Western Province choose schoolboy teams
Craven, Academy Grant Khomo Weeks
Western Province schools' selectors have chosen their three high school teams for Craven Week, the Academy Week and the Grant Khomo Week.
The Craven Week side and the Academy side are for players Under-18. Those who go to the Grant Khomo Week are Under-16.
It is a team that asks questions. All teams ask questions as no body of selectors satisfies all the people and often not even themselves as individuals. But there are some oddities in this side which may be worth noting.
First of all – and it should be made known – teams that got to Craven Week are required to be picked along racial lines on at least a 13-9 basis, where 13 are whites and nine blacks, the nine being a minimum. That may not always be known.
Because of the nature of the players, the nine blacks find themselves mostly amongst the backs. That means inevitably that many players who would otherwise deserve to be there are not selected.
The provinces acknowledge this and do not necessarily look to Craven Week when they contract players.
The Western Province team has been chosen on a 12-10 basis,. This split was decided by the Western Province Schools Union and not, apparently, decided because of the relative abilities/merits of the players.
If you had watched the Paul Roos-Bishops match, in which the two top-ranked teams in the province, were in action, you would have wondered at the non-selection of players like François Hougaard, the Paul Roos scrumhalf, Jesse Nowers, the electric Paul Roos wing and two Bishops players – left wing Mathew Turner and centre Adrian Kritzinger who certainly had a better match than both the Paul Roos centres who were chosen for the Craven Week team. Those four players find themselves in neither the Craven Week nor the Academy Week teams, which means that there are at least four scrumhalves better than Hougaard, at least four centres better than Kritzinger and at least four wings better than Nowers and Turner.
There are five in this year's Craven Week side who were at Craven Week last year when Western Province failed to win a match – powerful prop Jean Jacques Rossouw, flanks Siyasanga Mkiva and Morné Hanekom, scrumhalf Clayton Stewart and centre Charl Weideman.
Prop Lourens Adriaanse, centre Jason Volschenk and halfback Charl van Vollenhoven were at the Academy Week last year.
Those who have graduated from the Grant Khomo Week in 2005 are Nick Köster and flanks Yaya Hartzenberg and Oswald Hartzenberg – same position, same surname, no relation.
Two of the Academy side were at the Academy Week last year – prop Denzel Riddles and scrumhalf Reagan Stoffels, and three were at the 2005 Grant Khomo Week – wing Shaafik Nordien, centre Johan Sadie and hooker Sidney Tobias, son of the great Springbok flyhalf Errol Tobias.
In addition the lively Paul Roos lock Jaco Janse van Vuuren, who was at Craven Week last year, finds himself at the Academy Week this year,.
The representation in the two Under 18 sides, by schools, is as follows, Craven Week + Academy week:
Paul Roos: 5 + 4 = 9
Paarl Gim: 4 + 3 = 7
Boland Landbou: 2 + 4 = 6
Kasselsvlei: 1 + 2 = 3
Tygerberg: 1 + 3 = 4
Bishops: 2 + 0 = 2
Rondebosch: 1 + 1 = 2
The following have 1 player each: Bellville, Stellenberg, Bernadino Heights, DF Malan, Brackenfell, Strand, Zwaanswyk, Manenberg Rangers RFC and Helderberg Academy.
Teams:
Craven Week team: Jean Jacques Rossouw (Paarl Gim), Bertus O'Callaghan (Paarl Gim), Lourens Adriaanse Paarl Gim), Shaun McDonald (Tygerberg), Martin Muller (Bishops), Siyasanga Mkiva (Paul Roos), Morné Hanekom (Boland Landbou), Nick Köster (Bishops), Clayton Stewart (Strand), Coenie van Wyk (Paul Roos), Kent Hendricks (Kasselsvlei), Charl Weideman (Paul Roos), Jason Volschenk (Paul Roos), Bongani Mvumvu (Rondebosch), Stéphan van der Merwe (Paul Roos), CG Stoumann (Boland Landbou), Kieran James (Stellenberg), Yaasir Hartzenberg (Paarl Boys' High), Oswald Hartzenberg (Brackenfell), Dewaldt Duvenage (Paarl Gim), Charl van Vollenhoven (Tygerberg), Clement Martin (DF Malan)
Academy team: Denzel Riddles (Tygerberg), Eddie Harley (Paarl Gim), Johan Coetzee (Boland Landbou), Jaco van Vuuren (Paul Roos), Hein van der Merwe (Boland Landbou), Burger Schoeman (Boland Landbou), Waldo Prinsloo (Tygerberg), Wian Smith (Tygerberg), Reagan Stoffels (Kasselsvlei), Junaid Arendse (Manenberg Rangers RFC), Shaafik Nordien (Rondebosch), Johan Sadie (Paarl Gim), Stéphan Dippenaar (Paul Roos), Wilfred Manuel (Kasselsvlei), Lee Adriaanse (Paul Roos), Sidney Tobias (Paul Roos), Jacques Smit (Boland Landbou), Ryan Olivier (Bellville), Giovanni Charles (Bernadino Heights), Ronald Slamet (Paarl Gim), Abdul-Malik September (Helderberg Academy), Colben Phillie (Zwaanswyk)
Paarl Boys' High have six in the Grant Khomo Week side, Boland Landbou and Paarl Gim three each, Paul Roos and Rondebosch two each and then, with one each, Bishops, DF Malan, Fairmont, HTS Bellville, Kasselsvlei and Monumentpark.
Under-16: Mabhuti Mkoko (Bishops), Paul Viljoen (Boland Landbou), Marcel van der Merwe (Paarl Boys' High), William Clift (Paarl Boys' High), Philip Hanekom (Paarl Boys' High), Christiaan Bester (Rondebosch), Jackquim Rodgers (Paarl Gim), Kyle Strydom (Paarl Boys' High), Werner Cupido (Monumentpark), Edgar van Wyk (Boland Landbou), Curtis Ellers (Kasselsvlei), André Voigt (DF Malan), Jaco Olivier (Boland Landbou), Tythan Adams (Paul Roos), Tameez Vayej (Rondebosch), Curtis Beukes (HTS Bellville), Shameegh Allen (Fairmont), Helmut W Lehmann (Paarl Gim), Reuben Johannes (Paul Roos), Louis Schreuder (Paarl Gim), Johann Wilken (Paarl Boys' High), Lincoln Heugh (Paarl Boys' High)
