Border CD members suspended by schools’ rugby association

The Border Rugby Schools’ Association has suspended seven Border Country Districts players for two years in response to allegations of theft made against the squad on the final day of the U18 Academy Week at Hoërskool Middelburg in Mpumalanga earlier in July.  

The association said the squad’s entire management team was also suspended as the incident happened under their watch.

The complaint was laid by Eastern Province, who alleged that members of the Border CD team had entered the EP hostel rooms and stolen items including kit, day clothes, phone chargers, cologne and shoes. 

The Border Rugby Schools’ Association later did an internal investigation.

Border had two teams, Central Academy and Country Districts (CD), at the tournament. 

In the afternoon of the last day, when the EP and Border Central teams arrived back at the hostel, EP players noticed their rooms and suitcases had been opened.

One of the cleaning staff had earlier found Border CD boys in the EP rooms.

The staff member is said to have asked what they were doing in the “red team’s” rooms and was told they were using the bathrooms. 

The staff member said the boys had been wearing the same brown kit as worn by the Border Central team.

Border CD were scheduled to play Griquas at 11am on that final day, but their captain was not present during the coin toss, which was done at the halftime mark of the previous game and they were the only team remaining at the hostel, it was said.

Contacted on Tuesday, Border Rugby Schools’ Association chair Katiso Mosioua said: “We suspended all the management and seven players and have written to the schools to say that we suspended them for two years.”

Border sent 23 players to represent the CD team. 

“We also wrote to Eastern Province and apologised and sent back the items that we found to have been stolen.

“The chair of EP [Philip Bosch] and SA Schools rugby [Noel Ingle] understood that no union would send kids to steal,” Mosioua said. 

“We did not want to strain our relations with Eastern Province because this was our first time encountering such a case, and we had to get inputs from various parties, which led us to suspend the players and management.”

Daily Dispatch