With schoolboy rugby, we have already seen the cancellations of numerous of the country’s top school tournaments, and these include the Wildeklawer Festival, the St John's College Easter Rugby Festival and World Schools Festival, but to name a few.

The next on the cards for cancellation may very well be annual Craven Week, which gets played at under 18 and 13 levels. These also include the Academy and Grant Khomo Weeks.

The U18 Craven Week is only set to be played from the end of June in Port Elizabeth, however, with the extension of the national lockdown period, this may not leave enough time for the players to build on their match readiness.

Playing school league matches is one thing, however, the intensity levels at the national youth weeks are of a much higher standard and this poses the danger of increased injuries.

To OFM Sport's understanding, the youth weeks are also being discussed by SA Rugby. Unlike professional sport, postponing school sport is a very tricky exercise because numerous of the players do compete in a summer and winter sport.

This is, of course, all in the best-case scenario.

There are different suggestions outlined by the Department of Education, and these include that the schooling will be phased in over the coming months, all remaining school holidays are to be cancelled and even having the kids attending classes on Saturdays. There are already suggestions that all school sport could be called off for the remainder of the year.

School rugby pundit and commentator, Spoed Smith, told OFM Sport while it was all speculation at this point in time, it will be very difficult for the youth weeks to take place this year.

“The conditioning of players and almost rushing into fixtures would be the biggest issue at this stage, and you could face a lot of injuries.

“It is a difficult one because it is a global pandemic and safety is always of concern and the first priority.

“Depending on what the government will be saying in the next couple of weeks the guys will be pushed for time.

“I can’t really see any school rugby to be played on a safe level before the start of June, which makes it incredibly difficult for unions to get structures in place, get trials and get the league fixtures going.

“In my honest opinion, I think that the 49th Craven Week might be in a bit of trouble.”

As it stands, no final decision on the national youth weeks has been made yet by the powers that be, however, the safest course of action will be to rather continue the elite tournaments in 2021.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport