Elite Schools Dominating Craven Week Team Selections
- Karen Scheepers
- Jul 9
- 14 min read
South Africa’s annual Craven Week is billed as a showcase of the nation’s best school-boy rugby talent, yet a quick glance at recent team sheets reveals that the vast majority of provincial spots are being filled by pupils from just a handful of elite schools. This concentration of players, illustrated most starkly by Free State’s 2025 squad, where 19 of 23 selections come from Grey College, has sparked fresh debate about whether the tournament still rewards merit nationwide or increasingly mirrors the resources and recruiting power of a privileged few institutions.
A Nationwide Trend of Elite Dominance in Selections
Across many provinces, one or two powerhouse rugby schools provide a disproportionate share of the players in provincial Craven Week teams. This concentration of talent is evident in several regions:
Free State:
Grey College’s dominance is extreme, 19 of the Free State U18 squad’s 23 players came from Grey alone. Only a few boys from other schools (such as Hoërskool Burgersdorp, Hoërskool Jim Fouché, and Hoërskool Fichardtpark) filled the remaining spots, and even the team’s head coach was Grey College’s own coach, underscoring the school’s influence. Notably, at U16 level (Grant Khomo Week) the pattern was similar, with Grey also contributing 19 players.
South Western Districts (SWD):
Oakdale Agricultural High School, after an excellent season, contributed 14 players to the SWD Craven Week team. Only three other schools had any representation in that squad, a virtual monopoly by Oakdale in that province.
Blue Bulls (Northern Gauteng):
Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies) in Pretoria, a traditional rugby powerhouse, supplied 10 players to the Blue Bulls U18 team. A few others came from Pretoria’s Hoërskool Garsfontein and Hoërskool Menlopark, but Affies clearly formed the core of the Bulls side.
Golden Lions (Johannesburg):
Helpmekaar Kollege was the single biggest contributor with 9 players in the Lions’ Craven Week team. Two other strong Johannesburg schools, Jeppe High and Hoërskool Noordheuwel, provided 6 players each, accounting for almost the entire squad between just three schools.
KwaZulu-Natal (Sharks):
Westville Boys’ High, having enjoyed a great year, produced 8 players for the KZN Craven Week side. Other large KZN schools like Hilton College and Northwood contributed 4 each, while longtime traditional power Durban High School had only 2 players in the team. This shows even in KZN a few top schools dominate the selections.
Eastern Cape:
In the Border region, Queen’s College had an exceptional season and supplied 9 players to the Border U18 team, with another 8 coming from Selborne College, leaving only 3 players from all other schools (such as Dale College) in the squad. Meanwhile, the Eastern Province team was similarly skewed: Grey High School (Port Elizabeth) contributed 6 players and Graeme College 4, with only a handful from various other schools.
Western Province:
The Cape’s schools scene is traditionally competitive, yet even here a few big names lead the pack. In 2025, the WP U18 Craven Week squad included 5 players from Paarl Boys’ High and 5 from Rondebosch Boys’ High. Surprisingly, Paarl Gimnasium, usually a top rugby school, contributed only 2 players that year despite having an unbeaten season. Wynberg Boys’ High added 4 players and Paul Roos Gymnasium 2. While Western Province’s talent was spread among several elite schools, it still highlights that representation came largely from a short list of traditional rugby giants. In smaller provinces, the pattern is even more pronounced: often one school forms the backbone of an entire provincial team.
These examples illustrate a national trend: provincial youth teams are heavily composed of players from a select few elite schools. Year after year, the same institutions dominate, raising questions about the breadth of the talent search and opportunities for players outside these strongholds.
Why Does Talent Cluster at Elite Schools?
Observers and experts point to several factors that explain why the same few schools consistently produce most of the Craven Week players.
These factors create a self-reinforcing cycle that funnels top youth talent into elite programs:
Superior Facilities and Resources:
Top rugby schools like Grey College and Oakdale boast first-class training facilities, quality rugby fields, well-equipped gyms, on-site medical and physiotherapy support, etc.. Young athletes benefit from professional-grade conditioning and infrastructure, allowing them to develop faster and perform at a higher level than peers at schools with basic resources.
High-Quality Coaching:
Elite schools hire experienced, highly qualified coaches, often former provincial or international players, to lead their rugby programs. These coaches provide advanced skills training, strategic insights, and intensive development from a young age. As a result, players at powerhouse schools receive expert mentorship that sharpens their abilities beyond those of players at smaller schools who may have more limited coaching.
Aggressive Recruitment and Scholarships:
Prominent rugby schools actively scout and recruit promising talent from across their province and even nationwide. Through well-established networks, they identify standout players in primary schools and offer scholarships or bursaries to entice those kids to enroll. By the time players reach the under-16 and under-18 levels, many of the region’s best have been pulled into the elite school system.
For example, Grey College doesn’t only draw students from Bloemfontein, it attracts strong players from all over the Free State and surrounding areas. This means smaller high schools often lose their star players to the big institutions even before Craven Week age, concentrating the talent in just a few teams.
Exposure and Network Advantages:
Elite schools regularly compete in high-profile interschool tournaments (such as the Wildeklawer and North-South festivals) and enjoy extensive media coverage. Their games are frequented by provincial selectors and scouts, many of whom have personal ties to these school networks. Players from top schools thus get seen in action against strong competition on a weekly basis.
Additionally, there’s an “old boys” network effect: in some provinces, coaches or selectors in the youth structures are themselves alumni or former coaches of the dominant schools. For instance, Free State’s U18 coaching staff included Grey College’s own coaches and alumni in key roles. This insider network creates a pipeline where talent within the circle is more likely to be noticed and promoted. Overall, these connections and constant visibility give elite-school players a significant edge in the selection process.
These factors all contribute to a scenario where a few powerhouse rugby institutions consistently generate an outsized pool of provincial players. Thanks to superior training environments and aggressive talent hoarding, the top schools effectively stockpile the best young players.
By the time provincial trials come around, selectors often have a talent pool dominated by those elite programs, indeed, some selection panels have been accused of simply focusing on one or two leading schools when picking teams, rather than casting the net widely.
Controversy Over Selection Fairness and Inclusivity
This concentration of players from elite programs has prompted debate about the fairness and inclusivity of Craven Week selections. Rugby observers note that some provincial selectors “have cast the net wide” across many schools, while others focus on one or two leading schools in their region. The Free State’s near-exclusive reliance on Grey College talent, for example, led one school rugby commentator to argue “we are making a mockery of Craven Week” , suggesting the tournament’s spirit as a showcase of the country’s best diverse talent is undermined when one school supplies an entire team rugby365.com.
Critics point out that talented players at smaller, rural, or under-resourced schools often struggle to get noticed if provincial teams are picked mostly from powerhouse school lineups. A News24 opinion piece bluntly stated that without alternative pathways (like strong club or varsity competitions), a youngster who doesn’t attend an “affluent rugby high school” such as Grey, Paul Roos, Selborne or Queen’s “might never smell a Springbok jersey.”news24.com In other words, the traditional school pipeline has been so dominant that it can exclude late bloomers or kids outside the elite school network.
Even some coaches acknowledge the imbalance: Rugby365 notes that unions like Boland or the Leopards spread selections across 8–11 schools, whereas unions like Free State, Bulls, or Lions concentrated heavily on their top one or two schools rugby365.com. This disparity raises concerns that selection bias toward big-name schools may be overlooking meritorious players from lesser-known programs. There have been calls for more transparent trial processes and even quota systems to ensure broader representation. (In fact, Western Province introduced a guideline that ~20–25% of their Craven Week squad should come from non-traditional or previously disadvantaged schools finglobal.com, aiming to widen the talent pool).
The impact on youth development is a real worry, if provincial honors (and the exposure to scouts that comes with them) are effectively reserved for a few school “academies,” players outside those bubbles might quit the sport or never reach their potential. Former Springbok Stefan Terblanche has argued that an obsession with concentrating talent in certain schools and “buying” 1st XV success is “part of a bigger problem where the game in our country is dying because of what’s happening at school level.”ssschoolsplus.co.za He and others suggest that overemphasis on a narrow base of elite school players can hurt the broader development of clubs and the game’s growth. In summary, while the elite schools’ dominance reflects where top coaching and resources are, it has also sparked ongoing criticism that the Craven Week selection process is too exclusive, and that more should be done to scout and develop talent from all schools, not just the traditional giants.
Fairness and Representation: Small Schools Speak Out
The heavy concentration of Craven Week spots among so few schools has sparked criticism about fairness and inclusivity from many in the rugby community. Parents, coaches, and former players from smaller programs worry that the selection process is biased against those outside the elite school circuit.
Key concerns include:
Unfair or Inadequate Trials:
There are allegations that in some provinces, truly open trials for Craven Week are not even held, or not taken seriously. On social media and school rugby forums, it’s been claimed that selectors sometimes bypass full try-outs due to cost or logistics and instead default to known talent from powerhouse schools.
As one online commentator remarked, he doubted “if any proper trials are still held, it’s likely easier just to stick with the famous schools” (a sentiment shared on the SchoolboyRugby blog). Whether anecdotal or not, such perceptions fuel the belief that team line-ups are pre-determined in favor of elite school players.
Perception of Preselection:
For families at smaller schools, it often feels like their top performers never stood a real chance. A boy might be a standout at a lesser-known high school, yet see no path into the provincial squad because those places seem reserved for kids from the big name institutions. Some frustrated parents describe the provincial team as being “bought” or decided well in advance in favor of the elite schools’ players. This creates a sense that merit on the field is being overlooked.
Overlooked Talent:
The most serious concern is that talented players from rural areas or non-traditional rugby schools may slip through the cracks simply because they are not in the “right” school. If a gifted youngster happens to attend a smaller or outlying school with little history of producing provincial players, he might be ignored by scouts and selectors who focus on the usual pipelines.
An opinion writer in The Citizen warned back in 2019 that there was “a clear preference for picking players from the traditional big schools,” which meant outstanding performers at smaller schools were being passed over. This sentiment, that selection bias, even if unintentional, exists in favor of elite programs, is shared by many parents and observers who argue that selections should be based on merit alone, not on the prestige of the school on a player’s jersey.
On the other side of the debate, supporters of the current system contend that it is meritocratic, they argue the strongest schools simply produce the strongest players. From this viewpoint, it’s only logical that provincial teams are filled with players from the top-performing school sides, since those teams win most of the games and their players have proven themselves at a high level.
For example, Grey College supporters often point out that Grey is perennially one of the country’s top-ranked rugby schools, so it stands to reason that its players would earn the most provincial berths. Additionally, some selectors note that transformation goals (ensuring opportunities for players from historically disadvantaged backgrounds) also influence selection.
Big rugby schools that recruit talented kids from all communities help unions meet their diversity targets, which can result in more picks from those schools. Critics, however, respond that relying on a few elite schools to drive transformation is a shallow solution. If provincial diversity is achieved only by funneling a few promising players of color into elite programs, vast areas and many deserving individuals still remain overlooked.
True inclusivity, they argue, would require broadening the talent search beyond the narrow elite-school pipeline. Otherwise, a kid at a disadvantaged rural school might never get noticed unless he somehow lands a scholarship to a major rugby school, a route that is available to only a select few.
Long-Term Impact on Youth Rugby Development
Rugby experts are increasingly worried about the long-term consequences of this talent centralization in a handful of schools. For South African rugby to thrive, a wide and equitable base of school participation is essential.
The current trend, if unchecked, could have several negative impacts on development:
Shrinking the Talent Pool:
If players outside the traditional “macro” rugby schools are continually passed over, many could lose heart or even quit the sport. A school that knows none of its boys have a realistic shot at provincial selection might see its rugby program’s morale and participation dwindle. Over years, some smaller or rural schools might reduce emphasis on rugby (or drop it entirely) if their athletes never get recognition, stunting the sport’s growth in those communities. This could fragment the development pipeline, with large swathes of the country effectively unscouted.
Missing Future Stars:
There is a real risk that South African rugby might miss out on discovering future stars by looking too narrowly for talent. History has shown that not every great player comes through a big-name academy. In fact, several current Springbok heroes emerged from relatively small or less-famous schools. For example, World Cup winner Pieter-Steph du Toit attended Hoërskool Swartland in the country town of Moorreesburg; Makazole Mapimpi matriculated at Jim Mvabaza Senior Secondary in rural Eastern Cape; and Cheslin Kolbe is a graduate of Hoërskool Brackenfell, none of these are traditional rugby powerhouses.
Yet despite potentially lower exposure in their school years, these players rose to the pinnacle of the sport. Their stories underscore that top talent can come from anywhere. Observers caution that the next Mapimpi or Kolbe might be out there shining on some far-flung school field, but if scouting remains too focused on the usual elite hubs, that gem of a player might never be noticed, to the detriment of the game as a whole.
In short, a development system that leaves entire regions or school tiers behind could limit South Africa’s rugby potential. A broader talent search and more inclusive youth competitions would likely yield a deeper reservoir of skilled players in the long run, benefiting clubs and national teams alike.
Success Stories from Non-Traditional Rugby Schools
Despite the dominance of the usual schoolboy powerhouses, there are shining examples of players who reached Craven Week and even Springbok glory from non-traditional or rural school backgrounds.
These cases are often cited to emphasize that talent can emerge outside the elite school pipeline:
Makazole Mapimpi (Jim Mvabaza SS):
Mapimpi’s rise has become legendary because he had no high-profile school platform. He attended a small rural high school in the Eastern Cape and never made a Craven Week team or any SA Schools selection news24.com. In fact, as a News24 feature noted, “there were no coaches to bring out the best in this young player; no Craven Week selection for him”, yet through sheer grit he carved his way into provincial rugby and ultimately became a World Cup-winning Bok winger. Mapimpi himself has said he “didn’t attend any major rugby school” and thus wasn’t even on the usual scouting radar. His story, from playing club rugby for a village team (for a crate of beer as prize) to Test stardom, underscores that outstanding players can be found outside the traditional school system if given a chance.
Cheslin Kolbe (Hoërskool Brackenfell):
Kolbe is another example often mentioned, because he hails from Brackenfell High, a decent school but not a renowned rugby academy in the mold of a Grey or Paarl Boys. Kolbe did get to represent Western Province youth teams, yet his school was a ordinary state school in Kraaifontein. An analysis of the 2023 Springbok squad noted that Kolbe never made the SA Schools team and did not have a decorated Craven Week résumé (his name shows “N/A” for Craven Week honors) ssschoolsplus.co.za.
Still, his talent shone through via the Sevens and junior provincial circuits, and he’s now an iconic Springbok known for beating the odds (in size and background). Kolbe’s success is frequently cited as proof that a player from a non-elite school program can reach the top, Western Province picked him from Brackenfell, and he went on to star for the Stormers, Toulouse, and the Boks ultimaterugby.com.
Pieter-Steph du Toit (Hoërskool Swartland):
Du Toit, World Rugby’s 2019 Player of the Year, is a product of a relatively small-town school (Swartland High in Malmesbury) rather than a traditional powerhouse. He played Craven Week for Boland in 2010, coming from a farming community background ssschoolsplus.co.za. His school, while solid, wasn’t a perennial Top 20 contender – making his rise more atypical. A rugby publication quipped that “it all started at Swartland, of all places” for the Springbok star nextgenxv.com.
Du Toit’s case shows that even if a player isn’t in a major metropolitan school, they can still reach Craven Week (via a smaller union like Boland) and excel to the highest level. In the current Springbok squad, du Toit is one of several players who did not come through a big-name school 1st XV, his name appears alongside others like Jasper Wiese (Upington High) and Ox Nché (Louis Botha THS) as players from less traditional schools who made.
Other examples include Kurt-Lee Arendse (went to Paulus Joubert Secondary in Paarl, not a traditional rugby factory) and Ox Nché (Louis Botha High in Bloemfontein, a school known more for producing one or two Boks rather than dozens), both of whom, like Mapimpi, did not play Craven Week at school level ssschoolsplus.co.za.
In fact, a review of the 2023 Springbok World Cup squad reveals that 13 of the 33 players never played Craven Week as schoolboy, a striking statistic that suggests alternative pathways (club rugby, varsity cups, age-grade academies) can produce elite players outside the usual school tournaments. This includes not only Mapimpi and Kolbe, but players like Damian de Allende (Milnerton High) and Eben Etzebeth (Tygerberg High) who either missed Craven Week or came from schools outside the traditional elite ssschoolsplus.co.za.
These success stories are frequently highlighted by coaches and pundits to argue for broader talent identification. They demonstrate that while top schools do nurture many stars, talent is not exclusive to those institutions. As one rugby writer put it, only a small fraction of Craven Week school stars actually become Springboks, and conversely, many Springboks come from outside that system.
The emergence of players like Mapimpi, “a boy from the rural areas who didn’t go to a private or elite school”, has inspired SA Rugby to invest more in academies at universities like WSU and grassroots programs. The hope is that the next Mapimpi or Kolbe will be spotted and developed even if they aren’t at an Affies, Grey, or Paarl Boys, thereby making the rugby pipeline more inclusive while still benefiting from the excellence of the elite schools.
The Road Ahead
The debate over Craven Week selections ultimately comes down to balancing two priorities. On one hand, provincial unions naturally want to field the most competitive teams possible at Craven Week, which often means drawing heavily from the winningest, high-performance schools. From this perspective, leaning on the elite programs makes sense to maximize short-term success.
On the other hand, there is the developmental goal of giving as many young players as possible a fair chance and growing the game across all communities. At present, the scales seem tipped heavily toward the established elite schools’ pipeline. The Craven Week stage has become, as some critics lament, a showcase largely for a select group of “chosen” players from powerhouse institutions, rather than a truly representative festival of nationwide talent.
Many parents, coaches, and rugby supporters are calling for selectors and school bodies to cast the net wider. They argue that Craven Week should strive to be a genuine test of all of South Africa’s youth rugby talent, not just those groomed at a few top schools. Broader scouting and more inclusive selection policies could help ensure that a boy’s future in rugby isn’t effectively decided by which high school his parents can afford or which talent pipeline noticed him at age 13. In the long run, South African rugby stands to gain from a larger and more diverse pool of players, as opposed to a fragmented system that funnels opportunities to a narrow group.
It remains an open question how (or if) the current trials and selection processes might be reformed to address these concerns. Some suggest that provincial unions need to reinvest in scouting and holding thorough regional trials to identify late bloomers and outliers. Others propose structural changes to Craven Week itself to encourage broader participation.
As South Africa looks ahead, the challenge will be ensuring that its most prestigious school rugby showcase, Craven Week, lives up to its ideal of celebrating the country’s best young talent wherever it may come from. Achieving that balance between elite performance and inclusive development will be crucial for the health of South African rugby in the years to come.