• Some reflections on school rugby in 2009.....

    I do believe that the Western Province school rugby season is the last to finish in this country (and I feel that it finishes far too early). In the remainder of the country the season is completed even before that -- long before the end of August. Schools...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 8 Sep 2009
  • LIFE SKILLS AND RUGBY

    Hitting the newspapers this week have been stories covering the violence that has occurred in two of the country’s rugby centres over the weekend – one involving unruly spectators crudely armed with a variety of weapons attacking players,...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 12 Aug 2009
  • Under 18 Craven Week....(after Tuesday's games)

    This was written last week, before Western Province’s victory over Free State – looks at the scoreboard, as they say) Apologies for my error in writing last week that the Under 16 W.P. provincial team played against Paarl Gym in preparation...
    Posted to Basils Blog by ClassicClashes on 27 Jul 2009
  • LET US BE HONEST ABOUT CRAVEN WEEK.....

    Did you know that the Western Province Under 16 “Craven Week” team, before their “week” began this year, played a match against Paarl Gym Under 16’s in order to prepare themselves for the “Craven Week”? Guess...
    Posted to Basils Blog by ClassicClashes on 13 Jul 2009
  • The Perfect Rugby Player:

    1.Is a gentleman. 2.Is not selfish. 3.Has physical courage 4.allied with good sense. 5.Has initiative and uses it. 6.Is proud 7.but humble. 8.Respects his opponents. 9.Uses his brains as much as or even more than his bulk. 10.Learns from his errors 11...
    Posted to Basils Blog by ClassicClashes on 2 Jul 2009
  • CRAVEN WEEK....

    When Craven week was first introduced, Western Province schools decided not to take part in it for they felt that provincial colours, even at junior level, for rugby players still at school was not a very good thing. In the end Province capitulated but...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 24 Jun 2009
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  • David and Goliath.....

    I believe that the sides that consistently produce the finest rugby are those that have had to struggle against some considerable obstacle – such as the Wallabies who do not have nearly the numbers of such countries as South Africa, New Zealand...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 18 Jun 2009
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  • Leadership....

    What is your opinion on leadership? We keep stressing at schools that leadership skills can be taught – but can they? It is, of course, sensible to point out that there are many kinds of leadership: the leader on a battlefield will not necessarily...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 10 Jun 2009
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  • Text Book Rugby

    A wise, and now old, referee, many years ago remarked to me that the referee is the law book. How true. Once you are on the field, the law book takes second place to the ref and if you do not play to his idiosyncrasies, then you are a fool, so don’t...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 3 Jun 2009
  • Fire in Your Belly but Ice in Your Veins...

    I don’t know who coined this phrase; I do know he was a rugby man and he was, I believe, describing what should be one’s ideal emotional state before a game. Very early, in the murky light of a Cape Town Saturday morning, I stood on a wet...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 25 May 2009
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  • STORM IN A TEACUP.....

    The Sharks Bull’s game produced quite the finest rugby I have seen since I watched my last schoolboy match – talking of which recalls the disappointment of all of us rugger buggers at having so many inter-school matches in Cape Town cancelled...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 19 May 2009
  • The Good and the Bad....

    Why do people watch rugby? Some because they love it, others because they fanatically support some particular side for whatever reason -- perhaps because they find it vicariously satisfying to see the side with which they identify beating up their opponents...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 13 May 2009
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  • THERE’S MORE TO IT ALL....

    I thought you might enjoy this observation by G.K.Chesterton; 'Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.' Do you think schoolboys are being taught humility in amongst their studies...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 5 May 2009
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  • THE IDEAL

    Standing on the edge of a rugby field the other afternoon watching a prep schoolmaster/coach teaching his boys (under eleven) some of the arts of rugby, I happened to overhear two young ladies chatting, the one primly announcing to the other, “I...
    Posted to Basils Blog by Basil Bey on 19 Apr 2009