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If you thought that granny snot-klapping a young rugby player during the under-19 Bishops Diocesan College and the South African College High School (SACS) game last week was the worst of iffy field brawls, consider yourself wrong.
Yep, yet another Cape Town school rugby derby ended in violent scenes after a fistfight broke out between Milnerton and Melkbosstrand High School players during the highly anticipated inter-school match on Saturday.
This really lends itself towards the growing trend towards violence and poor sportsmanship at school sports events.
Cape Argus notes that ‘Millies’ and ‘Melkies’ take each other on for chuffed rights across a bunch of sporting codes, but following Melkbosstrand’s 12-0 victory over Milnerton in the under-16 rugby match at the weekend, all hell was let loose.
The scuffle, caught on camera, shows a Milnerton player marching up to an opposing oke who was crouched on the ground with another player. The Millies player then gives the boy a proper skop from behind before dishing out a few klaps and booting him in the head. This sets off the other players, and soon, a massive fistfight erupts on the field.
A concerned parent, who was at the rugby match, told Cape Argus that everything went south in a matter of seconds as players pushed, grabbed and punched each other while spectators ran to break the scuffle up.
“It was huge. A Milnerton High School boy just started a fight with a Melkbosstrand High boy. This happened so quickly. We were still watching the match and the next thing there was a fight. The field was packed,” the parent explained.
Another witness said what is shown in the video is only half of it.
“The person who took this video didn’t take the whole fight. It was worse. Parents and coaches jumped in, and it was just hell,” she said.
Following the brawl, a selfie of one of the Melkies players who was hurt surfaced online with the message, ‘DW (Don’t Worry) guys, I’m alive’ – like what would happen if you weren’t mate?
Paul Besener, headmaster of Milnerton High School, described the fight as “disgusting behaviour that nobody wished for”, confirming that disciplinary hearings have been initiated. There’s been no word from Melkies.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has recently had its hands full dealing with fighting incidents occurring at school sporting events.
This bears repeating our resident writer Hymie Slabbert’s words about the ever-escalating issue; although Rugby has always been a delicate mix of violence and chivalry, it seems a sway towards violence is being encouraged and condoned by idiots who lack the intelligence to occupy any mentoring role for young boys who are still trying to navigate right from wrong.
Indeed, it is time that adults with a little more sense take back control and show these boys proper sportsmanship.
[source:capeargus]
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