Boishaai whizzing to Japan
Paarl Boys' High are certainly mobile. Last weekend they were in Johannesburg. Next weekend they will be in Fukuoka.
Fukuoka? It's on the island of Kyushu, the sixth largest city in Japan. And every year the city hosts the Sanix World Rugby Youth Invitational Tournament, which was started in 2000 with 11 Japanese school teams and five foreign teams. It is still a 16-team tournament with eight Japanese teams and eight foreign teams.
The first team to win the tournament was the King's School in Sydney who beat Paul Roos in the Final. Three South African teams have won – Grey College of Bloemfontein, Boland Landbou and Glenwood who won in 2008. New Zealand teams have since dominated.
The schools that go pay their own way to Japan, and so are really volunteers. This will Paarl Boys' High's second trip. In 2011 they represented South Africa and were knocked out in the semifinal by Ivybridge Communjity College of England.
The tournament is for Under-18 players. Of the players whom Paarl Boys' High took to the St John's Easter Festival, which they attend each year, two will not be going to Japan because they are Under-19. Otherwise the team that was in Johannesburg, where they beat Jeppe, St Charles and Pretoria Boys' High, plus another eight players will be going to Japan – 30 players in all with the headmaster, Derek Swart, to manage the team and Elmo Wolfaardt and Sean Erasmus to coach it. Erasmus was the Glenwood coach when they won in 2008 and again in 2009 when Glenwood ended third, which means it is his third trip to Fukuoka.
Apart from overseas teams, there are also four overseas referees: Graham Cooper (Australia), , Matthew O'Grady (England), , Angus Mabey (New Zealand), and Tahla Ntshakaza (South Africa), , who used to liaise with Erasmus when they were both at the Sharks. Inviting overseas referees started in 2009 when Ben Crouse was South Africa's representative. Since then Archie Sehlako and Lusanda Jam have been to the tournament.
The tournament is demanding of players. It lasts from 28 April to 5 May 2014 with days off on 30 April and 3 May. There are pools, followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and the last day when all teams play to achieve a champion and a ranking for each team.
The venue is Yoshidome, Munakata City, Fukuoka.
Participating teams
The overseas teams are nominated by their national unions. The top four Japanese schools in the Japan National High School Championship, the team placed first in the preliminary round and teams nominated by the Kyushu Rugby Football Union.
Overseas teams: St Edmund's College (Australia), Shawnigan Lake School (Canada), SGS () Filton College (England), which has over 15 000 students, Lycée Louis de Foix (France), Pucheonbuk High School (Korea), Hamilton Boys' High School (New Zealand), Paarl Boys' High School (South Africa), The British Schools (Uruguay).
St Edmund's, a Christian Brothers' foundation, has one of rugby football's greatest players ever as an Old Boy – George Gregan. Hamilton Boys' High have won the tournament twice – in 2010 and 2011. Shawnigan Lake School is on Victoria Island off Vancouver and the Lycée Louis de Foix in Bayonne in France's Basque country. Louis de Foix was a 16th century engineer and architect. The SGS before Filton stands for South Gloucester & Shroud. The college has over 15 000 students. Pucheonbuk High School is in Bucheon, close to Seoul. The British Schools, founded in 1908, is in Montevideo.
Japanese teams: Keio Senior High School (Kanagawa), Toin Gakuen High School (Kanagawa), Osaka Toin High School (Osaka), Josho Gakuen High School (Osaka), Tokai University Gyosei High School (Osaka), Gose Industrial High School (Nara), Chikushi High School (Fukuoka), Higashi Fukuoka High School (Fukuoka).
No Japanese team has won the Final but Higashi Fukuoka High School have played in three Finals and Sendai Ikuei High School in one.
Pools
Pool A: Hamilton Boys' High, Lycée Louis de Foix, Toin Gakuen High School, Josho Gakuen High School
Pool B: St Edmund's College, Shawnigan Lake School, Osaka Toin High School, Keio Senior High School
Pool C: Paarl Boys' High, Pucheonbuk High School, Tokai University Gyosei High School, Chikushi High School
Pool D: SGS Filton College, The British Schools, Higashi Fukuoka High School, Gose Industrial High School
Paarl, who ended their tournament on Johannesburg on Monday, will gather at the airport in Cape Town at 05.00 on Thursday morning to start the long journey to Hong Kong from where they fly to Fukuoka. They get back in the second week of May, laden with great memories.
