WP finish top of the class
The 2013 season might not have been the most memorable from a Stormers point of view, but the various Western Province Schools Rugby teams did the union proud over June and July.
Of the eight tournaments Western Province participated in this year, seven teams played in the 'unofficial' finals and won.
The only Western Province side to lose a youth week match in 2013 – out of a total of 28 games – was the Western Province Under-18 Academy team, who lost by three points to eventual winners South Western Districts on Day Two in Durban. (In the final match Sounth Western Districts beat Eastern Province 32-7.)
To their credit, the Academy side bounced back to win their last match, before the Western Province Under-18 Craven Week put the cherry on top the following week by finishing their tournament unbeaten – the highlight being their midweek 30-6 win over the Blue Bulls.
"With no disrespect towards the Pumas, our week was always geared towards the Wednesday game as we knew there would be a chance of playing a big team like the Bulls," Western Province Craven Week coach Hein Kriek told wprugby.com this week.
"The guys rose to the occasion (against the Bulls) and then, of course, played well against the Lions who had done very well to beat Free State with the last kick of the match on Wednesday."
But even after Western Province's impressive youth week form, especially at Craven Week – the 50th edition of this great schoolboy tournament – questions were already being asked about the union's ability to retain its best young players.
Social networks were abuzz with rumours that the Bulls had signed more than half the Western Province team – the same side that had beaten the Bulls by three tries to nil – but a reliable source confirmed to this website that well over half of the Province Under-18 squad had, in fact, been retained already before the teams even travelled to Polokwane for the 2013 Craven Week.
Another Western Province player, a standout performer at the Craven Week and a member of the recently-selected SA Under-18 squad, had done an about-turn during the week in Polokwane and was trying to ensure he, too, could stay in the Cape in 2014 – whilst a handful of SA Schools players from elsewhere in the country, amongst them scrumhalf Justin Phillips (Bulls Under-18) and fullback EW Viljoen (Free State Under-18), will further their fledgling careers at the Western Province Rugby Institute in Stellenbosch.
The obvious challenge for Western Province is to ensure that they harness this young talent correctly in order to produce the next Scarra Ntubeni, Frans Malherbe, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Nizaam Carr, Louis Schreuder, Juan de Jongh and Cheslin Kolbe – all graduates of the Western Province Rugby Institute in recent years, where Jacques Hanekom and Steph Nell continue to do great work.
Of course, it is one thing to keep them in the Cape, but they also need to continue getting those players into the system, at Under-19 and Under-21 level, where they can then develop even further under top youth coaches like Nazeem Adams (Under-19) and John Dobson (Under-21) and allow them to push for senior provincial, Super Rugby or Springbok places – like Ntubeni, Malherbe, Etzebeth, Kolisi, Carr and co. have done, despite all still being eligible for the Western Province Under-21 team last year.
Stormers' captain Jean de Villiers, speaking after his team's 30-13 win over the Bulls at the weekend, probably summed things up best, saying: "The Western Province Under-13s won, the Under-16s won… the guys won the Craven Week. It seems like we're doing something right in the Western Cape. I am proud to be a Stormer and I'm proud to say I'm part of Western Province Rugby."
All the 2013 Western Province Schools Results
LSEN WEEK – June 23-27
Day 1
Western Province vs Leopards, 76-25
Day 2
Western Province vs Boland, 31-15
Day 3 (Final)
Western Province vs Eastern Cape, 26-12
UNDER-13 CRAVEN WEEK – June 23-28
Day 1
Western Province vs Griquas, 31-7
Day 2
Western Province vs Eastern Province , 10-7
Day 3
Western Province vs Boland, 20-12
Day 4 (Final)
Western Province vs Blue Bulls , 11-0
U13 XV – June 30 to July 3:
Day 1
Western Province vs KwaZulu Natal, 26-0
Day 2
Western Province vs Golden Lions, 24-0
Day 3 (Final)
Western Province vs Blue Bulls, 10-5
UNDER-16 GRANT KHOMO WEEK – June 30 to July 4:
Day 1
Western Province vs Leopards, 50-12
Day 2
Western Province vs Eastern Province, 34-22
Day 3 (Final)
Western Province vs Blue Bulls, 22-15
UNDER-18 ACADEMY WEEK – June 30 to July 4:
Day 1
Western Province vs Red Valke, 93-0
Day 2
Western Province vs South Western Districts, 19-22
Day 3
Western Province vs Pumas. 24-5
UNDER-16 GIRLS – July 7-12:
Day 1
Western Province vs Eastern Province, 24-5
Day 2
Western Province vs Border B, 43-0
Day 3 (Final)
Western Province vs Border 'A' , 34-7
UNDER-18 GIRLS SEVENS – July 4-6:
Day 1
Western Province vs Golden lions, 43-0
Western Province vs Griffons, 39-0
Western Province vs Blue Bulls, 19-10
Day 2
Western Province vs Griquas, 26-0
Western Province vs Eastern Province, 24-0
Western Province vs Boland, 25-5 (Final)
UNDER-18 CRAVEN WEEK – July 7-13:
Day 1
Western Province vs Pumas, 40-24
Day 2
Western Province vs Blue Bulls, 30-6
Day 3 (Final)
Western Province vs Golden Lions, 45-29
