SA Top school in player poaching debacle
SCHOOLS SPOTLIGHT: One of South Africa’s top school Paarl Boys’ High have been accused of unethical recruitment practices.
According to a South African rugby blog, The Schoolboy Rugby blog, fellow Western Province schools SACS High school and Wynberg Boys’ High are not happy with the number of their top players moving to Paarl Boys’.
The two Cape Town Southern Suburbs schools are not the only pair who are uneasy with Boishaai’ recruitment policy.
Framesby High School from Port Elizabeth and Jeppe Boys’ High from Johannesburg are all questioning the Winelands school’s method of recruiting.
The Schoolboy Rugby blog reported that one of Framesby’s star players who they developed from Grade 8 and who represented the Eastern Province at Craven Week 2018 has moved to Paarl Boys’ for 2019.
While Jeppy Boys’ have also lost their 2018 Craven Week player to the Paarl school.
Boishaai’s relationships with fellow schools have really taken a strain, with many not wanting to compete against one of South Africa’s top schools.
However, Paarl Boys’ released a statement regarding the ‘player poaching allegations.’
“Paarl Boys’ High would like to set the record straight,” the statement read.
“As we also often lose talent to neighbouring and competing schools, we do understand the emotion behind this. However, we prefer not to complain when this happens.
“As Paarl Boys’ High worked very hard over the years to establish high discipline, academic, sports and creative art standards we do understand if learners and their parents might consider us an option – sometimes a delayed option – for their studies.
“We have already approached the principals of Wynberg and SACS to clarify any misunderstandings or misperceptions,”
Furthermore, the fact that Paarl Boys’ High will not host or take part in this year’s World Schools Festival – the event has been moved to Paul Roos Gimnasium in Stellenbosch – have further raised some eyebrows.
However, the school have revealed that not hosting the World School festival have little to do with their relations with fellow schools.
“Just to confirm our position with regard to the World Schools Festival. As initiators of this successful rugby festival, we had the option to host again this year, but decided to rather let our initiative travel,”
Source: Schoolboyrugby
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