Best rugby school

[Engage!]

The best thing to grow Rugby in WA Schools is to send all the best to Hale for PSA and to Aranmore for CSC . Here the boys all learn to win by 100 plus, reckon they're top dogs and waiting for the call from Robbie of Vern - Then they leave School and "Oh Dear" they don't getthat call and what's more the prick of a head coach has not given them captaincy of Premier Grade - In fact they have to play with Under 18's or even under 20's... OMG, they are shattered, Mum and Dad too - They never learnt a darn thing did they??

Something of an oversimplification Hansie- no need to bag Hale or Aranmore.

Funny, not too many boys from these schools end up at Neddies- with an attitude like that from the club president- quite a bizzare response actually, considering you coached in that system for a few years!.

Aside from Longbottom or Tyrrel, your Wallace- Harrisons, Welbournes, Turners, Holmes, Godwin, Haylett-Petty to mention a few and prospects, Aus u19s Hoskins & Negubauer all came from the system in recent years. Why the need to bag them??

[palitu]

i think he was getting at, it would be better if the comp was a little more even.

[welshrugbyfan]

I hope Barra hasn't decided to move state after reading through this thread.

[Darren]

would that be such a great loss ?

[Darkness]

I hope Hansie hasn't decided to move state after reading through this thread.

[Hansie]

Precisely right Palitu... I was being very tongue in cheek, but there is little competition in PSA Schools - I think Hale may have lost 3 games out the past 60.

Since Wal in 1998 - there must have been a couple thousand boys through PSA rugby. To convert perhaps 10 or 12 boys in that period !!!! Engage - how do you feel about those stats?

Maybe one reason is because the comp is so lopsided....or not?

[DinkyDi]

Frankly I feel it is driven (outside of Hale) by the liberal attitude of participation as opposed to winning. All kids should have a crack but there should be some push for the more advanced and skilled players to excel - I know that some headmasters are keen upon leveling the playing field and ensuring that everyone has a go in the first teams, especially at yr 10 and below. Too many parents want little johnny to be in the first team because it might effect him mentally if a coach tells him that he is not good enough but his friend is. Some kids were meant to play rugby whilst others weren't. Elite is bad in today's Perth society... unless of course it is your kid.

[Hansie]

Kids at School have a plethora of choices and because Mum is frightened of little Johnny getting hurt, she will sway him away from Rugby and into something else.

Hale School does the right thing for our sport. They have the best coach, great facilities and a supportive head...so they deserve all their triumphs. However, it does our sport no good, if we on this site promote Hale.

[Engage!]

Hansie - I agree with the stats, but lots of that comes to coaching, organization and seeing the big picture. Many kids also get lost or are played out of position at a young age. We also, deal with the AFL issue in this state. The true impact must probably be assessed since the advent of the Force in 2005/6.

The PSA competition has not been as lopsided as you suggest and though Hale have won for the last decade or so, each year other teams have been up there challenging. I would not see that as a reason for lack of numbers coming through.

[Burgs]

It is true enough about the differing attitudes of the schools, and also how that changes within schools over time too.
I know for a fact thare have been times pre-2000 when Scotch boys were told not to bother going to State Schoolboys Trials because they would not be given permision to miss the school days required for the tours. A couple of years during the 80's (and I think at least one instance in the 90's too) younger boys were discouraged from trialling for the 15's and 16's and pretty sure I was the first to play WAJRU Under 14's for Scotch as no one trialled prior to that.
Much of it is driven by the Head of the day and interpretation of his "will" by parents, staff and students (probably in that order).

[DinkyDi]

Burgs - very true and to top it off parents truly believe that if the darling misses a week of school his education and TEE results will flounder and he will only be able to become a lawyer instead of the plastic surgeon that mummy and her friends will need in the next few years... Its crap of course as Mummy generally needs it now and by the time little Johnny is qualified all the botox in Aus will not save her.

Too much talent is lost at this level and kids are not educated enough to realise that without balance in their lives (schooling/Uni and recreation of the sporting kind as opposed to the pharmaceutical kind) life becomes a misery. I have seen a number of kids get it right (Hansie's lads a re a case in point) but far too many are lost to the game at all levels. Such a pity.

[Hansie]

I just feel our game hides too much of what it has to offer under a Bushel.

International Camaraderie, contacts and links based on an ethos developed by the game.

Playing positions for all shapes and sizes

Total respect for the laws of the game

Cultural aspects that transcend continents, languages, religions and colour but are all based on one mutual enjoyable game.

I would love to take young kids to Murray Field, Millenium, Telstra Stadium, Newlands and Twickenham to listen to the songs born from ages ago, sit between opposing fans and feel totally safe and absorb a spectacle that no other major team sport has.

[Burgs]

I can't speak for other states, but would like to point out that not everyone who goes to a PSA school comes from a loaded family, and, more often than not, the kids of the wealthiest in WA would play Aussie Rules anyway. My parents busted their boiler for ten years to give us three boys a decent education as there was nothing available where we lived. While the stereotype may have some traction it grates a little hearing such stuff when you know what parents like mine had to give up to do what they believed to be the best by their children.

[Ecky]

I went to a PSA school: GGS.

My brother and I were boarders for 9 & 8 years respectively, our parents living in the NW of the state. They thought the schooling in our town at that time was not of a sufficiiently high standard for their two cherubs, so they packed us up and sent us off the the Preparatory School. (Oh, my dad was loaded. I didn't really appreciate or understand that at the time but)

Luckily for me GGS has rugby, among other sports, and I chose it. I imagine I was influenced by my dad as he had playe rugby all his life. Apparently at a pretty high standard if one believes his war stories. (although he did "blue" for St Thomas' in London and played with Cpl Idi Amin at West Nile RFC back in the day).

GGS provided me with every opportunity to gain a very good education; some of which I let slip and some I took. At the time I loved the sport more than the academia, but on reflection some of the learning stuff wasn't too bad.

We won the Redmond Cup in 1980 - my final year. Ok, we shared it with Hale, but we still won it.

As far as I know there were no "scholarships" for any sport back then (1973-1980), but there were some genuinely excellent sportsmen during my time there. AFL players included Simon Beasley and Larry Kickett. Cricketers (a couple of years behind me) such as Tom Moody, plus others who were fringe Shield players.

There was no system for feeding the rugby players into the WARU clubs. I went to WAIT (Curtin Uni these days) and so I played for them, then I changed course and went to UWA, where I played subsequently. Funnily enough, the #10/five eighth/fly half/first five from GGS, Hale and Scotch all ended up playing for Uni colts at the same time. What a backline we had. Gosh; those were the days........ A few others from Guildford also played for Uni because they went to Uni. No other reason. One of ours played at SSKD (now Kala) because he lived up there.

Dunno where the other Big Name players went. One went to Soaks and their coach turned him into a VERY good player until his knees went. Now he makes rather famous ice cream in the south-west. The really Big Name from GGS the year before I played 1st XV played at Cott, as did a handful of others.

Obviously this was back in the amateur days when WA rugby wasn't all that flash in comparison to the eastern seaboard and the pinnacle was to play for WA against touring teams. I remember a particularly thrilling game vs USA Eagles and a highly entertaining, but viciously one-sided games vs the All Black at Perry Lakes ath stadium.

Things have developed considerably since them days, arguably most notably the coaching/management of school teams (coaches like Steve Mc, Gibbo and Big Paul doubling up from 1st XV in the morning to club stuff in the arvo) but there is a further dilemma.

Any sport struggles with retention of players immediately after they leave school. The players discover money, sex, driving, completely free weekends and booze (not in any particular order) and choose the new-found lifestyle over the sport they trained/played week in week out while at school. If there were a cure or antidote to this discovery then the U18, U19 and U20 teams for most sports would be way stronger.

Not sure where I was going with this as far as making a point goes, but I think I'll throw it out there anyway.

[palitu]

Ecky, shoulda stuck with the goats. I belive that is the point you were trying to make?