Wing wonder eager to sock it to them in Shark tank

IF YOU want to gain a sense of how laid back Cell C Sharks XV winger Ilunga Mukendi can be, consider his reaction to turning 21 this week.

With said big day on Monday this week, he thought he’d celebrate with a few friends the weekend before.

Given that he is currently out with a shoulder injury from his side’s first game against the Tafel Lager Griquas, most people would have expected him to make the most of it.

Most people would have been disappointed, because not only did he receive a watch and happy socks from his girlfriend, he also told a less than rowdy tale about what happened.

“I chilled with friends and had a few drinks, nothing major. I don’t think it’s a big thing, it’s just another day for me.”

But what Mukendi lacks in partying out of his happy socks he more than makes up for by being a thoroughbred winger who looks set to do damage when he returns to the Rugby Challenge next weekend.

Originally from the Congo – he arrived in South Africa when he was seven – the former Glenwood High, Craven Week player and SA U20 training squad member had started the Rugby Challenge well before injury intervened.

The lightning quick Mukendi, who ran a 10.90sec 100m at 16, scored two tries in the Sharks XV’s defeat to Griquas – already as many tries as he scored in three games in his debut season last year – will come as encouraging news to the callow kid who first played in the competition last year.

“Coming from the U19s, last year was a big step up for me,” he said.

“I didn’t feel like I struggled as I thought I would. I felt I blended in and coped with the physicality and speed of the games.”

If that was encouraging, he feels ready to take the world by storm this year.

“I really feel like I’ve made the step up. I had a really long preseason and I was quite eager to get on the park once the season started.

“I feel in a much better space than I was last year, where I felt I held back in the beginning because I was coming from the U19s and felt under a lot of pressure because I was playing against guys who’d played at this level for years.

“Being involved last year and the long pre-season has made it easier.”

If Mukendi’s name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue when it comes to the young wingers making their way it is because he’s struggled with a couple of roadblocks that could have put his name on the radar. He was part of the Youth Commonwealth Games training squad (with the likes of the Lions’ Hacjivah Dayimani) as well as the SA U20 squad but his selection was nixed by the fact that he hadn’t already obtained his South African citizenship.

But judging by his youthful history, Mukendi has always taken the path a little less travelled.

When he got to Glenwood, it was on a hockey and cricket scholarship as a centre-forward in the former and an opening bowler in the latter (he played South Coast KZN cricket with one Andile Phehlukwayo) while also moonlighting as a 100m sprinter. Yet here he is as a fully fledged winger after crossing paths with his real passion, rugby.

Mukendi said he was enjoying rugby under his coaches Ricardo Loubscher and Paul Anthony, whom he credited with freeing them to “express” themselves, to the point where he thinks they may well go all the way in the tournament. —