Dale College and Queen’s College have confirmed that a number of their schoolboys are currently being targeted by some of the top schools in KwaZulu-Natal. DYLAN JACK reports.

SARugbymag.co.za understands that Dale College has lost round about 25 schoolboys from various age groups to KwaZulu-Natal schools since 2015.

It is not only 1st XV players who are being targeted, as four U13 players from Queen’s College have moved north after receiving bursaries from some of the schools, while three U16 players were targeted at the Grant Khomo Week last year.

Speaking to SARugbymag.co.za on Wednesday, Queen’s 1st XV coach Pierre Jacobs explained how they had been affected by losing these players.

‘In a town like Queenstown we don’t have a massive pool to draw from,’ Jacobs said. ‘ To be honest, our “player recruitment policy” is just to hang on to our own players, not to go and look in the surrounding areas for kids who would benefit from coming to Queen’s. Any funding that we get is to hang on to our own kids.’

Dale College coach Grant Griffith shared his concern over how vigorously schoolboys’ parents are being contacted with regard to potential moves to KZN schools.

‘The worrying thing is that it is not just a matter of picking a phone up. These schools must be doing a hell of a lot of homework. A lot of these boys are from the surrounding areas, and it is not just a matter of picking up a phone to get hold of somebody’s parents. You need information. There is obviously a lot of work going into it from their side.

‘We at Dale don’t have a problem if a boy and their parents want to go,’ Griffith added. ‘Then we take a step back. But a lot of the time the boys want to stay, but then their parents get a monetary figure. A lot of these promises don’t materialise. But the scary thing is the amount of work in getting hold of these boys’ parents.’

Photo: dalecollege.co.za