TUKSWOMENSRUGBY PLAYING THE OFFENSE

TuksWomensRugby kicks-off 15s program.

AUTHOR: VALERIE BELLADONA

On Wednesday 10 March TuksWomensRugby had their first 15s training session. TuksRugby has been looking at introducing the 15s code to the ladies for quite some time now and with the number of ladies interested in rugby slowly growing it was decided that the opportunity cannot be missed. ‘Our 7s women’s program is known as one of the best programs in the country and the plan is to maintain that status with our 15s ladies as well’ says TuksWomensRugby program coordinator, Libbie Varsity Cup: The Bubble. Janse van Rensburg. Dabeon Draghoender has taken on the task of the Head Coach and is very excited about his new role. ‘I am up for the challenge and looking forward to AUTHOR: NINA EVANNA the increased number of games and the team is working with the ladies.’ ’The club has some looking stronger than ever. With the rate of talented players and I think with hard work we can With the confirmation of the 2021 Varsity Cup injuries sustained by a team being a huge factor to be a seriously competitive team’, says Draghoender. tournament taking place at our very own consider with this new Varsity Cup setup it will be The first training session focused on the very basics University of , preparations are underway up to the coaches to manage their players of ball grip and mastering the still and spin pass. to ensure that the so-called ‘bio-bubble’ is accordingly. UP-Tuks Head Coach, Nico Luus, With the upcoming Women’s Rugby World Cup the executed efficiently. The idea is to contain the believes the team has considered every club hopes to attract additional players with the controllable variable in their preparations for the hype created around the event. TuksRugby Head of spread of the COVID-19 virus and allow the athletes to compete in a safe environment. All tournament. Program, Conrad Boshoff, has been backing the With the kick-off of the tournament only a few development of the women’s program from the start games will take place either at the Hillcrest Sports and wants the club to take their ladies to the next Campus rugby fields or at Loftus. The Varsity days away, the pressure is slowly starting to build. level. ‘This program will help to grow and Cup teams will enter the bubble for 10 days at a UP-Tuks will kick-off their first game against strengthen not only our own 7s program but also the time, during which they will play 3 games. Prior Wits on Sunday 4 April. Good luck to all players Blue Union and even the Women to entering the bubble all team players and and coaches, and BRING HOME THE Springboks’, stated Boshoff. He adds that the management staff must undergo Covid-19 testing SILVERWEAR!! stigma around women’s rugby needs to change and and once they are in the bubble they will not be our 7s team has already begun to achieve that. He is allowed to leave. All teams will stay at the HPC excited for the possibilities of new sponsors coming on board to help support this initiative and hopes or Future Africa where they will have controlled that TuksRugby can do the ladies justice in this new access to the rugby fields for training sessions. venture. This is a first time experience for most of the Any players interested in joining the 15s training players and it is going to be interesting to see how can contact Libbie Janse van Rensburg for further the different teams adapt to the bubble and the information. physical requirements of having to play 3 [email protected] competitive games in such a short time. Our own UP-Tuks team has adjusted their trainings to accommodate for

IN THIS ISSUE COACHES CORNER: GILBERT GAZETTE PLAYER IN FOCUS: REGHARDT BOTHA MIHLALI STAMPER

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OTHER NEWS GILBERT GAZETTE Coaches Corner The Most Glorious 80 Reghardt Botha minutes for TuksRugby AUTHOR: MORRIS GILBERT AUTHOR: MORRIS GILBERT

If you want to get Reghardt Botha passionate and When I recently watched captaining excited, ask him to talk about forward play. the Sales in an English Premiership The UP-Tuks Varsity Cup forward coach loves match, my mind flashed back to one of the most to talk about line-outs, scrums and rolling mauls glorious 80 minutes in the history of TuksRugby. as these are the fields of his expertise. It was in the 2013 Varsity Cup final that Jono Before joining UP-Tuks in this capacity, he had captained UP-Tuks to a record-breaking win of a highly successful run as head coach of 44-5 against Maties in the Stadium, Brakpan. to this date one of the experiences very few “At Brakpan I was fortunate to work with players Maties or their supporters like to revisit. who were talented and most of them serious What made this win so incredibly special, was the about their rugby. This winning attitude many of fact that Maties were the overwhelming favorites. them had, had to do with the fact that they were Not only were they the only unbeaten team in the former students at Varsity Cup universities competition, winning all their pool stage matches where they were taught to function in a and beating the Madibaz in the semi-final. professional rugby environment. UP-Tuks however, lost three of their seven pool As such the shift from an open club to a matches and trailed Maties by 11 points on the university one was not as challenging as one final log. The so-called experts predicted that it would expect, but “at Tuks I work with young, was not a question of Maties winning the final, but just by what margin. What they clearly did committed players who see rugby as a potential UP-Tuks skills coach, Dabeon not take into account, was the form UP-Tuks career. At Brakpan I had to deal with some Draghoender older players who played rugby just to get away showed in their resounding semi-final win from home! It took some fine-tuning for me to against UJ (61-24) and the fact that Maties feel comfortable and enabled in this new scraped through against NMMU (16-15) in the environment.” other play-off. “What made it so much easier for me to make Before departing for the match venue the then this transition is the support and guidance of UP-Tuks head coach, Nollis Marais, left his team Nico (Luus, head coach) who allows me the with these inspiring words: “No one out there freedom to just concentrate on my specific role gives us a chance to win today. Only you can in the coaching team.” prove them wrong. Go and make history.” Reghardt's biggest attributes as a coach are to And history UP-Tuks made as everything went quickly sum up the competition and not be afraid their way from start to right to finish. They of making the necessary adjustments or changes. simply demolished Maties. In fact, the partisan The perfection of line-outs and rolling mauls are 20 000 strong home crowd started leaving the the favorite part of his job. stadium long before the final whistle went.

Reghardt does not coach to just win trophies as Reghardt Botha holding the Carlton Cup “they gather dust. I need to make a difference in trophy

the lives of the players entrusted to me.”

TuksRugby hosted the first of their 4 part youth with their catching and passing skills and he was TuksRugby Development skills development series on Saturday 27 March. joined by Rudi Dames, the teams back-line coach and The clinic is aimed at developing the core rugby Reghardt Botha, the teams forwards coach. John Youth Clinic skills which includes ball security, evasive skills, Laffnie, the Varsity Cup team’s culture coach, was kicking tactics and ball familiarity. Age groups also present at the clinic and he made a few exercises ranged from under 8 to under 13 for both boys and slightly more challenging by introducing tennis balls. girls. The inclusion of girls in this clinic series is The kicking tactics portion of the clinic was taken by very exciting, said Libbie Janse v Rensburg, the Young Guns Head coach, Kennedy Tsimba. TuksWomensRugby Program coordinator, ‘if we ‘I think the clinic was a success and I could see that the can get more girls involved at a younger age it kids were hungry for some rugby,’ said Draghoender. will be very beneficial to women’s rugby in the The next clinic will unfortunately only be able to take country as a whole.’ place after the conclusion of the Varsity Cup The clinic was run by Dabeon Draghoender, with tournament but exact dates will be posted in due time. special appearances by the Varsity Cup coaches. For more information on the development clinic series It was evident by the young player’s reactions that contact Dabeon Draghoender on they were in awe of the ‘Big team’ coaches as one [email protected] of the players called them. Varsity Cup Head Coach, Nico Luus assisted the young players

COMING UP PLAYER IN FOCUS: THE REAL MVP’S GET INVOLVED AT MIHLALI STAMPER TUKSRUGBY

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FNB UP-TUKS FLY-HALF Player in Focus: Mihlali Stamper

AUTHOR: MARGO MEYER this season and ultimately win the Varsity Cup before he leaves Tuks. “We as a team Mihlali Stamper was brought up in the beautiful have worked really hard preparing for the small town of Qonce, formerly known as King Varsity Cup this year, a lot of effort has Williams town in the Eastern Cape. Stamper is an been put in, on and off the field, and I’ve old Vossie and matriculated from Hoërskool De done my utmost best to contribute to the Vos Malan in 2016. team.” At the age of ten, Stamper fell in love with the Stamper’s ball carrying abilities and overall glorious game of rugby and ever since then his physicality makes him stand out as a player passion for the sport grew exponentially. He has and he hopes that this will secure a spot for represented multiple teams including Border, Blue him in an overseas club, preferably in Bulls and UP Tuks. Stamper was a key player for England or France. At the moment Stamper his school and was part of the 1st team squad in is studying Education and he wishes to be grade 10 already. “My most memorable moment in the best Business Studies teacher if his rugby was scoring a try straight from the kick off rugby career is cut short. back in 2016 when I played 1st team against Port A motto that Stamper lives by to stay Rex.” focused and on track with his goals is as Stamper currently plays lock and he is highly follows “If you believe in yourself and can confident that he’ll also perform well on outside envision yourself where you want to be, flanker because he has played it numerous times then it is possible”. This has made him the before. Stamper wants to be part of the UP legacy top class player he is today and will only push him towards further success. and his short term goal at UP is to start every game

PLAYER FACTS

Do you have game day superstitions?

And if so, what are they?

On game day I try to stay calm, think more about what could go right than what could go wrong, visualize myself making

big hits and just staying in the flow.

What is your go-to song?

My go to song is by Mr Thela and Mshayi - Basebanintsi

What is your favorite post game meal?

Stamper scoring a try in colors. My favorite post-match meal is a King Steers burger.

TROC – an expanded vision needs, to which end, a system has been put in place for three-year peer groupings, building up to decade peer groupings, with triannual and decennial AUTHOR: ANTON DE JONGH volunteer captains at the helm. The synergy created by such a large multi- The Pandemic has robbed us of many things! We have almost talented group spanning seven decades can be awesome! forgotten that we are the reigning Rugby World Champions. We Communication is key in facilitating the vision. A substantial database is ready have almost also forgotten the simple joys of sharing a good in place and in the process of being verified and updated. WhatsApp is thought moment from TUKS’s last Varsity Cup win with your rugby to be the preferred start-up platform, which will be filtered, not to break soulmates!? everybody’s data limits. Detail will follow in this regard. However, good things grow from adversity. As announced in the newsletter, the Varsity Cup 2021 is proceeding, which Under the leadership of Prof Susan Adendorff (President of allows little time, but it is the ideal platform to launch some of the envisaged TuksRugby) and in recognition of the foundations built by Wynand systems. Claassen, Henry Windell and many others, TROC is expanding its With the amount of passion and expertise endemic to this group, it would be vision. TROC is to become the unifying home of the club, amiss not to have an extended vision, which is to include a support base, supporters and alumini of all codes of rugby played at TUKS, with mentoring and pursuit of opportunities - locally and internationally - and proper communication platforms administered by the rugby office. financial support. It is the intention to reach all supporters from the 1950s to the Looking forward to sharing that first TUKS win over a cold beverage! present. It is obvious that such a large group will have different

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APPRECIATION’S/THANK YOU’S The Real MVP’s Steven Ball

AUTHOR: VALERIE BELLADONA

Steven Ball, a name that is not only known by the UP staff but the student-athletes as well. Ball has spent many hours next to sporting fields and at games cheering on and supporting the Stripe athletes. His sporting knowledge and interest spans across all the sporting codes offered by TuksSport. In 2021 Ball was appointed the new Director of TuksSport and CEO of HPC(acting), taking over from Mr Toby Sutcliffe. One of Steven Balls’ dreams at TuksSport is that every student-athlete should realise that there is STEVEN BALL, DIRECTOR OF TUKSSPORT opportunity everywhere. Ball first arrived at the in Ball describes 2017 as being one of the 1997 as a student himself. Only 17 years of age at best years for TuksSport. Tuks won seven of the nine Varsity Cup and Sport the time he started studying BA Human Movement Science. Ball never considered himself tournaments and nine USSA tournaments. to be a great student despite the fact that he went This is also the year that UP-Tuks won the on to complete his Honours specializing in Varsity Cup tournament after 5 dry years. Biokinetics. Following this he completed a With Ball at the reigns, the future of GET INVOLVED Management Advancement Program at Wits, but TuksSport and TuksRugby is looking returned home to UP to complete his MPhil exciting. TuksRugby would like to wish WITH TUKSRUGBY Business Management in Responsible him all the best in this new chapter of his Leadership. In 2001 his career at UP took off. career. Email: [email protected] SPONSORED BY Contact number: 012 420 6068

MISSION STATEMENT Striving to develop quality student-athletes within a high-performance environment who will graduate with meaningful degrees. Preparing young athletes for life after rugby, competing for championships on and off the field, for future generations to follow.

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