Grahamstown scholar Lihleli Xoli was surprised to that he was named the Eastern Province Rugby U19 Player of the Season at a recent ceremony held in Port Elizabeth.
Grahamstown scholar Lihleli Xoli was surprised to that he was named the Eastern Province Rugby U19 Player of the Season at a recent ceremony held in Port Elizabeth.
Xoli, who plays both in the fly-half and fullback positions, said the award “came as a surprise to me because of the class of players I was surrounded with and the amount of talent in the squad itself”.
“To win such an award is both humbling and encouraging as a player,” he said.
Currently completing his bridging year at Kingswood College, the sporting performer started his career at the school in Grade 8 and has been a first-team rugby player there for the last two years.
But Xoli can’t restrict himself to one sport and he is also a top cricketer at Kingswood. So which is his favourite? “It is hard to pick between rugby and cricket as a favourite sport,” he said, “and I can’t say as it depends on which season I am in. I also play tennis and occasionally partake in athletics”.
His burning passion for rugby was first ignited in primary school, however, when he was growing up in Port Elizabeth and attending Bluewater Bay Primary School. Xoli said the teachers there created a “vibrant and attractive rugby environment,” that got the coaches and pupils excited about the game.
Since then he went on to play rugby for the Eastern Province at the U12, U13, U16 and U19 level.
While Xoli said the coaches at his primary school provided “an outstanding grounding for my rugby, and taught me all the basics I would need”, he added that the Kingswood coaches allowed him to mature these skills. “My years at Kingswood have been phenomenal, the camaraderie and life-time lessons learnt have put me in a great position to tackle life.”
As for his future plans, Xoli is going to study at the University of Cape Town where he intends to play rugby for the university, adding, “I hope to one day represent a provincial side again at a competitive level”.
