About 30 professional rugby hopefuls who made up the Border Saru Academy have been left in limbo to fend for themselves.
This as a massive blow to junior rugby in the Border region was confirmed yesterday when Saru administrator Monde Tabata revealed that the Border Rugby Academy will be closing down effective January 2017.
This damages the already poor state of development rugby in Border with its most prized talents choosing to jump ship to more organised academies around the country each year.
Now these youngsters who viewed the Border Academy as their only hope to break into the professional ranks will be unable have to find ways by themselves to realise their dreams, if not absorbed into Border Rugby Union junior teams.
But the Border Academy, a project run by the national rugby body, is not the only one that is closing shop, with the same due to happen to several other academies across the country that are bound to suffer the same fate.
Those will include the EP Rugby Academy, which also has a question mark hanging over its future as reported in our sister publication, The Herald.
The move will be expected to have far-reaching ramifications for SA rugby’s transformation policy as the Eastern Cape has been known as the hotbed for budding African talent.
Tabata said the academy was closed down as a result of its funding that is no longer available from Saru coffers.
“The Border Academy will close down and this solely based on funding for it that has been set aside by Saru and we do not have funding for it in the meantime,” said Tabata.
“What is certain for now is that funding for the academy from Saru will stop in December 2017 and usher in its imminent closure.
“The uncertainty is the question of whether one will get funding to continue with it and we cannot speculate on that but what we know now is there is no funding.”
Tabata said this was no time to press panic buttons as the closure of the academy did not mean rugby would come to a standstill in the Border region.
He, however, admitted that a rugby academy was necessary in the development of any professional player and therefore, should funding be available, it will reopen.
“Sport academies all the world over have been proven to be the necessary intervention in the development of professional players,” said Tabata.
“Therefore the necessity of having an academy cannot be doubted.”
According to Tabata, the closure of the academy was no big deal or unexpected as its funding was on the basis of timelines.
But how exactly is Border going to pursue its player development strategy in the absence of the academy?
Tabata responded: “Border has continued playing rugby even prior to the establishment of the academy.
“An academy is a specialised environment required in modern days which does not make for playing now of rugby. A number of players that are in the Bulldogs are not products of an academy which, however, does not take away the importance of such an institution.
“But you cannot say that because you do not have an academy, then you cannot play rugby.”
Academies were more like an in-service training centre where people go in to develop particular skills, said Tabata. — zingisam@dispatch.co.za
Huge blow as academy gets crash-tackled
This as a massive blow to junior rugby in the Border region was confirmed yesterday when Saru administrator Monde Tabata revealed that the Border Rugby Academy will be closing down effective January 2017.
This damages the already poor state of development rugby in Border with its most prized talents choosing to jump ship to more organised academies around the country each year.
Now these youngsters who viewed the Border Academy as their only hope to break into the professional ranks will be unable have to find ways by themselves to realise their dreams, if not absorbed into Border Rugby Union junior teams.
But the Border Academy, a project run by the national rugby body, is not the only one that is closing shop, with the same due to happen to several other academies across the country that are bound to suffer the same fate.
Those will include the EP Rugby Academy, which also has a question mark hanging over its future as reported in our sister publication, The Herald.
The move will be expected to have far-reaching ramifications for SA rugby’s transformation policy as the Eastern Cape has been known as the hotbed for budding African talent.
Tabata said the academy was closed down as a result of its funding that is no longer available from Saru coffers.
“The Border Academy will close down and this solely based on funding for it that has been set aside by Saru and we do not have funding for it in the meantime,” said Tabata.
“What is certain for now is that funding for the academy from Saru will stop in December 2017 and usher in its imminent closure.
“The uncertainty is the question of whether one will get funding to continue with it and we cannot speculate on that but what we know now is there is no funding.”
Tabata said this was no time to press panic buttons as the closure of the academy did not mean rugby would come to a standstill in the Border region.
He, however, admitted that a rugby academy was necessary in the development of any professional player and therefore, should funding be available, it will reopen.
“Sport academies all the world over have been proven to be the necessary intervention in the development of professional players,” said Tabata.
“Therefore the necessity of having an academy cannot be doubted.”
According to Tabata, the closure of the academy was no big deal or unexpected as its funding was on the basis of timelines.
But how exactly is Border going to pursue its player development strategy in the absence of the academy?
Tabata responded: “Border has continued playing rugby even prior to the establishment of the academy.
“An academy is a specialised environment required in modern days which does not make for playing now of rugby. A number of players that are in the Bulldogs are not products of an academy which, however, does not take away the importance of such an institution.
“But you cannot say that because you do not have an academy, then you cannot play rugby.”
Academies were more like an in-service training centre where people go in to develop particular skills, said Tabata. — zingisam@dispatch.co.za
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