RU Rugby ready
The Rhodes University 1st rugby side host Grahamstown Brumbies 1sts tomorrow, and they will be hoping for a huge improvement, after a heavy 61-12 loss to the University of Fort Hare. The Rhodes side travelled to Alice over the weekend, where they faced a tough Fort Hare side. Although the side lost by a large margin, Rhodes coach, Qondakele Sompondo said the game was a “needed reality check” for his players.
“We now know where we are as a group. A great deal of work lies ahead for the group if we are to be competitive,” said Sompondo.
The coach added that because it was the first warmup game of the year; and he wanted to make sure all 26 players got game time “and they all did. So we now have our dashboard from which to work from”.
Sompondo said his side will be “very competitive”, come their warm up game against Brumbies.
“We have worked hard on our fitness and some areas of improvement identified in our first match last week. [The] Boys are really keen and the spirit is quite high. All indicators are pointing towards one direction - upward momentum,” said Sompondo.
Team management and coaching staff of the Rhodes side are calling on the Grahamstown community to come in their numbers for tomorrow’s match. They are also calling on the community to get behind the FNB Rhodes Rugby side as they play in their first Varsity Shield competition this year.
“I've seen the impact of Varsity Cup and Shield in small towns such as Stellenbosch, Potchefstroom and Alice support. It galvanised the community behind its University,” said Sompondo, “Rhodes is no different from those towns hence we play this friendly match with Brumbies as we hope they'll join in and support during the Shield competition.” He added that there are also a number of local players in the side who matriculated at Graeme, St Andrews and Kingswood, including team captain, old Kingswoodian Jono Braans. “It would be nice to have their community support them”, said Sompondo.
Brumbies president, Giuliano Flotman said that while it’s still early days in their training, preparations are going well – “especially if you consider it’s still January”.
The Brumbies will once again be playing in the Eastern Province Rugby Grand Challenge league, with their first game taking place in March. Flotman said the match is mainly to assist Rhodes with their preparations.
"We know it’s their first year competing at this level and they need this match.”
However, while Flotman said the match would test the Brumbies players’ fitness levels, they always aim to be competitive - "even in January”. “Furthermore we always had good relations with Rhodes,so we're building on that relationship to form one big rugby community in Grahamstown. We also hope that this game will expose them as well as us Brumbies as the most senior club in Grahamstown (Grand Challenge status) and we really hope businesses will support us even better than in the past.”
Braans will make history this year by being the first captain to lead Rhodes to its first Varsity Shield competition.
Tomorrow’s warm-up game against Brumbies takes place at the Rhodes University Great Field. The second teams will play at 2pm, followed by the 1sts at 5pm.