Nelson Direng
2 July 2009
Botswana Rugby Union (BRU) director, Andrew Paxinos is disappointed at the slow progress in the ongoing Powerade Senior Schools League.
He says that only three out of 12 schools have shown improvement. However, the three still have a long way to go to meet the required standards. "This however could be a problem caused by poor coaching enforced by teachers from individual schools," he said.
Paxinos said the players lack tactics as most of them pick the ball and head for the goal posts without considering their surroundings. Some of them do not even know the rules of the game, which makes it quite difficult to officiate the matches. Paxinos says the players lack the skills to develop and don national team colours if the problem persists.
"Any player has got the potential to be good but without proper coaching, the talent remains undiscovered," he says.
The BRU boss is worried that most of the players are dimunitive. This hampers their development as rugby requires physical strength.
"Positions such as the hookers and flanks are occupied by players with small frames who may look good because they are playing against their peers of similar build but they will struggle against professional teams," he said.
"Smaller players are used for positions such as the scrum half and the fly half where you do not really have to be big. At the moment, we have got one Kenyan student from Maru-A-Pula (MAP) who normally dominates all the players because of his size. His team has so far won all the games because none of the players from the other teams can block him," he says.
Paxinos advises the school league players to attend local club games to learn the appropriate way of playing rugby. He says local clubs are always more than willing to let players practice with them since they are scouting for young talent. "Teams such as Gabs Hogs, BDF Cheetahs and UB Rhinos have open practice sessions at their respective fields every Tuesdays and Thursdays," he says. This will help build their skills and physical fitness.
Meanwhile, the senior schools quarter- finals scheduled for July 4 have been moved to July 11. In the south, Livingstone Kolobeng College (LKC) leads Pool A while Maru-A-Pula tops Pool B.
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