last year, while Milnerton High stunned Rondebosch and Bishops. This season, Stellenberg (Bellville) completed a clean sweep of Bishops, Rondebosch, South African College Schools (SACS) and Wynberg. King Edward VII School bounced back from a 102-0 hammering by Paarl Gym in March to beat Rondebosch and Noordheuwel more recently.

Paarl Gym are the leading team in the country at the moment, but that may change if they lose focus in the second half of the season, as their coach, Pieter Rossouw, tells the FM.

Rossouw played 43 Tests for the Boks in the early days of the professional era before moving to coaching. After a successful coaching stint with the Bulls, he moved back to the Cape and became the Paarl Gym director of rugby in 2016.

He is quick to point out that winning isn’t everything, but acknowledges how big the game has become.

“I remember when I started coaching at this level,” he says. “I stuck to a simple philosophy: keep the ball for five phases and you will score. It worked very well in those days, but now you can keep the ball for 20 or more phases and still not score, because the defences are so well organised and the teams are so fit.”

While the teams are more professional in their approach, for obvious reasons school rugby shouldn’t be compared to the senior game.

“The school teams change from year to year, as the players leave after matric,” Rossouw says. “What doesn’t change is the expectation. If a team excelled in the previous season, the community expects them to take things forward the following year, which is unfair when you consider that a lot of players may have moved on. That expectation usually comes from outside the team — from the old boys, the parents and, more recently, social media, which we didn’t have to deal with when I was younger but is a major factor today.”

Former Lions and Scotland loose forward Josh Strauss broached the subject when speaking to former Springbok players Rudy Paige and Juan de Jongh on the Behind the Ruck podcast.

“We’ve got to take some pressure off these kids at schoolboy level,” said Strauss, who coaches at the University of Cape Town and SACS. “We all know that rugby loses an element of enjoyment once you become a pro. You always enjoy the match, but if you think about everything that happens in the week leading up to it, it’s stressful. I think that should start after school. Let’s make it as competitive as we can, but in a more holistic way.”

Like Rossouw, Strauss acknowledged that there are other elements at play. “It’s the social media stuff ... I think back to when we played Currie Cup. No-one really knew who we were. Now I have boys showing me highlights reels of players at another school before a big game.”

Rossouw agrees that the boys’ welfare must be prioritised. “You can’t say that winning doesn’t matter,” he says. “That’s why there’s so much more investment these days, because sponsors want to back a team that performs and communities want their team to succeed. But there can’t be an expectation to win every match, otherwise the coaches will get fired and the players’ confidence will be shattered.

“In addressing this issue, it helps to have a strong headmaster who sees the big picture, who encourages the community to understand why the process is more important than the result — and as we’ve seen recently [with Paarl Gym’s impressive win record], when you get it right, the results take care of themselves.

“We try to equip the boys with other values that will take them far in life,” Rossouw says. “In our coaching staff we have mentors who are invested in the boys’ lives. Whether players have broken up with their girlfriends, or their parents are going through a divorce, or there’s been a death in the family, you have to be there for them.

“In terms of the rugby, you have to encourage them to enjoy it and to see that there is more to the game than winning and that there is more to their lives than sport. It’s not easy, because some of them see rugby as a path to a better life.”

Rossouw feels that there is a gap in the South African rugby system that has an effect on players at school level. “Right now, only a few players will go directly from school rugby to a professional union. If they miss that chance, there may be another opportunity at Varsity Cup level. But not everyone has the money to attend university, or meets the entry requirements. They might go on to play club rugby, but it’s very tough to launch a pro career from there.

“When you consider all of that, you understand why there’s so much focus on school rugby, and greater investment in the product than ever before.”

Overall, Rossouw is optimistic about where school rugby is heading.

“In the past, donating to your old school was an act of philanthropy, but investors are realising that there’s a real opportunity to get something back. The exposure at this level is now better than the exposure at some of the senior professional tournaments. With greater exposure and investment, the schools will put more and more into their rugby programmes. The overall product — the players, the coaching and even the refereeing — will keep improving, and that will be great for school rugby.”

Where the Boks come from

Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch tops the list for the most Springbok rugby players produced (54), while three other Western Cape schools — Bishops, SACS and Paarl Gymnasium — feature in the top five. Grey College in Bloemfontein ranks second on the list (46).

Black players were barred from national selection during apartheid and with that in mind, more should be read into the number of Boks produced by the schools since 1992.

In this period Grey has produced the most Boks (31), followed by Paarl Gym (16), Paul Roos (12), Paarl Boys’ High (10) and Bishops (nine). HTS Louis Botha in Bloemfontein has produced six, including the 2023 World Cup hero Ox Nché.

While the leading rugby factories continue to churn out professional players, there are countless examples of individuals rising to the top after attending less established sporting institutions.

Eben Etzebeth, the most capped Bok yet, attended Tygerberg High. Other World Cup winners who hail from smaller schools include Damian de Allende (Milnerton), Makazole Mapimpi (Jim Mvabaza), Victor Matfield (Polokwane) and Cheslin Kolbe (Brackenfell).