Letter: EP can’t get schools rugby right either

IT saddens me to read about the total mess that the EP Schools selectors got themselves into regarding the final teams named for trials at the weekend. First, surely the selectors want the best team to represent our province?

Second, why prejudice the boys when they have no say in when and where they can play? Third, how do the selectors justify selecting Khwezi Mafu, the Grey eighth man, when he has been out injured for the past six weeks?

There are three other Grey boys, who together with Mafu were picked for last year’s team and who have each played in two of the three trial matches, yet were only chosen in the C and D teams for the final trials. Surely they have more right to be in the A team than Mafu who hasn’t played for Grey since the game against Paul Roos on April 9?

The convenor of the selectors was quoted as saying that because the Grey boys did not play in the third trials in Cradock they would not feature. But how does he justify Mafu’s selection in the A team when he is injured?

Oh, another point is that a boy who only plays in the Grey third team was in the final trials – possibly he was selected because he went to Cradock?

What about the best schoolboy wing in the province, Craig Dalgleish? He only plays for the Grey second team yet many believe he is by far the most exciting young prospect Grey has produced for many a year?

It is a very sad state of affairs created by, in my opinion, the administrators themselves. It seems as if EP rugby, whatever the level, just can’t get it right.