Affies attack; Garsies defend
Dr Pierre Edwards, the former Springbok's who is the headmaster of Afrikaanse Hoër Seuns Skool – Affies to everybody -has stated in public that Affies will not play rugby this year against Garsfontein and Menlopark.
The decision was taken because Affies, who no longer took part in competitions where there were trophies, on principle did not play against teams with postmatrics or 'mercenaries'.
He said he had told Leon Beukes, the head master of Garsfontein of the decision.
Affies, he said, preferred to play annually again schools such as Grey Bloem, Pretoria Boys High, Maritzburg College and Waterkloof.
He said that the big problem that Affies had was that certain schools collected Under-19 players from all over the country. There were schools in the Cape with which Affies had good relationships who were enraged that some of their players had been poached.
He said that Affies gave preference to schools which could match them in number of teams so that all teams could get a chance to play. This year when Garsfontein played Menlopark, 13 matches took place. When Affies played KES there were 25 matches and when they played Grey Bloem 29 matches were played.
Affies were to have played Menlopark on 4 June this year. The match is off but Edwards said that Affies would play them in 2015.
Garsfontein have said that they respected Affies' decision but answered certain aspects of it. They state that no postmatrics play in their teams and that they do not keep pupils back in Grade 11 to have older players in their teams. Under-19 is the acceptable age restriction for matches, Affies play against teams with Under-19 players and Affies have themselves had Under-19 players playing for them. That are sad that pupils have been labelled mercenaries when they are actually part of the policy of transformation developed by their board of control.
On Number of teams, Garsfontein, a co-ed school, was able to put 16 teams into the field against Affies.
It's sad when schools rugby gets to this.
