After 9 or 10 games, SK 1st team occupies top spot (albeit after playing an extra game) and u20 dont even have a bonus point loss.

Anyone in the know what the problem is?  Great to see the club doing well in the post oasis era, but the juniors struggling, so why is there this gap?

This is a very good question. There was a stage where they had a pretty good junior club.

agreed we have a problem at under 20's but w eplanning for next year. Have a plan for enxt year really but agreed currently an issue

agreed we have a problem at under 20's but w eplanning for next year. Have a plan for enxt year really but agreed currently an issue

lofty3 wrote: agreed we have a problem at under 20's but w eplanning for next year. Have a plan for enxt year really but agreed currently an issue

I hope you don't intend to buy u20 players next year.

lofty3 wrote: agreed we have a problem at under 20's but w eplanning for next year. Have a plan for enxt year really but agreed currently an issue

With all due respect. If they just played the game they might actually be half decent. However all the off the ball scraps and endless unsavoury incidents do nothing for the game itself or for the SKW cause.

Buy all the players you want... but if discipline isn't instilled in the players and dare I say spectators... SKW U20's arent going to improve.

Krimz wrote: After 9 or 10 games, SK 1st team occupies top spot (albeit after playing an extra game) and u20 dont even have a bonus point loss.

Anyone in the know what the problem is?  Great to see the club doing well in the post oasis era, but the juniors struggling, so why is there this gap?

From an outside point of view it seems that alot of emphasis have been given to the senior setup and nothing is being done to look after the youngsters (my opinion only I am not saying this is the case). If i remember correctly during the time Oasis was the sponsor only the SKW 1st team was really a success story and reports at the time was that only the 1st team is being taken care of. 

we not perfect but we try. @kaypee if we dont have enought what must we do..any ideas

 This is what has been happening  at Primroses. They concentrate just on the seniors, hence the reason they find themselves in the position that they are now. They just dont spend time with development of juniors. Even though they have the best junior players available to them.

Planki wrote:  This is what has been happening  at Primroses. They concentrate just on the seniors, hence the reason they find themselves in the position that they are now. They just dont spend time with development of juniors. Even though they have the best junior players available to them.

Planki...you are either misinformed or clutching at straws here. I agree that historically the structures might not have been adequate enough to ensure a smooth transition from U19/U20 to senior level and admittedly this was an issue.

I would however say that over the last two/three seasons there have been quite an improvement in that regard, so much so that hopefully the club will reap the true benefits over the next few seasons with the development of certain individuals. Firstly the U/19 players are not supposed to be playing senior rugby and already we have seen a few past U/20's filter through to the senior ranks.

Also remember that there is no way(and that goes for any club) that an entire U/20 side can move en-masse into a first team, unless ofcourse they swept aside all and sundry before them. The last time I checked that was certainly not the case. 

There is an epidemic that is sweeping our club rugby, it is the attitude of the 1st Team winning at all costs, and in most cases at the expense of the rest of the club.

What people, in general, need to realise is that one team does not make a club........Picture it this way, without the first team majority of the clubs would be able to survive but take away the rest of the club and they are.....expletive!!!!! Yes, it is nice to win silverware and have the bragging rights in the local area but what is the reward???? Do clubs that are successful in their respective leagues receive cash moola from the Union?? Is it financially viable to risk everything just for that pay-off???

SKW, like most clubs that have a junior section, are going to struggle. It is not easy to operate in a professional era like an amateur. And before the knives are drawn, what I am trying to say is that not all clubs are in the position to recruit coaches, managers and remunerate them. In some cases when people do things voluntry you do not always get what you expect, that is why you generally have to pay for quality.

Let's be thankful that we have a rich melting pot of U20 rugby players throughout the Western Cape......

lofty3 wrote: we not perfect but we try. @kaypee if we dont have enought what must we do..any ideas

Lofty, I will share some thoughts offline with you when I see you.

I think we are very lucky at Durbell. With the exception of 1 year, for the last 10 years we've always had u/20 coaches who went out of their way to get players to the club. Getting players who attended schools in our area and players who play "koshuis" rugby at Stellenbosch. You have to take that extra step, because most players don't just pitch up at your club. As a result the depth in our club is immense. Many of the players in all our teams (1st to 5th) have played for us at u/20 level. We currently have 65 registered u/20 players. Many clubs don't have that number of senior players. It all begins with coaches and committee members who put in the extra mile.

Is Gerrit Stoffberg still coaching the juniors?

He did a good job with the juniors i remeber.  One year they had a brilliant season and alot of youngsters played for the first team that year.

Jean wrote:

I think we are very lucky at Durbell. With the exception of 1 year, for the last 10 years we've always had u/20 coaches who went out of their way to get players to the club. Getting players who attended schools in our area and players who play "koshuis" rugby at Stellenbosch. You have to take that extra step, because most players don't just pitch up at your club. As a result the depth in our club is immense. Many of the players in all our teams (1st to 5th) have played for us at u/20 level. We currently have 65 registered u/20 players. Many clubs don't have that number of senior players. It all begins with coaches and committee members who put in the extra mile.

Powerplay wrote:

Planki wrote:  This is what has been happening  at Primroses. They concentrate just on the seniors, hence the reason they find themselves in the position that they are now. They just dont spend time with development of juniors. Even though they have the best junior players available to them.

Planki...you are either misinformed or clutching at straws here. I agree that historically the structures might not have been adequate enough to ensure a smooth transition from U19/U20 to senior level and admittedly this was an issue.

I would however say that over the last two/three seasons there have been quite an improvement in that regard, so much so that hopefully the club will reap the true benefits over the next few seasons with the development of certain individuals. Firstly the U/19 players are not supposed to be playing senior rugby and already we have seen a few past U/20's filter through to the senior ranks.

Also remember that there is no way(and that goes for any club) that an entire U/20 side can move en-masse into a first team, unless ofcourse they swept aside all and sundry before them. The last time I checked that was certainly not the case. 

I think you are misunderstanding me here my friend, Im not saying put the youngsters in the 1st team.What Im saying is that the players are not being managed correctly. Like mentioned in this post, when you dont pay for coaching you cant expect the best of quality. These coaching staff are passionate and dedicated, but unfortunately they are not skilled enough for the roles of coaching I've seen this myself my friend. The union has made so many resources available so that people can get there correct coaching levels etc...But these old folk dont find this usefull as they feel they have been coaching for 10/20 years, they dont need it.

The perfect example we have is with the our province coaching structures. We all know Rassie is the top coach/rugby brain in our province, but what they decided is that he should rather concentrate on the development of the Youth teams and we are definately reaping the benefits on a senior level as so many of these youngsters are not only coming through to the senior ranks, but they are excelling on this level.
So what we need to do is not focus on the first team, we should put first preference on the juniors and let rugby takes it course, you will definately reep the benefits.Provide the youth with the best coaching and so forth.

I understand there are players coming through from, but they are bearly making it as the coaching in there youth was not up too par.

Think about it and take it as constructive critism....