MARK KEOHANE | Paarl schools derby has been a prolific Bok breeding ground

I was told by someone in the week that there was no rugby this weekend. Nonsense: If you are brave enough to face the madness of Paarl this Saturday and find yourself in the stands at Faure Street Stadium, there is a good chance you will be watching a future Springbok in action, and there is a certainty that you will be watching much more than just a schoolboy rugby game. 

The quality of players, coaching and facilities, combined with the 100-year history, makes the intensity level of the interschool clash between Paarl Boys' High (Boshaai) and Paarl Gimnasium (Gim) unlike any other in SA and arguably the world. 

Forget about being ranked one in SA or even the world, what matters most is who is ranked one in Paarl. 

After a two-year Covid-enforced interruption, SA’s biggest interschool derby will pull around 20,000 spectators from the north and south of Paarl out to Faure Street Stadium. It is the climax to a week of ongoing activity that involves every pupil in both schools and past pupils who can make it to Paarl. 

It is the biggest schools rugby derby, not only in direct rivalry between the two schools, but in the context of the sheer number of players that they have contributed to the Springboks and South African rugby. When you think Paarl and Springboks the vintage names of Schalk Burger and Jean de Villiers (who played together for Paarl Gim) and Corne Krige (Boshaai) come to mind immediately, but the two sides have been breeding Springboks since the early 1880s.

Not much has changed in more than 100 years and in the second Test against Wales this past July, another two were added to a long list as No.8 Evan Roos became the 23rd Springbok from Boshaai and scrumhalf Grant Williams the 30th from Gim. 

North vs south, in the context of Paarl, this rivalry has produced 103 matches in 107 years and 53 Springboks. There have also been many more provincial players. 

The Springbok squad who downed Wales 2-1 in the July home series had five representatives in Evan Roos, Salmaan Moerat and Thomas du Toit (Paarl Boys) and Handré Pollard and Grant Williams from Paarl Gim.

The gravity of the occasion can’t be lost on anyone who knows South African schoolboy rugby, and the build-up is essentially a weeklong curtain raiser which sees the old boys game played midweek and most of the school fixtures played on Friday afternoon to allow for just four games on Saturday; the 15A, 16A, second team and then finally, the 1st XV. 

The first match was played between the two sides in 1915, and since that match only a five-point winning margin separates them on average. There have been 11 draws in the history of the fixture, with three ending 0-0.

When they last met in 2019, they were separated by only one point, with Paarl Gim winning 18-17. This would be Gim’s first win since 2014, after the Boshaai invincibles — captained by Springbok and Stormers lock Salmaan Moerat and coached by Sean Erasmus — went for two years without losing a match between 2015 and 2016.

While Moerat could only be involved at first-team level for two years, and matriculated in 2016, Erasmus extended Paarl Boys’ winning record to 59 consecutive matches by June 2017. 

The two schools have consistently dominated age-group representation at provincial and international level, and this year is no different. Paarl Boys provided SA Schools with four players, and Paarl Gim one, while the SA Schools A side included two players from Boshaai and three from Gim. These are the players who will be facing each other on Saturday, and their representation is consistent with their old boys of last year and the year before, as seven of the 30 players in the 2022 SA U20 squad came from the two schools. 

The Springbok squad who downed Wales 2-1 in the July home series had five representatives in Evan Roos, Salmaan Moerat and Thomas du Toit (Paarl Boys) and Handré Pollard and Grant Williams from Paarl Gim. Of those five, Pollard is the most prominent, having kicked the Springboks to World Cup victory in 2019. 

Both schools first XVs this season have been good but regular season form is always made redundant on derby day. Don’t be surprised at any result, even a draw, and also don’t be surprised when in a few years the number of Springboks produced by the two schools is closer to 60 than 50. 

So, if anyone tells you there is no real rugby this weekend, they don’t know South African rugby, and they certainly don’t know a beautiful town in the Western Cape called Paarl. 

• Mark Keohane is the founder of keo.co.za, a multiple award-winning sports writer and the digital content director at Highbury Media. Twitter: @mark_keohane