The past two weeks has seen us visit the various regions to assist coaches and players with testing taking place at City Park, Van Der Stell and at the HPC in Bellville. All this now contributing to the value the players will be putting back in at club level, and much of it starting this weekend.
This weekend saw the bulk of the friendlies get started with no less than eighteen Western Province club rugby matches in action.
As is normally the case clubs choose opponents which are in close proximity and as a result, the pattern was full of derbies. In the Helderberg region, we saw Faure are up against Sir Lowrians (5-21), St Georges traveled to Hamiltons ( 17-17) and All Saints (52-12) got the better of Strand United.
Closer to town Hamediehs got off to a good start (31-7) against Gardens, Rocklands went down to Manenberg Rangers (12-9), Young Wesleys lost to Blue Jets (15-27), while on the other side of town, Simondium made their intention heard with a (27 – 10) win over Lamotte-Wanderers, and Collegians scored a narrow (17-15) win over Pniel Villagers.
In addition to our club rugby testing, we’ve seen our WP Rugby Women players in preparation for the season ahead with their regular Monday and Wednesday sessions and this week sees our Western Province Fifteens club players return as they get ready for the club rugby inter-provincials.
The formal matches are also now at full pace as last week saw CPUT get off to a good start with their first win (50-8) over UKZN started in the Varsity Shield as did UWC with a win 87-15 win over Rhodes University. In the Varsity Cup this Monday we saw Maties beat UCT 21-19 on the whistle at the Craven Stadium.
This past Saturday saw our DHL WP Rugby u20 side get their campaign started in the SA Rugby U20 Cup at City Park and this weekend we face the Vodacom Bulls U20 away.
In addition to all of the on-field activity, our administrative divisions have had their hands full. This past week saw our WP Rugby women’s referees in their advanced referee’s course at the HPC with some of them already testing their whistle-blowing skills in this weekend’s friendlies.
Last week saw us engage with our clubs in the annual club engagement forum meetings with much planning and preparation discussions for the season ahead. Discussion topics included the various education workshops which starts online with good governance, norms, and standards on 17 March 2023. Additional workshops will then follow with a major focus on empowering our club leadership in order to deliver excellence in club rugby management. Club officials must please look out for the registration link to be sent from our offices next week.
Not to be forgotten is the continuation of our Media Marketing and Sponsorship workshops as we this year hold refresher courses and continue to teach our clubs how to grow membership and gain sponsorship in order to better serve their club members.