SA Rugby Legends vs. Paarl Legends

14th - 16th March 2008

The South African Rugby Legends Association is heading down to Paarl to take part in the Paarl Rugby Club 125th birthday celebrations that take place from 14 - 16 March.

A full compliment of former first class players will be representing the eLan Rugby Legends who have been invited take part in a game against the Paarl Legends that will be taking place on 15 March.

Paarl, the third-oldest town in South Africa boasts not only the spot where Nelson Mandela started his walk to freedom but also the third-oldest constituted rugby club in the country and has a rich heritage in the sport. The club has yielded 13 Springboks and 72 Western Province players over the years.

Locals are invited to the Paarl Rugby Club for an informal braai and evening function to welcome the eLan Rugby Legends and to start of the proceedings for the weekends activities. The braai will be on Thursday 13 March at the picturesque setting of the club house.

The eLan Rugby Legends will join past and present players from Paarl at the Nederburg Estate after having enjoyed a rugby-themed golf day on Friday 14 March. The South African Rugby Legends Associations will be using the celebrations in Paarl to launch their new campaign, Rugby for Africa.

Rugby for Africa is an initiative that the South African Rugby Legends Association will be using in their coaching clinics. Previously the Legends had a strong driving force coaching hundreds of children from all walks of life, parting with their experience on the game of rugby. Now the Legends want to broaden their influence. The programme will be run with Legends coaches training the coaches; professional refs will coach the school refs; Ian McIntosh will coach the children and professional medics will coach the school medics.

John Allan, CEO of the South African Rugby Legends Association passionately exclaimed; "It is fantastic that we have previously managed to get to so many regions and coach the kids, but this year we have decided that we want to create a bigger impact on all aspects of the game and by doing so making it a safer game all round!"

Saturday's itinerary starts with Rugby for Africa; this will be followed by a Tag Rugby tournament with more than 300 children joining in on the game. Three games will be played, the U14 and U16 WP development teams, Tygerburg Select and Paarl Gym, who co-incidentally is turning 150years old this year as well, will all be taking part. The main game between the two legend teams will commence after the feisty young spirits have completed their games. A formal dinner will close off proceedings where the public are more than welcome to join in on the fine living that Paarl has to offer.

Confirmed players for the eLan Rugby Legends are Andy Tucker; Dan Mafuko; Dale Stanton; Evert Ferreira; Garry Pagel; Robbie Kempson; Steyn Swart; John Slade; Andile Nyembezi; David Van Hoesslin; Quinton Daniels; Breyton Paulse; Robbie Fleck; Brett Hennessy; Deon Kayser; Monde Tyaliti and Wayne Weyer