Wednesday 18 December 2013

Did SARU fail EP Rugby?

The 2013 season could easily be the best season in the history of EP Rugby. From club level through to junior structures, varsity and senior level. The season however did not come without disappointment, but the union layed some solid foundations for the future.

Despatch Rugby Club won the first SARU Community Cup, previously known as the National Club Championship, when they beat College Rovers in the final. NMMU Madibaz reached the semi-final of the Varsity Cup for the first time since the start of the competition in 2008. Both the EP Kings u19 and u21s won their respective competitions. The EP Kings finished 3rd in the Southern Section of the Vodacom Cup.

At senior level the Southern Kings played their first season of Super Rugby. They did finish at the bottom of the log and did lose their Super Rugby status to the Lions, but it opened the door for so many fringe players making a name for themselves on an International stage. Probably the most memoral games would be their opening win against the Western Force at a packed Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and their draw against the 2013 runners up, Brumbies, in Australia. What good did SARU do to give the Southern Kings a single year in Super Rugby?

After a slow start to their 1st Division campaign, they recovered from their early loses to reach their 4th concecutive final in the ABSA Currie Cup 1st Division. 

EP Rugby had a promising year and the future looked bright as SARU planned to include an extra two teams to the Premier Division of the Currie Cup, something special was happening in the Eastern Cape. 

The Pumas qualified for the 2014 Currie Cup Premier Division, after beating the EP Kings in the 1st Division Final and beating Griquas in the promotion/relegation matches.

A season in the 1st Division could be devastating for any Premier Division side essentially if it is one of your smaller unions. Losing sponsors and players being your biggest dangers. Look at what happened to the Leopards and Boland. For the 2014 season Griquas have lost 22 players, with the most notable being Willie le Roux and Lourens Adriaanse. With the uncertainty surrounding the EP Kings and their possible entry to the Premier Division, 32 players have decided to leave the province and play elsewhere. Many are against SARUs proposal of giving EP Rugby a "free ride" to the Premier Division of the Currie Cup and say they must earn their place. 32 players left, and with no draw card to lure players to the province, how can they put themselves in a position to earn a spot in the Premier Division.
The reality is, players want to play Super Rugby and Currie Cup. Would players like Steven Sykes, Andries Strauss or Demitri Catrakilis even have considered to come down to Port Elizabeth if the Southern Kings did not play Super Rugby. Would the Sharks have offered SP Marais a contract if he did not play Super Rugby, the same goes for Jacques Engelbrecht going to the Bulls. Would there have been any interest in Sergeal Petersen? Players like Wimpie van der Walt, Cornell du Preez and Schalk Ferreira getting contracts with overseas clubs. The same goes for Griquas playes like Riaan Viljoen, Willie le Roux and Lourens Adriaanse. Would le Roux and Adriaanse have played for the Springboks if they did not play Super Rugby for the Cheetahs.

Some of the best rugby schools are down in the Eastern Cape, some of your best players come from the Eastern Cape. It will only be a positive move for SA Rugby and EP Rugby if SARU introduces EP Rugby back to Premier Division Currie Cup rugby. Its a professional era and players have the option to play where they choose, but for most of the Eastern Cape boys its a case of forcing them to play elsewhere. Often playing for a different province means you second or third choice behind a local player, getting 5 or 10 minutes every Saturday. Let the EP Kings play Currie Cup, give the province and their players full exposure, they have shown us their commitment during Super Rugby, how much more will they achieve with a few seasons of Currie Cup Premier Division. 

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Cell C Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens

This past weekend was round three of the HSBC Sevens World Series, and the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth pulled out all the stops to make it a memorable one. Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium has been hosting this event for the last three years since 2011.

In 2011, New Zealand beat South Africa in the Cup Final 31 - 26. Samoa took third place by beating England 17 - 14. Wales beat Fiji in the Plate, Scotland beat Canada in the Bowl and Zimbabwe beat Kenya in the Shield. South Africa finished their pool stages with a clean slate and scoring 104 points, New Zealand scored 125 points and conceded 7. Over the 45 matches played, 257 tries were scored with Frank Halai from New  Zealand being the top try scorer with 10 tries. New Zealanders Junior Tomasi Cama and Frank Halai was also the top points scorers with 50 points each.   

In 2012, New Zealand again won the Cup, this time beating France 47 - 12. After losing to New Zealand in the semi-finals, South Africa played Argentina beating them 35 - 0 to take Third place. In a repeat of the previous year's final, Wales beat Fiji to win the Plate final. Australia won the Bowl final by beating Samoa and Spain beat Zimbabwe in the Shield final. South Africa finished top of the pool scoring 58 points and conceding 19. Cup Winners New Zealand ended second behind Fiji in their pool, scoring 50 and conceding 38 points. Over the 45 games played, 235 tries were scored with Kurt Baker topping the tries column with 8. Baker was also the top points scorer with 40 points.  

For the last two years New Zealand had the favour of the crowd with back to back Cup trophies, but 2013 South Africa had a different motivation. The crowd also played their part in coming out in numbers to support the Blitz Bokke, 26 908 on the Saturday and 30 860 on the Sunday to watch South Africa beat New Zealand 17 - 14 in the Cup final. 

Samoa beat Argentina 21 - 7 to take Third place, Fiji took the Plate after beating France, England beat Australia in the Bowl final and Scotland beat Canada in the Shield final. Both South Africa and New Zealand conceded two tries during the round robin matches with South Africa scoring 89 points with 15 tries and New Zealand scoring 120 points with 22 tries. Australia's Shannon Walker was the top try scorer with 9 tries, the closest South Africans were, team captain Kyle Brown, Branco du Preez and Werner Kok on 4 a piece and Justin Geduld on 3. 

After Sundays win the Blitz Bokke moved back to no 2 on the series standings, two points behind New Zealand on 58 and a comfortable 8 points ahead of no 3, Fiji.

New Zealand have won the most titles since the IRB Sevens World Series started in 1999, with a total of 11, they are also the current holders of the title. Only 3 other countries have managed to take this title away from New Zealand, Fiji won in 2005/06, South Africa in 2008/09 and Samoa in 2009/10. New Zealand is also leading the overall table after 14 season on 137.07 points with Fiji second on 116.28 points and South Africa third on 95.92 points.

All time top try scorers are Santiago Gomez Cora  from Argentina with 230 tries, Ben Gollings from England on 220 and Fabian Juries from South Africa on 179. Active players are Collings Injera from Kenya in forth with 167 tries, Tomasi Cama from New Zealand in sixth on 145 tries and Dan Norton from England seventh on 143 tries. The top active points scorer for South Africa is Cecil Afrika in 9th place on 820. Frankie Horne is 8th on the list of most appearances, 51.

Round 4 will take the teams to Las Vegas, where South Africa will share Pool A with Kenya, Wales and Canada.   

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Touch Isithembiso

This past Saturday Isithembiso Babies Home had its first touch rugby fundraiser, Touch Isithembiso. The fundraiser consisted of ten invitational teams playing in two pools. The inter-pool round robins were followed by the two top teams from each pool going through to the semi finals. The losing finalists played in a 3rd/4th play-off which was followed by the final.

Isithembiso officially opened their doors on the 1st of November 2005, and has cared for more than 60 babies to date. Isithembiso is a place of safety for children between the ages of 0-3 years who have been abandoned, abused, neglected or orphaned. We work hand in hand with social services to find these children new families or to reunite them with their biological family according to their individual case.

Isithembiso's mission is to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves. Proverbs 31 v 8-9 “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor & needy.” Secondly, to reach the community by providing a safe home for children these children.

Isithembiso takes a maximum of 6 children at a time. The reason that they want 6 babies in the home at a time is that at the age of five, the brain has reached 90 percent of its adult size and the child’s emotional, behavioural, cognitive and social foundation is set for the rest of the individual’s life. They are therefore very much aware of the responsibility they have of taking care of these children at such an incredibly critical stage of their lives. To do this well they need to be able to give much one-on-one time to each individual child. The goal being to restore love, trust and security to these little ones who have had such traumatic starts to life, as well as physically rehabilitate the many children who come into their home who are often far behind on developmental milestones due to malnourishment, neglect and abuse.

 

Isithembiso relies solely on the donations of individuals and businesses to run from month to month. Some of thier expenses include rent, the salaries of the 6 staff members, rates and the general running of the household.

 

If you would like to get involved in assisting them in any way or visit the home so that you can get a better idea of what they do and who they are doing it for, you can contact Carmen Faragher | Home administrator to set up an appointment.

 

For any further information please feel free to check out their website www.isithembiso.org and/or ‘LIKE’ their facebook page. You can also contact them on 041 581 0374.


The semi-finals were played between Die Grensvegters, Varsity Reds, The Slayers and The Trojans. Die Grensvegters beat Varsity Reds 8 - 4 in the one semi-final with The Trojans beating The Slayers 7 - 1 in the other. The Slayers beat Varsity Reds 6 - 4 to take the 3rd place, with the final being played between the two better sides on the day as The Trojans beat Die Grensvegters, 8 - 1, in a somewhat one sided game.


A special thanks to Nutri Tech, USN, Tsitsikamma Crystal, Action Sports, AG Aviation Africa and all the teams for their contributions in making the day a success.