Who are the movers and shakers in the U14 age group will without a doubt be the cause of several fights at the braai, in the church and everywhere schoolboy rugby is discussed.
Admittedly this is ruggas.co.za's first effort ranking the U14 teams and I must admit I am still asking myself why.
Ruggas.co.za decided we will start all the age group rankings with the 1stXV rankings at the end of 2023. And yes, several arguments disputing this decision will all have merit. What is exciting and a first is the 2024 U14 teams will carry forward their ranking up until the end of their U16 year.
Therefore, the U14 rankings will only start reflecting a "true" ranking after another four weeks of action. The movers and shakers at this stage will simply indicate their performance in comparison with the 1stXV teams of 2023.
The Monnas and Helpmekaar U14s stormed into the top 10 replacing Affies and Michaelhouse. The top U14 movers in the top 20 are Rustenburg (11) and KES (4) while the shakers are Jeppe (-7), Maritzburg College (-5) and Affies (-4).
The movers in the top 50 are Zwartkop (25), Pieterburg (26), Kempton Park (21), Kearsney College (20), Transvalia (20) and Nelspruit (18) while EG Jansen (-15), Queen's College (-14), Michaelhouse (-13), Pretoria Boys High (-9), Northwood (-9) are the shakers.
Interestingly in the Top 50, our adapted formula is already moving the performing U14 teams which is not your normal Top 20 schools at a blistering pace up the rankings while the underperforming "Top 20" teams are falling extremely fast.