Inside the world of SA's High-Performance coaches in schoolboy rugby

SPOTLIGHT: Schoolboy rugby in South Africa has grown tremendously over the past decade, and now closely resembles a professional setup.

Schools are investing heavily in their programmes, seeking sponsorship opportunities, and exploring ways to monetise from the game.

Some of the country’s top sides also boast experienced coaching line-ups, many of whom are involved within the SA Rugby structures.

A key ingredient in many of these schools’ success, however, has been the rapid inclusion of Strength and Conditioning (S&C) coaches in their programmes.

The work done by S&C coaches to get players ready for the demanding season, keep them injury-free, and help them perform consistently at a high level is often overlooked.

With the 2026 schoolboy season up and running, Rugby365 sat down with three S&C coaches to get a behind-the-scenes look at the work they do.

Sebenza Maphumulo – Westville Boys’ High

The basics:

Westville Boys’ High finished the 2025 schoolboy season unbeaten, and strength and conditioning coach Sebenza Maphumulo played a key role in that achievement.

Maphumulo, who holds an Honours degree in Sports Science, joined the school five years ago and shed light on the basics of an S&C coach.

“S&C people are basically high-performance coaches,” he told Rugby365.

“You’re still a coach, but just adding value to a different space than a normal head coach. Our job is to make sure that athletes are efficient, perform consistently, and stay injury-free.

“We always strive to keep players fit for longer periods so that the coaches are in a position to have the same players playing throughout the season. You need consistency in selections to win games.”

A former player himself, Maphumulo explained how he typically goes about preparing a side ahead of a new season.

“We normally start in October and test the boys before putting them on a programme, depending on what type of tests they’ve done.

“We have varying programmes from hypotrophy [development and growth] to strength and power. I always try to isolate these with hypertrophy being the first phase of training because they need to get bigger before we get into strength work and power.

“Conditioning is also important; the boys run a lot and add some mileage to the legs. It’s a whole host of things, takes a lot of planning, but always pays off.”

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Westville have produced some exciting players in recent years, like Ethan Hooker, and the highly-rated Junior Springbok fullback, Zekhethelo Siyaya.

“If you start asking what’s changed, and how we are producing these athletes, I will say S&C played a massive role, among other things, of course.

“Now we currently have GPS systems from Under-15 to the first team, so we track our athletes, get data, and start planning for the future.

“As a school, we are reaping the rewards, and the athletes are well prepared.”

Elric Pretorius – Paul Roos Gimnasium

Nutrition and sleep:

While physical training and conditioning are crucial, what the players eat, the amount of sleep they get, and how they recover are equally important, according to Elric Pretorius.

Pretorious currently heads the High Performance department at Paul Roos Gimnasium and served as the first team’s S&C coach in 2024, when they finished the season ranked No.1.

He believes nutrition is one of the most undervalued aspects of a schoolboy rugby player’s development.

“In our school, we believe in three pillars: Training, nutrition and sleep,” he said.

“In terms of nutrition, the most important step is education. The boys need to understand what they eat, how they eat it, and why carbs are not their enemy.

“Players often overlook these things; hence, we’ve tried to educate the boys on how to fuel their bodies with stuff like electrolytes after intense training sessions.”

Pretorious completed his Postgraduate PHD specialising in sleep.

He studied the importance of sleep, its benefits, and how young schoolboy rugby players can benefit from getting good, quality sleep.

“I believe sleep or resting is one of the most undervalued principles worldwide.

“The importance of sleep to target recovery is massive, and we encourage our players that they need more sleep because they are still growing.

“The entire system is against the whole world of sleep, and you can’t change it overnight, but just like nutrition, it’s about educating the guys.

“It’s proven that sleep is the gold standard of recovery, it’s the cheapest version, it’s free, and has the most proven results.”

Sthaba Mqathu – King Edward VII (KES)

Clarity and the buy-in:

It’s one thing to ask players to go the extra mile and put in more effort, but it’s another to have the full buy-in of the squad.

Sthaba Mqathu is the trusted S&C coach at KES and arguably one of the youngest, making his way up the professional ranks.

The former Wits and UWC rugby player emphasises the importance of gaining buy-in from the players before executing the plan.

“Here at KES, we spend a lot of time painting the picture for the boys,” he said.

“We start in September of the previous year, and sort of show the boys where we want to be in March of the following year.

“It’s like planting the seed early, selling a picture to the boys, and just having them ready and aware of what’s expected. That makes everything a bit easier.”

As aforementioned, S&C coaches often have to deal with the high demands of a schoolboy season.

Mqathu believes the foundations laid during pre-season allow them to reap the benefits during the season.

“I think every strength and conditioning coach out there would agree that the off-season sets you up in terms of how healthy your squad is throughout the year.

“On average, there’s about 21 games in a season, so we put enough money in the bank in the off-season to ensure that when the season kicks off, we are just managing the boys and keeping them as healthy as possible to perform on matchday.

“For that reason, only, it makes having an S&C in your side quite advantageous.

“I think any school that doesn’t have a S&C coach is missing out on what could improve their programme.”