Grandparent rugby and its joys
Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:40
Brothers Tom (left) and James (right) van Niekerk in action - much to their grandparents' delight!
Rugby has always been a game of movement, and for years and years I was a moving part in the game - playing, coaching, refereeing. Now my personal participation is stationary, and still most enjoyable. Part of that stationary joy is watching my grandsons.
They play with enormous enthusiasm and non-stop movement.
James plays for the Under-10A at Wet Pups, a scrumhalf. The week before last I went to Sweet Valley Primary School in Bergvliet. It was the first time I had been to this impressive school, big, orderly and cheerful. I watched rugby on three fields - all so enthusiastic and innocent, and I saw one of the best tries I have seen this year.
Wet Pups kicked deep into Sweet Valley territory. A Sweet Valley player - it is not always easy to work out positions - got the ball and did not kick but started running. He ran, fast and elusive, and then passed to a team-mate who went racing off on a slight arc to score. They had run some 80 metres.
The next Friday James played for Wet Pups in the Rondebosch Sevens for Under-10s - three fields worth of non-stop movement - no kicking, just running. Wet Pups got to the final where the biggest, fastest Bishops boy, Tim Goodwin, did a Danie Gerber impersonation and gave his side a narrow victory.
The impressive side that day came from Zimasa Primary School in Langa, whose principal is a great rugby man, Gerald Njengele whose father Henry played scrumhalf for Western Province and the Springboks, playing in the first Test played by the Bantu Springboks in 1950. The Zimasa side were splendidly kitted out and had four masters with them. Late on a Friday afternoon they had four masters at Rondebosch in days when schools are finding it harder and harder to find schoolmaster coaches, and we all know that you cannot beat the enthusiastic schoolmaster as a coach for boys - and others. They played well and the four masters took up positions on each side of the field and the Meadows field at Rondebosch resounded with cries of Tatta iballi and Balega. They were such amiable cries and almost obliterated a small group who found it fun to shout rude things at a referee.
Then on Saturday came the best day of all. My grandson Thomas was to play his first game of tackle rugby up at SACS Junior School. Under-8 it was, barefooted, played across half a rugby field. It was a wonderful morning with boys running everywhere and colourful tents here and there and enthusiastic parents.
Play was less structured. The boys swarmed like bees around the rugby ball and there was more running than passing, but concentration was absolute and enthusiasm unequalled. And Thomas was a star.
Stationary rugby can be such fun when young people are so active and enthusiastic, and I thought how wonderful those schools are that provide all of this and how privileged our children are to have such opportunities laid on for them.
Long live the enthusiastic schoolmaster! And Adele McNaughton!
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