The South Eastern Cape (SEC) defence rugby side were training hard over the past week in preparation for this week’s SANDF Rugby Association’s (SANDFRA) Rugby Week 2010.
The rugby week takes place at the rugby stadium at Military Base Tempe in Bloemfontein and started yesterday, continuing until Friday 16 April.
The South Eastern Cape (SEC) defence rugby side were training hard over the past week in preparation for this week’s SANDF Rugby Association’s (SANDFRA) Rugby Week 2010.
The rugby week takes place at the rugby stadium at Military Base Tempe in Bloemfontein and started yesterday, continuing until Friday 16 April.
Fourteen teams representing the nine rugby regions will participate in this year’s event, with teams participating in two leagues, the Senior and Presidents league.
The SEC side is made up of players from 6 SAI battalion in Grahamstown as well as soldiers from Oudtshoorn, with 18 players from 6 SAI as well as five 6SAI soldiers who form part of the team management.
Phillip Oerson, who is the SEC rugby chairperson, was also helping with the coaching of the team last week. Teams competing in the Presidents league are Western Province (WP), Boland (BOL), South Eastern Cape (SEC), Free State (FS), Northern Cape (NC), North West (NW) and Gauteng will compete in the Senior League, while WP, SEC, KZN, FS, NC, GT, as well as a combined Limpopo and Mpumalanga team, the Limpumas, will be competing in the Presidents League.
A number of womens sides will also take part in this year’s event with a team each from WP, FS, NC and GT. The week’s activities traditionally commenced with a combined church service on Sunday 11 April at the Tempe Base Church.
The official opening ceremony of the rugby week took place yesterday, with Springbok coach Peter de Villiers as the main attraction.
The final match of the week will take place at 3pm on Friday and will be followed by the closing ceremony at 5.15pm.
The highlight of the week’s activities will be the announcement of the official SANDF team and Presidents team during the closing ceremony.
Colonel Gerhard van Eeden, media liason at the rugby week, said “The rugby week is only the beginning of SANDFRA’s planned events for the 2010 rugby season, which will inter alia include participation in a Provincial Womens Tournament in August 2010, as well as participation in a 7-a-side National Tournament in November 2010.”
