PaarlBok
Rod McCall (65)
Good news for all rugby supporters, hope they get it right.
SARugby
Saru wants this year’s SA Schools team to be selected on merit and not according to a 50-50 racial quota, as has been the case in the past.
That was the story doing the rounds at the Northern Unions Bondedag in Rustenburg on Saturday.
No one was prepared to go on the record – Saru, apparently, needs to make an official statement first – but some pretty high up officials in the schools body were strongly under the impression that this is what is going to happen.
The reason for the turnabout, it seems, was the embarrassment of the 45-13 loss to the England U18 team last year. The SA Schools side has traditionally been the first squad from which the SA U19 (originally) and now the U20 side is built and the country’s performance at the IRB Junior World Championship can be affected if talented players are overlooked because of a quota requirement.
There’s no doubt, given the number of quality black players on show at Craven Week over the years, that a merit-selected national schools team, will not be an all-white entity. In some years the quota, as it stood last year, could well be met, or even surpassed.
The important thing is that no worthy white player will be left out because of restrictions imposed on the selectors.
This year, as in the past, Saru’s insistence that all teams playing in its interprovincial youth weeks must contain a minimum number of players of colour. As it stands, every Craven Week team must have at least nine players of colour, five of whom must be on the field at any time, and in the Grant Khomo and Academy Week teams 11 of the 22 must be players of colour, with seven playing.
This means that selectors have to look at ability and competence when choosing some players, and at future potential when selecting others. And, at the same time, the teams from unions like the Golden Lions and Blue Bulls have to be competitive against provinces where the pool of players of colour is much bigger, and teams are mostly selected on merit.
In the absence of development programmes that are bringing though players who can cut it at this level, they have in recent years taken to bringing in players of colour from elsewhere on bursaries and putting them in the traditional rugby-playing schools. The reality has, however, been that there are usually not enough of those to choose the entire required quota on merit and some players, therefore, do get into the teams because of the colour of their skins.
And every time that happens, it means a more deserving white player had to be left out, and it’s often quite obvious that this has happened. The unlucky ones who fall prey to the system usually know who they are, and in many cases they are lost to the game from then on. As for those chosen on the basis of their potential, not all seem to deliver later on. The dearth of these players at the senior levels attests to that.
The selectors, working within the constraints of the quota system, don’t have much room to manoeuvre. They have to fill the quota, and then look to locate them within a team that is capable of winning at Craven Week. We don’t know what happens behind closed doors, but it’s probable that the likely quota players are identified early on in the process, and as they progress through the trials process, the other players are contesting the remaining positions.
That’s patently unfair to those who make up the numbers in positions that they are not really in contention for and when the final squad is announced it’s often easy to see who was left out because he did not fit the required demographic profile.
There is, of course, a need to transform the game. People want to see more black faces in representative teams at all levels. Whether enforcing a racial quota at the selection stage is the long term solution is, however, doubtful.
Surely, in the true spirit of affirmative action, it would be better to identify players with potential much earlier on and to invest in their development so that they eventually do make the sides on merit? Craven Week selection should be the crowning glory of five years of achievement. Recognition at this level has become the first step to a career in professional rugby – this has been South Africa’s strategic advantage over the years. Choosing players on the basis of their potential doesn’t fit in with that and it is leading to a waste of talent that we cannot afford.
There is no racial aspect to talent. An increasing number of black players who have been at the formerly white rugby schools from the start of their high school careers are coming through on their own ability. We owe it to them to let them vie for provincial selection purely on that basis.
Saru’s role should be to ensure that those provinces who have been lagging behind swell those ranks through effective development programmes.
SARugby
Saru wants this year’s SA Schools team to be selected on merit and not according to a 50-50 racial quota, as has been the case in the past.
That was the story doing the rounds at the Northern Unions Bondedag in Rustenburg on Saturday.
No one was prepared to go on the record – Saru, apparently, needs to make an official statement first – but some pretty high up officials in the schools body were strongly under the impression that this is what is going to happen.
The reason for the turnabout, it seems, was the embarrassment of the 45-13 loss to the England U18 team last year. The SA Schools side has traditionally been the first squad from which the SA U19 (originally) and now the U20 side is built and the country’s performance at the IRB Junior World Championship can be affected if talented players are overlooked because of a quota requirement.
There’s no doubt, given the number of quality black players on show at Craven Week over the years, that a merit-selected national schools team, will not be an all-white entity. In some years the quota, as it stood last year, could well be met, or even surpassed.
The important thing is that no worthy white player will be left out because of restrictions imposed on the selectors.
This year, as in the past, Saru’s insistence that all teams playing in its interprovincial youth weeks must contain a minimum number of players of colour. As it stands, every Craven Week team must have at least nine players of colour, five of whom must be on the field at any time, and in the Grant Khomo and Academy Week teams 11 of the 22 must be players of colour, with seven playing.
This means that selectors have to look at ability and competence when choosing some players, and at future potential when selecting others. And, at the same time, the teams from unions like the Golden Lions and Blue Bulls have to be competitive against provinces where the pool of players of colour is much bigger, and teams are mostly selected on merit.
In the absence of development programmes that are bringing though players who can cut it at this level, they have in recent years taken to bringing in players of colour from elsewhere on bursaries and putting them in the traditional rugby-playing schools. The reality has, however, been that there are usually not enough of those to choose the entire required quota on merit and some players, therefore, do get into the teams because of the colour of their skins.
And every time that happens, it means a more deserving white player had to be left out, and it’s often quite obvious that this has happened. The unlucky ones who fall prey to the system usually know who they are, and in many cases they are lost to the game from then on. As for those chosen on the basis of their potential, not all seem to deliver later on. The dearth of these players at the senior levels attests to that.
The selectors, working within the constraints of the quota system, don’t have much room to manoeuvre. They have to fill the quota, and then look to locate them within a team that is capable of winning at Craven Week. We don’t know what happens behind closed doors, but it’s probable that the likely quota players are identified early on in the process, and as they progress through the trials process, the other players are contesting the remaining positions.
That’s patently unfair to those who make up the numbers in positions that they are not really in contention for and when the final squad is announced it’s often easy to see who was left out because he did not fit the required demographic profile.
There is, of course, a need to transform the game. People want to see more black faces in representative teams at all levels. Whether enforcing a racial quota at the selection stage is the long term solution is, however, doubtful.
Surely, in the true spirit of affirmative action, it would be better to identify players with potential much earlier on and to invest in their development so that they eventually do make the sides on merit? Craven Week selection should be the crowning glory of five years of achievement. Recognition at this level has become the first step to a career in professional rugby – this has been South Africa’s strategic advantage over the years. Choosing players on the basis of their potential doesn’t fit in with that and it is leading to a waste of talent that we cannot afford.
There is no racial aspect to talent. An increasing number of black players who have been at the formerly white rugby schools from the start of their high school careers are coming through on their own ability. We owe it to them to let them vie for provincial selection purely on that basis.
Saru’s role should be to ensure that those provinces who have been lagging behind swell those ranks through effective development programmes.
