SA Rugby has revamped its professional junior rugby pathways to ensure emerging players are optimally prepared for senior rugby.
The change was approved at a Special General Council meeting of SA Rugby on Wednesday, following a thorough review of the playing calendar, to provide additional opportunities for game time at an important developmental stage of playing careers.
A new SA Rugby U23 Cup competition will kick off next month for the four Vodacom URC franchises.
The U19 competition has been discontinued while the SA Rugby U20 Cup will return to the local schedule for the first time since 2023, replacing the U21 Cup (“first division”) competition. The U21 Shield competition (“second division”) remains unchanged.
The changes were made to ensure a better pipeline for players coming out of school and into the junior ranks, before progressing to senior rugby, said Dave Wessels, general manager of SA Rugby’s high-performance department.
“We’ve seen the brilliant work done by our schoolboy coaches and as a result, our U18 teams have been in dominant form for some years, but that didn’t translate into success at U20 level,” said Wessels.
“Something was amiss between U18 and U20 level, with other countries somehow overtaking us, and after a thorough review, we realised this age group needs more competitive game time.
“Some of our Junior Bok players were playing as little as 10 games in the two years after school, which was much fewer than they were used to at school level – not an ideal preparation environment. Ultimately, playing the game is the best teacher.”
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SA Rugby CEO Rian Oberholzer said the previous schedule was devised during the days of Super Rugby, and that there was an overlap in the U19, U21 and Currie Cup competitions, which meant good young players who could feature in all three competitions, were limited to playing only one of them.
With the Junior Springbok training camps and the Varsity Cup Young Guns providing opportunities for U20 players early in the year, they will be able to build on that in the U20 Cup in the latter half of the season.
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“By bringing in the new U23 competition, we hope to give the younger contracted players at our URC franchises consistent rugby early in the year, so they are ready if they are needed at senior level,” said Oberholzer.
“We should also look at ways to give our other unions the opportunity to recruit and develop talented players – so no-one is lost to the system.
“Ultimately, we want to ensure that U23 players get as much quality game time as possible, and we will assist where we can if there are requests for these players to join provincial unions on loan from international franchises, for instance to play in the Currie Cup.”
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SA Rugby U23 Cup
Participating teams: Bulls, Lions, Sharks, Stormers
Opening round: 21 March (double round of matches with a final)
Final: 16 May
SA Rugby U20 Cup
Participating teams: Bulls, Cheetahs, Lions, Leopards, Sharks, Western Province
Opening round: 16 May (double round of matches with two semi-finals and a final)
Final: 24 October
SA Rugby U21 Shield
Participating teams: Southern Section – Boland, Border, Eastern Province, SWD Eagles; Northern Section – Griffons, Griquas, Limpopo Blue Bulls, Pumas, Valke
Opening round: 22 August (Northern Section – single round, semi-finals and final; Southern Section – double round, semi-final and final)
Final: 10 October (between the winners of the two sections)
Photo: Darren Stewart/Gallo Images
