South African Rugby Legends Association

John Allan (ex-Scottish and Springbok Hooker) is the CEO of the eLan South African Rugby Legends (SARLA) and through his leadership and the generous sponsorship of eLan, SARLA have achieved the following milestones over the past 4 years:

Held over 45 Development Clinics around the country and have coached approx 25 000 previously disadvantaged players.

Raised in excess of R1 000 000 through various charity fundraising events and this money has been used to purchase equipment for disadvantaged schools and rugby clubs.

To increase the profile of the Legends brand overseas, SARLA have played the following international rugby matches against other Legends Teams:

November 2003 vs. Scotland, Edinburgh
February 2004 vs. Pumas, Bueno Aires
August 2004 vs. England, Pretoria
February 2005 vs. Ireland, Dublin
May 2005 vs. Argentina, Durban
July 2005 vs. Australia, Pretoria
August 2005 vs. New Zealand, Cape Town
November 2005 vs. World Classics Tournament, Bermuda
February 2006 vs Zimbabwe, Harare
June 2006 vs International teams in WRLF, Durban

A dream . . .

Every great idea or vision starts off as a seed that, with time and nurturing, grows into a beautiful flower. The Legends concept is one of those visions.

Legends Background
John Allan, Gavin Varejes and a group of their contemporaries had a dream and were prepared to give the time and effort, however they needed water to germinate the seed - or in this case, financial backing. It was with another good friend, Greg Petzer from Astrapak, that Gerald Sweidan’s name came up and an appointment was duly made.

John tells how the Legends concept evolved and became a reality: “I had worked with Gerald early on in my career and knew him to be passionate and dedicated with a desire to achieve. From our first meeting we realised we shared the same character traits, and that the vision Gerald had was similar to the one I had for rugby. We reminisced about his dad Doc Sweidan, who was the Bok and Natal doctor for three decades, and through our memories and dreams for the future, Legends was born.

What SARLA has achieved for under-privileged and club rugby since inception (over the last 3 years) is nothing short of remarkable, all of which would not have been possible without the substantial support and commitment of former Springboks, first class rugby players, coaches, referees, business associates and sponsors, all of whom contribute enthusiastically without any financial reward… you are all absolute Legends! On behalf of the entire SARLA committee, we thank you sincerely.
Gavin Varejes (President: SARLA)

"The main purpose of the Legends brand world wide is to highlight the need to support amateur rugby at all levels. Most money generated by rugby goes towards the professional code of the game which caters for less than 1% of the players. This has led to the neglect of the amateur code on a world wide scale. It is now time to focus on the full spectrum of rugby from schoolboys at grassroots level to the veteran players who have played the game for over 30 years for fun."
John Allan (CEO: SARLA)