'Rugby - A part of education'
On Saturday, in an FNB Classic Clash, Wynberg Boys' High play the South African College High School (SACS), a great rivalry going back many decades.
They are the oldest schools in South Africa. SACS was founded in 1829. Wynberg, regarded as the second oldest, was founded in 1823 but had several months of non-functioning in 1840 and so usually takes 1841 as its founding date.
The two schools have probably playing each other at the handling game since the late 1860s. Now they play twice a year, two schools of four big boys' schools on the Cape Peninsula.
Keith Richardson, a man keen on sport, has been the headmaster of Wynberg Boys' High for the last 14 years, loving being the headmaster and resenting being forced to retire in 2015 – an energetic and positive man. Though he is trying to do the tough task of fitting over 800 applicants into 150 places for Grade Eight next year, there was time to talk about the coming match.
Richardson was looking forward to it, as he has done for many years previously. He is glad that it is a match (almost) like all others. There was no special preparation for the match, no learning new tricks, no special razzmatazz, no rah-rah assembly, not making a raucous noise. He likes it like that.
Schools rugby in South Africa worries him and he would dearly like the hype reduced and better priorities about the game, saying: "You've lost the plot if you don't see rugby as a part of education."
The danger of current hype around rugby is that it becomes an end in itself, no longer a part of all the activities available to a schoolboy because it is the easiest marketing tool for a school, winning becomes so important. Boys are scared of losing and schools, to avoid losing, look to ways and means to strengthen their tea. If you are short of a scrumhalf, go forth and recruit one.
Richardson explains: "We have sponsors, but I will not spend any money on 'bursaries' for rugby players, recruiting players. I'll spend money on developing my coaches and in buying a scrumming machine, but not on buying players."
And the recruiting of players is become more widespread with offers coming even from abroad to schoolboys players.
Richardson says that even some of his staff do not agree with him and take his initials (KC) to mean King Canute, the monarch notorious for trying to turn back the tide.
But he believes that the old-fashioned teacher-coach is a dying breed. The game has become so technically advanced that the ordinary teacher simply does not have the time to keep up with the game's advances – keeping statistics, doing video analysis, taking players to gym and so on. "It is beyond the ordinary schoolmaster coach."
He likes winning, admitting: "When we beat Grey in Port Elizabeth, it did an immense amount for the school." But he cannot share gloom and doom that sometimes follows defeat. Losing brings its own lessons.
Richardson says that the four boys' schools in the Southern Suburbs get on really well. "As long as the heads are getting on, the relationships between the schools will be good, and we all get on well."
He also likes good manners at matches – that his boys support their teams, applaud the opposition when they do well and refrain from anything insulting.
"We make mistakes through testosterone but we are pleased with how our schools approaches games such as these. We will play with great guts and determination, but hopefully it will be wholesome and will all meet in the tent afterwards in a happy spirit."
