After nearly three years of no formal celebrations, this week saw the return of our annual WP Rugby awards dinner. The dinner which historically happens towards the end of the year was hosted at Kelvin Grove with a veritable string of guests including sponsors, administrators, special guests, senior players, and our various 2022 league winners.
As always the event sees the collection of silverware which in some cases is dated from before the turn of the century ready for handover to the various winners for safe keeping for the next year.
In addition to the various league winners, we saw awards go to the WP Club Rugby player of the year Jacques van Zyl and sevens players of the year Ashton Hendriks with the adjudication taking the past two years’ performance into consideration.
The night was made all the more special with our senior players in attendance and finally saw several DHL WP Rugby and DHL Stormers players formally receiving their official WP Rugby colours, due to the fact that we have not had an awards since 2019. The handover saw coach John Dobson and team manager Chippie Solomons don the players with their WP Rugby caps with special awards going to Frans Malherbe, Steven Kitshoff, Brock Harris, Juan de Jongh and Deon Fourie for achieving one hundred caps representing the DHL Stormers.
As is usually the case the player of the year was a highlight and this year saw DHL Stormers flyhalf Manie Libock walk away with the prize while Evan Roos won players player of the year, both of whom have since been called up to the Springbok squad.
The Brightrock Needs Matched award went to Damian Willemse and the Sunbet Beyond Rugby award to Ernst van Rijn, while referee of the year again went to Aimee Barret Theron.
The night also saw large scale recognition for several of our Western Province Rugby administrators with special honours bestowed on former WPRFU president Mr Tobie Titus who was awarded with a lifetime achievement award in recognition for long standing service, while several club administrators were also formally handed their Western Province Rugby blazers in recognition of service as a club delegate.
Our DHL Western Province U19 side gets their SA Rugby u19 cup campaign underway against the defending champions the Vodacom Bulls U19 at Brookside at 13:00 this Saturday and then next week take on the Cell Sharks u19 side at the same venue.
This weekend sees round two of the annual Score WP Club Rugby Sevens tournament with just under fifty teams and close on one thousand players in action in the three-week series across three central venues in Western Province.
We encourage all our members to invite their friends and family to enjoy a day of fun rugby entertainment. All matches start at the three venues at 13:00 with much entertainment and excitement on the cards for our rugby fans.
