Grey boys miss rugby trials

LEADING Grey High rugby players have had their chances of making the region’s Craven Week side dented after not being allowed to attend the province’s final trials in Cradock earlier this week.

The school decided that because the trials (11.30am to 4.30pm) fell within school hours the boys could not attend.

It cited a taxing schedule, which included five games in 10 days, as a further reason for them missing the trials.

Grey High also has a reunion weekend fixture against Wynberg in Port Elizabeth this weekend.

Grey informed EP High Schools of its decision on Friday and again on Monday.

This was the final trial of a set which has taken place in recent weeks and EP High Schools chairman Willem October said the 17 Grey boys would be disadvantaged by their absence at the event at Marlow Agricultural School on Tuesday.

October said Grey was the only school which had not sent its players, but confirmed it had warned him they would not attend.

“That message was sent to me by SMS,” he said.

“They followed it up with an e-mail that said they have a hectic programme at school and these players are needed in that programme.”

The school chose not to comment yesterday, saying rector Neil Crawford was unavailable.

October said: “They say the rector does not allow the children to be outside class before 2.10pm from Monday to Friday.

“But, unfortunately, the [boys] have been disadvantaged. The trials are there for the players to be exposed to the selectors – and it is them alone who select a team.

“So these selectors were deprived of seeing those children from Grey.”

Asked whether the Grey boys would still be considered for selection for the Meyer Sauerman tournament later this month, October said: “The trials are a process. We don’t have an event where we select a team.

“The Craven Week selection starts early in the season when schools send players to the sub-union trials.

“Those boys participate in various trials where the selectors are present and then they play in the provincial trials and then the final trials [in Cradock].

“That is followed by the Meyer Sauerman tournament. Only after that do the selectors announce the final team.

“Of course they will be considered. They have missed just one trial, but they will have been disadvantaged.

“We have eight sub-unions, of which four lie in the country areas and four here in the NMB area.

“So obviously four selectors in the country areas have not seen those Grey players,” October said.

However, one of the Grey players did attend the trials after being driven to Cradock by his father.

According to a source within Grey, there is an internal disciplinary process under way against the player for missing school.

October, who confirmed that one Grey boy had been there on the day, said: “The child was not involved in any of the previous trials ... yesterday [Tuesday] was his first trial.

“That is why the father was desperate to get him there.

“There are huge implications for those players, who are 17 now and have never been exposed to the selectors before.

“People’s careers are on the line and bursaries are at stake.”

October said he understood the problem of travelling vast distances to attend trials. “The province is big. So somewhere, somehow, someone has to travel,” he said.

The Meyer Sauerman tournament will be held at Pearson High School in Port Elizabeth on May 21.

The tournament sees the Urban Merit teams up against the Country Merit sides. Those teams are now being finalised after Tuesday’s final trial in Cradock.

A source within Grey, who did not want to be named, said the school had asked EP Rugby if it could have the trials after school hours.

“EP Rugby said the trials could not start that late because of light.

“They told Grey if they [the school] could give them a field with floodlights, they could carry on until 8pm – but, unfortunately, they could not.

“So nobody was released from Grey to go to trials [on Tuesday], with the result that there is a feeling the selectors are showing Grey the finger.

“There is also a feeling Grey is trying to dictate terms.”