Bishops is planning to spend millions on their rugby programme following four years of dismal results. Springbok Robbie Fleck and Martin Versfeld Sr, both old boys, are driving forces with a well-planned programme looking to return rugby to the “Bishop’s Way.”
Versfeld said that the Bishops’ A teams maintained a four-year winning percentage average of between 8% and 21%.
Following negotiations with Bishops, they secured eight bursaries for players of colour and, if needed, an additional four bursaries per year.
Fleck explained his reasons for getting involved at Bishops. “I'm a dad, I've got two boys at the school, and obviously, there were concerns more around where Bishop's rugby was going at that stage. There was not a proper rugby program, so to speak, and the key thing was that there was a real sort of risk to injuries, and it was around the safety sort of sides of things, not really from a performance and results side."
"So we had a look at it, and we formed a committee with the school, and we looked at putting in the “Bishop's Way”, which basically is, you know, the heritage and legacy of bishop's rugby, and what bishop's rugby stands for, and the way we play, the culture, the values, around bishop's rugby that has stood for decades, and we built that into a high-performance program with elements of safety and looking after the boys. “