Eleven wins for Ashton 1st XV

What makes a school rugby team successful? Especially a team that comes from a small town called Ballito, from a school with less than 500 learners in the high school, of which only 20 or 30 qualify to play first team? Sure, skill has something to do with it – and this team has its fair share – but for the rest it has to boil down to commitment, character, conditioning and sheer, dogged determination. 

The Ashton 1st XV rugby team is building a legacy that seems likely to set the foundation for those who come after them, adopting a style and approach to rugby that goes beyond just playing the game; embracing more about how a team with limited numbers and depth approaches their training, their peers and their love for their school. As this article is being written Ashton has claimed their tenth consecutive victory, no small feat considering its constraints. Winning ten games is something never before achieved at the North Coast school and will definitely go into the history books. How are they doing it? That is the question everyone is asking.

The main catalyst is the coaching team. Ashton took a bold step in bringing on board local conditioning guru Sean Temple at the start of the year. Sean owns and runs the Flux Motion training and conditioning frachise group that has branches in KZN as well as the UK and France. He has also played rugby at various levels, including club rugby in the UK. Sean’s conditioning insight along with his unrivalled passion for rugby – he has trained and conditioned some of SA’s top rugby players – resulted in a unique ‘game plan’ for the Ashton boys that included a more agile, mobile and offensive style of rugby. From a limited pool of boys Sean understood it would need to be a different playing style and the most optimal conditioning ever seen at the school.

Rugby training started in January for the Ashton boys and already, you couldsense something magical happening in the camp. As hard as Sean would push, they would oblige – hill sprints, core conditioning, farmers’ walks and bear crawls – they delivered. Training for this team has been, and remains, intense. Sean knew, through my relationships with senior rugby players I could bring fresh ideas and learning to the boys. We’ve had Sharks and international rugby players to the occasional practice so the boys can learn from the best of the best.

Sean quickly got Steve Turner, a Queensland, Australia native with an impressive record that includes being Australian School track and field champ, provincial cricket and soccer player and professional Aussie Rules Football players topped with a semi-professional bout of rugby in the US, involved. Steve, who married a local girl and has made Ballito his home, has worked with Sean to take the coaching and conditioning to a new level for the school. It isn’t easy juggling the demands of grade 11 or grade 12 work along with the many hours of rugby training, but these boys have put in more than asked for. Almost unbeknown to them, this has developed a team dynamic that is unmatched. Where do you find boys who are injured, with no chance of playing this year, coming to rugby practice because it’s the right thing to do? Plus paying the tour fees to travel on tour just to be there for their rugby brothers? This is what the heart and character of the team is made of.

It wasn’t an easy road when the team started their season at the Gelofte night series. Finding their rhythm wasn’t that simple considering practices were against tackle bags most of the time, which don’t grab, hold and react quite like a real opposition player. The team lost their first two games as they tried to find their groove. The last game of the Gelofte series was against Durban North College; the tables turned as the hours, days and weeks of work saw the Ashton rugby engine fire. Little did the boys know, that was the start of an amazing run. “The next few games from there weren’t a walk in the park. In fact they were scrappy and hard fought.”
A trip to Wartburg on a fresh Saturday morning saw another tight win against St Henry’s and then, while the boys kept pushing harder to be quicker, faster and fitter Sean got them a once in a lifetime chance to play at Kings Park. Wearing new rugby jerseys dedicated to autism awareness, the Ashton 1st XV ran onto the green grass at Kings Park as the main curtain raiser before the Sharks game. Playing their hearts out, each player left a piece of himself on the pitch that day, beating Crawford La Lucia in an amazing game of school boy rugby. Ashton parents had travelled to watch the game and they showed their support of our small, local side that had make history at Kings Park for the school. This was win number three and still the boys remained humble.

A supposedly tough Jo’burg tour was ahead so they did what they knew best to prepare. They trained harder.
Flux conditioning in the mornings and rugby practice in the afternoon, and sometimes rugby training at 5.30 in
the morning so they could fit in extra school lessons in the afternoon. For these boys there is no alternative. Sean
and Steve have taught them that to win, you must out prepare, outwork and out play your opposition and they
do exactly that. The St Dunstan’s tour clocked up wins four, five and six. On the days between games the boys
weren’t off touring around the city, they were found doing pool sessions and extra training sessions. After their first
game they got hold of video footage of their opposition teams still to be played and ran through video analysis,
making sure they were prepared. All along the coaching team continued to press forward, treating the boys like
young men setting their out path. What was remarkable was the team’s visit to Hillsong in downtown Jo’burg on Easter Sunday – great character and spirit.

Back home the team trained through the holidays preparing for term two and the games that lay ahead. They won away against Kuswag, another first for Ashton, then went on to beat Durban North College a second time at home and recently played their strongest game yet, winning against Grant Leigh. Ten wins in a row. For years the North Coast has lost some of its great talent to top schools like Michaelhouse, Kearsney and Hilton. For us to watch good school boy rugby meant travelling to the big rugby playing schools outside of Ballito but that has changed. This year, these boys, this Ashton first XV, has brought exciting, entertaining goose bump rugby home. Good, no – great, school boy rugby is happening right here and amazingly it’s happened because a team of few decided to do something different and they’ve done it with great heart, spirit, character and commitment. Well done Sean, Steve and the Ashton rugby boys.

You have our hearts.

Words – Justin Scott