It’s an evolution not a revolution. We want our coaches to be the coaches they wish they had.”
This is key to the philosophy of Laurence Christie, Campus Director of Rugby at St Stithians College. Christie wants to build a programme that caters to the masses and develops players within the campus to be the best they can be.
“The alignment between the prep schools and the College is important. We have been pushing hard to get participation numbers up since the beginning of last year. If we can develop an Under-14 C or D team player to run on to the field for the 1st XV one day, that to me would be the ultimate bragging rights,” he said.
To see this vision come to fruition in a school that offers multiple sports, a few things need to be in place. According to him, the various sports codes’ coaches work together as the need for pre- and off-seasons arises for the different sports.
“We have a head of Sport Science who helps us look after the players’ loads. I meet with her often to see how we can best serve the student-athletes across the schools. That is the driving force. We ask what is in the best interest of the players when we make decisions. There is trust between the coaches of different sporting codes. I trust that they are doing the fitness work that will benefit the rugby as well if missing a pre-season session with a coach. They trust that when it is time for core skills and contact conditioning, our pre-season coaches won’t do things that will injure their star water polo, basketball, rowing or cricket player’s,” Christie said.
Alignment, trust, and finally care. Christie believes that the programme needs to be a safe island of security for the players, where they can fail and learn the lessons of hard work, determination, and grit that one day benefit them in the work place as well as the field.
There is a collaborative environment between the MIC’s of rugby in the respective schools on campus, Craig Taylor at the boys Prep, Thoriso Shihau at the Boys College and Nokuthula Nene at the Girls College are an integral component of the combined success.
“Love is part of it. Love is where culture lives. Players want to work hard off the ball because they love their brother or sister. They want to run to get into a better position to score, trusting that their brother will pass the ball or protect them at the breakdown because there is love,” he notes.
Although Christie sees a successful season as one where active participation grows and the coaching standard rises even higher, he still has plans to win matches.
“We designed our blueprint to be simple to understand, easy to learn, but challenging to execute, to give players the scaffolding to succeed. We are creating players to be great regardless of the system they end up in. In the Boys College for example, I have mandated that to be a coach with us, you need to have at least your World Rugby Level 1. If you want to coach an A team, you must have completed at least your Level 2. This is non-negotiable.
All our coaches are first team coaches. Their players just aren’t first team yet,” he says about the standard St Stithians sets.
The men from Sandton had a steady season in 2025, winning seven from their 12 fixtures with one draw. All the losses were so close that it could have gone either way. They beat Michaelhouse and St Charles from KZN and narrowly missed out against Kearsney, going down by a single point and coming back from 24-3 down at half time to be within two points to Pretoria Boys at the final whistle. The big derby day against St John’s was another nail-biter, which they won 25-21.
“At the end of the day, we are teaching life lessons to send good men into the world, to be the husbands and fathers their future families need. We want to make the Saints community proud in our efforts by being undefeatable. We can be down on the scoreboard at the time, but we never give up,” he concluded.
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