Of the 37 players named in Rassie Erasmus’ squad for the Rugby Championship clashes with Australia on August 16 and 23, almost a quarter (nine) went to high school in the Cape Winelands.
The Winelands District near Cape Town consists of around a million people — approximately 1.5% of the total population — but has three of the top five schools in the country’s rugby rankings: Paarl Gimnasium, Paarl Boys’ High and Paul Roos.
Paarl Boys’ High head coach Sean Erasmus told ESPN: “I think the Cape Winelands or the [Western] Cape has a lot of talent and a lot of good schools.
“I think, when you look at the migration and the amount of people coming from other provinces to live in the [Western Cape], that obviously creates that opportunity for talent to be exposed in the Winelands community – but also, you’ve just got so much talent. There’s a huge amount of talent in the Winelands.”
There is no doubting the Cape Winelands’ propensity for homegrown talent, too. The Stormers’ Evan Roos has been one of the most impressive prospects of the modern era, though he is on the standby lists for the Wallabies Tests.
Paschal Ekeji Jr., who transitioned from rugby to American football, told ESPN he believes Roos could succeed as an NFL player if he wanted to. Sean Erasmus, meanwhile, remembers him as an impressive track athlete.
“I remember Evan Roos at school; over 100 kg and he was running the 100m as one of the fastest boys in our school, and he’s a loose forward – amazing talent,” Sean Erasmus said.
Part of what makes the Cape Winelands special, beyond pure talent and the attractiveness of the location, is the rugby culture of the region.
Two-time World Rugby Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit went to school at Hoërskool Swartland in Malmesbury. While not technically part of the Cape Winelands District, it is a nearby area with a similar culture – where farming and rugby are part of the town’s core activities.
Du Toit’s grandfather, who attended Paarl Boys’ High, was a Springbok.
“I think it’s just raw, natural ability and people loving the game,” said the current Springbok lock/loose forward in an interview with ESPN in late 202,4 on the Western Cape’s propensity for producing rugby talent.
He added: “I think if you go back to South Africa now, everyone there wants to play rugby. It’s a culture that’s always been there – I think it’s just a bit more now at the moment.”
Since Rassie Erasmus took over as SA Rugby’s Director of Rugby in 2017 and subsequently as head coach, the Springboks have moved to include players from areas that were often overlooked previously – largely as a result of the legacy of apartheid.
Sean Erasmus was working as a SA Schools coach for the national rugby governing body at the time his namesake first became Director of Rugby and noticed a shift.
“I think the credit must go to [Rassie Erasmus and his team]. When he started, he sort of started that Early Player Development program. [They were] called the EPD1 and EPD2 programs. The EPD1 and EPD2 programs were run by guys like Herman Masimla and Nico Serfontein, who were so passionate about developing young talent,” Sean Erasmus recalled.
“Along with them were a couple of coaches who started identifying talent around the country at U14, U15 and U16 level. Those guys got a chance to play and guys from smaller schools got an opportunity to join training camps. What Rassie did was: he created a mobile high performance unit, which [former Springbok coach] Jacques Nienaber coaching the coaches and the boys. That just made the whole system so much better.”
Still, the Cape Winelands remains dominant – and the current Springbok squad even includes a player from Paarl who did not attend any of the formerly all-white rugby powerhouses in the region, Kurt-Lee Arendse – who attended Paulus Joubert Secondary School.
Prospects like Arendse exist around the country, but sometimes, they are picked off by elite schools and claimed as their products rather than those of the schools at which they first picked up the sports. In schoolboy rugby circles, the practice of one school attempting to entice a player at another is known as ‘poaching’.
Another of the top five rugby schools in the country — Grey College in Bloemfontein — were reported by The South African to have lost a star loose forward, Steven Muller, to Erasmus’ Paarl Boys High.
The coach added: “It probably sounds disrespectful to say ‘smaller schools’ – I’m not referring to their ability, but just to their size. There are guys in smaller schools that want to play and have the ability to play in a bigger school environment.
“It is very tough, because you don’t want to be seen as poaching players, but you want to be seen as creating opportunities for boys and that remains the most important thing.”
He added that open lines of communication between traditional rugby schools, smaller schools and parents were essential.
For young rugby players looking to become Springboks, there are more options in terms of pathways than ever before. However, what remains unchanged is that both at schoolboy level and at Springbok level, the Cape Winelands continues to set the benchmark.
Additional reporting by Tom Hamilton.
