A winner for Coke and SARU
The Coca-Cola Schools of Excellence Programme was launched during a wet but marvelous day of rugby at the Wesbank Grounds in Malmesbury on Saturday 25 August 2012.
The first stage of this programme has involved the identification by SARU of twenty schools in financially-deprived areas of the Western and Eastern Cape who have, despite their circumstances, consistently produced players of excellent quality. Next year it is intended to add another ten schools.
A few weeks ago the Western Province beneficiaries (Bellville South, Excelsior, Scottsdene and Kasselsvlei) competed in a knock-out series at Florida Park. On Saturday six Boland schools provided a remarkably large crowd, given the constant gusting drizzle, with some highly entertaining rugby before taking proud possession of their share of Coca-Cola’s seemingly boundless generosity.
Each of the twenty schools receives rugby balls, five tackle pads, a scrumming machine and a compact mobile gym about half the size of a horse-box trailer, worth R85 000 and jam-packed with exercise equipment that, when fully used, can keep up to 40 players energetically occupied at a time.
These gyms, whose ergonomic efficiency owes much to the brains at the Sports Science Institute in Newlands, are superbly designed, making the proverbial multi-purpose army knife look about as compact as the aftermath of a hurricane. Proud Sports Science Institute man Justin Durandt and several of the institute’s trainers were on hand to put the Schoonspruit 2nd XV guinea-pigs through their paces in an impressive five-minute exhibition.
The brilliance of this whole concept lies in the fact that it doesn’t involve pretty words and posturing, ending up with bemused people getting something that looks good – and they’ll probably never use – for nothing from misguided do-gooders. While this initiative does involve valuable gifts, in this case the recipients have actually earned them, albeit unwittingly, through the massive commitment of teachers and learners alike at these schools over a long period of time and will benefit from for years to come.
The choices SARU made were spot on: Bergrivier, Klein Nederburg, New Orleans, Schoonspruit, Weltevrede and Weston Secondary are no Johnny-come-latelies: they have worked tirelessly over the years, producing excellent results on the rugby field with very little by way of financial resources. The genuine gratitude and barely-contained joy on the faces of such local bastions of the schoolboy game as Bergrivier’s Hendrik le Fleur and Vossie de Jager of Schoonspruit were plain to see.
An impressive party of VIPs attended the event. SARU board members Pat Kuhn and François Davids (also the president of the Boland Rugby Union), High Performance manager for Junior Rugby Herman Masimla and WP Schools Rugby chairman Danny Jones were unanimous in their lavish praise for the sponsors for funding the project. Needless to say, Coca-Cola Marketing Assets Manager Craig van Niekerk’s turn to address the crowd was met with rapturous applause.
Boland Schools Development head Willie Small and assistant Janus van Zyl ensured an appropriately flawless flow to the day and the rugby players, who, after all, were what it was all about, served up some highly entertaining fare in generally adverse conditions.
The first 1st XV match, featuring Klein Nederburg and Bergrivier, took a while to really get going, with Klein Nederburg grabbing the initiative to lead 11-3 at the break through a try by lock Cornel Brown and two penalties by centre Keagan September.
The second period saw a thoroughly revitalized Bergrivier come back with a bang as their accomplished scrumhalf Phill-Lee George dictated play, but not before September had stretched the Klein Nederburg lead to 14-3 from the tee.
At this stage George added three penalties to his first-half contribution as the Bergies took a stranglehold on proceedings. Wings Rowen Johnson and Jaydin Maërman dotted down, the former after toeing ahead a neat grubber kick to outpace the defence to the touchdown. George conversion of the second try saw Bergrivier complete their spirited comeback to win 24-14.
In the second game, between New Orleans and Weltevrede, New Orleans set out their stall early on when prop Lucian Cornelissen thundered over in the fourth minute. Full-back Neil Adriaanse added a penalty and converted a fine effort by Craven Week cap No.8 Hilroy Baadjies to provide the Paarl lads with a comfortable 15-0 lead by the end of the first quarter and, as it turned out, half-time.
Opponents Weltevrede showed that they had no intention of going down without a fight and struck back early in the second half through flank Shawn Davids, whose five-pointer was goaled by fly-half Shane Booysen.
However, New Orleans weathered the storm, literally and figuratively, and clinched matters fifteen minutes from the end via a try by outside centre Edward Hugo, goaled by Adriaanse. Final score: New Orleans 22 Weltevrede 7.
Schoonspruit and Weston are arch-rivals in the Boland and the crowd was in full voice when their heroes took the field after the official opening ceremony.
Five minutes in right wing Juan Valentyn crossed the line. Pivot Andy Huysamen added the extra two points and the Spruit led 7-0.
Much to the mainly Malmesbury crowd’s dismay the Vredenburg team hit back with great touchdowns by flank Claude Coetzee and no 8 Wade Hoofdt, the second of which was goaled by flyhalf Brendon Olivier to make the score Weston 12 Schoonspruit 7 at the change-over.
In the scond half the rapidly deteriorating conditions just added to the intensity of the rest of this nailbiter, with play flowing end to end.
It looked like Vossie de Jager’s boys would be celebrating a home win when hooker Rowainne Matthyse dived over in the corner for Huysamen to put them ahead 14-12 virtually from the touchline with just six minutes left on the clock.
Fittingly, a magical day was about to have a magical ending. Three minutes later a try by Weston no 13 Graham Jooste put the visitors 17-14 up, only for Huysamen to square matters at 17-17 on the final whistle.
Since the competition rules dictate that each game must produce a winner, it was resolved that two halves of ten minutes each of extra time would be played, but on a sudden-death basis.
Emotions were high as both kickers missed a handful what would normally be pretty routine kicks to them until Olivier finally raised the flags in the twelfth minute to ensure a memorable 20-17 win for Weston.
A large part of the crowd might have departed downcast, but every single player on the day, from Under-14 to Under-19, left greatly enriched both by the games and by the sparkling gesture by those great friends of school sport in South Africa, Coca-Cola.
By Tony Stoops
