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I know, it’s a pretty thorny time to bring up rugby.

South Africa has the second highest number of registered rugby players in the world, with France taking top spot, and our schoolboy rugby consistently ranks amongst the finest anywhere on the globe.

I guess it’s that iffy period in between school level and pro level that leads to a 57-0 bollocking, but let’s leave that for another day.

There isn’t one agreed upon standard for schoolboy rugby rankings, with Parent24 using three of the most prominent ranking sites for their analysis.

We’ll start with the Rugby15.co.za school rankings 2017:

1. Paarl Boys High, Paarl
2. Grey College, Bloemfontein
3. Hoërskool Monument, Krugersdorp
4. King Edward VII School, Johannesburg
5. Paarl Gimnasium, Paarl
6. Hoërskool Waterkloof, Pretoria
7. Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch
8. Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies), Pretoria
9. Helpmekaar Kollege, Johannesburg
10. Glenwood High School, Durban
11. St Andrews College, Grahamstown
12. Grey High School, Port Elizabeth
13. Boland Landbouskool, Paarl
14. The South African College Schools (SACS), Cape Town
15. Hoërskool Outeniqua, George
16. Hoërskool Nelspruit, Nelspruit
17. Stellenberg High School, Cape Town
18. Hoërskool Garsfontein (Garsies), Pretoria
19. Hoërskool Centurion, Pretoria
20. Hoërskool Noord-Kaap, Kimberley

Pretty decent effort from KES to break into that Afrikaans-dominated top nine.

Next up is Rugby365.com’s top 20 schools for 2017, which sees a Southern Suburbs school almost pip a top 10 spot:

1. Paarl Boys’ High, Paarl
2. Grey College, Bloemfontein
3. Hoërskool Monument, Krugersdorp
4. Paarl Gimnasium, Paarl
5. Hoërskool Waterkloof, Pretoria
6. Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch
7. Helpmekaar Kollege, Johannesburg
8. Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies), Pretoria
9. Grey High School, Port Elizabeth
10. King Edward VII School, Johannesburg
11. The South African College Schools (SACS), Cape Town
12. Stellenberg High School, Cape Town
13. St Andrews College, Grahamstown
14. Hoërskool Outeniqua, George
15. Boland Landbouskool, Paarl
16. Hoër Landbouskool Oakdale, Riversdal
17. Selborne College, East London
18. Hoërskool Garsfontein (Garsies), Pretoria
19. Hoër Tegniese Skool Drostdy, Worcester
20. Hoërskool Nelspruit, Nelspruit

SA School Sports have done things a little differently, combining the First XV’s, U14’s, U15’s and U16’s rankings, which illustrates the all round rugby strength of a school.

Using those criteria, here’s how the top 20 looks:

1 Grey College, Bloemfontein
2 Paarl Boys’ High, Paarl
3 Helpmekaar Kollege, Johannesburg
4 Paarl Gimnasium, Paarl
5 Hoërskool Monument, Krugersdorp
6 Selborne College, East London
7 Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch
8 Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies), Pretoria
9 Hoërskool Outeniqua, George
10 Hoërskool Menlopark, Pretoria
11 Hoër Landbouskool Oakdale, Riversdal
12 Glenwood High School, Durban
13 Hoër Tegniese Skool Drostdy, Worcester
14 St Charles College, Pietermaritzburg
15 St John’s College, Johannesburg
16 King Edward VII School, Johannesburg
17 Hoërskool Durbanville, Cape Town
18 Maritzburg College, Pietermaritzburg
19 St Stithians College, Johannesburg
20 St Andrews College, Grahamstown

A sobering thought for the Southern Suburbs schools – using all of the age group rankings sees SACS drop to 39, with Bishops at 44, Rondebosch at 46 and Wynberg at 55.

Rumour has it Raymond Rhule is going to train with the Wynberg u14c’s next week, where they intend to work on his tackling.

Also, when next season rolls around, you can catch all the schoolboy rugby action live via the YouTube streaming channel School Sport Live.

[source:parent24]