Craven Week

Craven Week
	The current Coca-Cola Craven Week logo
Sport	Rugby union
Instituted	1964; 61 years ago
Number of teams	20

The Craven Week is an annual rugby union tournament organised for schoolboys in the Republic of South Africa. The tournament started in July 1964, and is named after the legendary Springbok rugby union player and coach Dr Danie Craven.^[1]^[2]^[3]

The tournament has its humble beginnings in an idea by Piet Malan, then Springbok flanker, in 1949, around the time of the South African Rugby Board's 75th anniversary. He wanted schools to feature in the celebrations and approached Danie Craven in Potgietersrus on how this could be done.

Dr Craven took the idea to his board who decided on getting the 15 schools unions together for a week. The man who kept the idea alive however was one Jan Preuyt, a former student at the University of Stellenbosch and teacher at Port Rex Technical School in East London. Preuyt had played rugby for Griqualand West and was also the chairman of Border Schools.

At the time there was no such thing as a South African Schools organisation, and the South African Rugby Board were not involved, so Preuyt and Schalk van der Merwe, Principal of George Randall High school, took the initiative to organise the first Craven Week tournament on their own.

The competition began with 15 teams in 1964, growing to 28 in 1987 and 32 in 2000. The format was changed in 2001, and now allows for just 20 teams. Each of South Africa's fourteen provincial unions field at least one team, with some unions sending two squads (one from their urban base and another representing "country districts"), plus representation from Namibia and Zimbabwe in most years.

Each year since 1974 a South African schools team has been selected, and the competition has been open to players of all races since 1980 when Craven himself requested that it be done. The competition has since become a hunting ground for talent scouts trying to find the best new players for their provinces and many young upcoming stars see the tournament as an opportunity to further their careers. The format has been replicated at other age and skill levels, including a U18 Academy Week for provincial B sides, the Grant Khomo Week for U16 teams, and Iqhawe Week for U15 sides which places special emphasis on players from underprivileged or underserved areas.

Currently the tournament is known as the "Coca-Cola Craven Week" with The Coca-Cola Company as the main sponsor of the event.

Results

Despite there being no official final for the Craven Week tournaments, there is a main match every year that features the two best teams at the tournament. The results of these main matches since 1971 are:^[4]^[5]

Main matches at the Craven Week
Year	Venue	Winner	Score	Runner-up
1964	East London	Border	10 -9	Natal
1965	East London	Natal	22 - 11	Transvaal
1966	Pretoria	Natal	13	Eastern Province
1967	Cape Town	Vrystaat	8 - 3	Western Province
1971	Kimberley	Western Province	11–0	Griqualand West
1972	Potchefstroom	Western Province	16–9	Western Transvaal
1973	Stellenbosch	Western Province	36–7	Transvaal
1974	Johannesburg	Western Province	22–12	South Western Districts
1975*	Pretoria	Northern Transvaal	20–8	Transvaal
1975*	Port Elizabeth	Eastern Province	46–13	Natal
1976*	Wolmaranstad	Transvaal	28–10	Northern Transvaal
1976*	Kroonstad	Boland	13–9	Free State
1977	Oudtshoorn	Eastern Province	19–17	Western Province
1978	Middelburg	Western Province	12–3	Free State
1979	East London	Northern Free State	9–6	Free State
1980	Stellenbosch	Free State	16–6	Transvaal
1981	Worcester	Transvaal	11–7	Western Province
1982	Windhoek	South Eastern Transvaal	25–7	Northern Free State
1983	Upington	Free State	13–9	South Eastern Transvaal
1984	Bloemfontein	Transvaal	3–0	Eastern Province
1985	Witbank	Free State	23–15	Transvaal
1986	Graaff-Reinet	South Eastern Transvaal	19–12	Western Province
1987	Paarl	Natal / Transvaal	22–22	N/A
1988	Port Elizabeth	Western Province	16–3	Free State
1989	Johannesburg	Transvaal	17–6	Eastern Province
1990	Durban	Natal	18–8	Northern Transvaal
1991	East London	Northern Transvaal	10–9	Border
1992	Pretoria	Western Province	22–15	Free State
1993	Secunda	Northern Transvaal	25–13	South Eastern Transvaal
1994	Newcastle	Border / Eastern Province	13–13	N/A
1995	Bloemfontein	Free State	15–13	Boland
1996	Stellenbosch	Northern Transvaal	24–12	Western Province
1997	Kimberley	Northern Transvaal	29–27	Western Province
1998	Vanderbijlpark	Blue Bulls	23 - 19	Falcons
1999	George	Western Province	15–11	Eastern Province
2000	Port Elizabeth	Pumas	19–18	Boland
2001	Rustenburg	SWD	26–20	Blue Bulls
2002	Pietermaritzburg	Western Province	31–16	Free State
2003	Wellington	Western Province	22–17	Free State
2004	Nelspruit	Free State	17–16	Western Province
2005	Bloemfontein	Golden Lions	38–15	Eastern Province
2006	Johannesburg	Blue Bulls	35–20	Golden Lions
2007	Stellenbosch	Free State	52–3	Western Province
2008	Pretoria	SWD	31–25	Free State
2009	East London	Western Province	19–17	Free State
2010	Welkom	Free State	42–21	Western Province
2011	Kimberley	Free State	28–17	Golden Lions
2012	Port Elizabeth	Blue Bulls	46–0	Golden Lions
2013	Polokwane	Western Province	45–29	Golden Lions
2014	Middelburg	Eastern Province	25–7	South Western Districts
2015	Stellenbosch	Western Province	95–0	Eastern Province
2016	Durban	Western Province	27–20	Golden Lions
2017	Johannesburg	Golden Lions	45–18	KwaZulu-Natal
2018	Paarl	Western Province	47–8	KwaZulu-Natal
2019	Bloemfontein	Western Province	56–31	Blue Bulls
2022	Cape Town	Western Province	29–21	Blue Bulls
2023^[6]	George	Western Province	29–5	Blue Bulls
2023^[7]	Krugersdorp	Western Province	37–24	Free State

* In 1975 and 1976 there were 2 Craven weeks due to the school holidays of the old Transvaal and the rest of SA not corresponding.

External links

References

^ "A bit of Craven Week history". SuperSport. 9 July 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
^ "Coca-Cola Craven Week celebrates 50 years". School of Rugby. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
^ "History of Craven Week". Schools Tribune. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ "Main Matches at the Craven Week for High Schools (1971–2014)" (PDF). South African Schools Rugby Association. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
^ "Venues of Previous Weeks". South African Schools Rugby Association. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
^ staff, News24 Sport. "Craven Week: Western Province pummel Bulls in Craven Week 'final'". Sport. Retrieved 4 August 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ staff, News24 Sport. "WP triumph again as they beat Free State in unofficial Craven Week final". Sport. Retrieved 4 August 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)