Rugby game at High School

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Today is another rugby day,  my wife has accepted now that these are the stories that I remember best. One year the high school had a day that they were raising money I really cannot remember what for, but they invited us to come and play the two games before the real big game started. 

The money was collected at the gate as everyone had to pay to get in. I took my under 9 and under 10 team, because they looked so small here at the high school and the people enjoyed that very much. The high school field is a lot wider than our primary school so we had to take the children a day or so before the time to practice.

I had a trick with my under 9 team. When we got a penalty kick in our own half, I use to get the child that could kick the highest to kick the ball high into the air. Before he kicked the two fastest players stood behind him about 2-3 metres. The rest of the whole team stood on his left side.  The opponents all stood across from where my team stood, which meant that the right side of the field was clear. The kicker knew that he had to kick high to the right side so that to two fastest kids could chase the ball, and nearly 99% of the time we got a goal under the posts. 

The reason for this was that small children find it hard to put the ball over the post and that was a way for us to get points. After we won our game the under 10 team played, I had a parent who trained them. 

He was very good and enjoyed it as much as I did. 

Nearly at the end of his game a child was hurt and taken to hospital. We had ambulance men there who took him on a stretcher and took him to hospital. I phoned the hospital and they said he was fine but they were going to keep him for observation just for the night. It is always better to be safe than sorry. 

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That evening the parent who trained them went to the boy’s house. The parents were not home and we could not get them on the phone. He left a note saying the boy was in hospital but he was fine and was just kept there for one night observation.

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 The Monday morning when the school started the mother arrived furious at the school with a neck brace around the neck of the child. I tried to explain to her that the person who trained him was at the hospital and at her house; he even left her a note to say the child was fine as we could not get hold of them. He even told me what was standing on her porch.

  

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This was in 1994 when all this happened; she was just so outraged that she wanted to see the circuit manager and the minister of education. I told her the shortest way to get to the circuit manager. She asked for the transfer card of her son, she was putting him into a small school not far from our school. The boy left crying and I told him not to worry he will become a prefect at that school because all the children in grade 7 became prefects at that small school.

After the mother left I went to the hospital to get the x rays as well as letter from the doctor that said he was fine there was nothing wrong with him, he did not even have a little concussion. 

At 10 o’clock the circuit manager was in my office with big eyes saying that I have a terrible problem. The mother wants to go to the minister of education as we did not seem to be interested in the child getting hurt. 

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I told him he can get the minister to come with his helicopter as we had landing rights and a wind sock on our field he can land there if he wanted to come. All the mine managers always landed on our field. When the helicopters came we always had to keep the children in the classes, but when it left the children sat on the pavilion and watched, they use to love to see when the helicopter lifted off. 

I showed the circuit manager the letter from the doctor as well as the X rays and he said the mother is wrong and that I was right.  

After 1994 these circuit managers were political appointed workers who had no idea of what was really happening around them. After this experience he often came to me for advice, as he knew that I would help him the right way. 

The next Saturday all our teams played at the high school and to my surprise he was playing in the first team of the new small school his mother took him to because she did not want him in our school anymore. 

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I got a parent to take pictures with his camera of him playing in the first team, without his neck brace. I took the photos to the circuit manager and he could not believe that a mother who said that her son had a neck injury could get better so quickly in less than 4 days. 

He was very pleased to see the photos and knew that there was no reason to panic as this was just a hoax from the mother, we don’t even know where she got the neck brace from.

We do find funny people on this earth, as this mother was not even available when we needed her.

Have a wonderful day from the wild coast.