Without quotas where would rugby be?
Having attended a private school in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, I’m as used to the accusations of my alma mater being stuck-up as I am to the reality that in national terms, we are pretty low down the pecking order in terms of schoolboy rugby.
Barring the odd golden periods, the private schools generally struggle to compete with the likes of your Grey College, Paul Roos, Paarl Gym, Affies and Paarl Boys’ High. But where their contribution is proportionally greater is in providing black players for the pipeline.
And perhaps this is one of the key reasons a thriving schoolboy scene does not translate into greater success for our Junior Springboks side. There has been a lot of angst expressed in the last week over their performances on their tour of the UK – they were
hammered by England and could only snatch a last-minute win over Wales.
The displays did not engender much confidence that South Africa can compete for the honours in the World Rugby U20 Championship that starts in Argentina early next month. It’s a tournament which the Junior Springboks have not won since 2012 and they have not appeared in the final since 2014.
It’s not as if they’re finishing at the bottom either, though, with South Africa having finished third three times in the last four years and fourth once. But given the widely-held belief that we have the strongest schools rugby system in the world, there’s the feeling we should be doing better.
The problem is the advantages our schoolboy behemoths have in terms of strength, power and pace don’t last through into the senior
Ken Borland
ranks. Winning at all costs in the highly competitive schools scene means physical characteristics are relied upon and developed, to the detriment of skills. At senior professional level, everyone is pretty much on a par physically thanks to the scientific advances in conditioning, and South Africa loses its advantage.
This mentality also means our great rugby schools have been ignoring their responsibility towards the pipeline of our rugby through their reluctance to embrace the need to develop more black talent. It is time those top10 schools become more transformed in their recruitment and in the teams they put out on to the field week in, week out.
Quotas or targets have been in place in our national teams for a long time now, and our top rugby schools really need to get with the programme. That’s if they really have the national interest at heart and are truly preparing their pupils for the real South Africa outside their secluded cloisters.
Most of the black players in the Junior Springboks system come from private schools, but I would love to see those great establishments mentioned above push more previously disadvantaged players through their outstanding rugby systems, which can only see better players being produced. I am pleased to hear that Grey College are planning big changes in this regard.
Quotas are obviously controversial. I don’t like them, but I liken them to elephant culling.
Elephants are my favourite animal and I cannot stand the thought of them being killed. But I also recognise the need for culling because if their populations in game reserves are left unchecked, elephants destroy their environment leading to the deaths of both themselves and many other creatures.
The fact that elephants are confined to game reserves is a man-made problem, therefore man has the responsibility to find a solution. Likewise, apartheid was a man-made problem and quotas seem to be the best solution on the table right now to undo the damage.
Given how long we have waited for the Springboks to comprise just 50% players of colour, I shudder to think what would have happened if quotas were not in force.