Born to succeed – with sarla support

Get ready to witness the future of rugby talent with the kick-off date for the U16 SA Rugby Grant Khomo Week around the corner. This prestigious event will be taking place from 23-28 June 2019 at Rob Ferreira Highschool in White River, Mpumalanga.

The U16 Grant Khomo Week in White River will launch with the South African Rugby Legends (SARLA) Iqhawe XV team opening the tournament against the Pumas Invitational XV. The Iqhawe XV is a national squad, consisting of the top players identified at SARLA’s 2018 Carfind.co.za Iqhawe Week. This is considered an incredible feat for SARLA’s rugby development programme as it’s the first time a development team of this kind has been included in the prestigious high-performance rugby week line-up.

The past few years have proved that Carfind.co.za Iqhawe Week is both a fundamental and successful development tournament in our country’s rugby transformation process. Creating enormous opportunity, the Carfind.co.za Iqhawe Week is an essential development tournament, showcasing grassroots talent from non-traditional rugby playing schools from all 14 provinces in South Africa. With credit to SARLA, over 63 players graduated from Iqhawe Week to Grant Khomo week, illustrating the strength of the skill and talent we will see playing in what is guaranteed to be an exciting tournament next week.

Recent months have seen interviews with international rugby experts, such as Hurricanes coach, John Plumtree, state that South Africa has outstanding rugby talent that will reveal our country’s potential to once again be a dominant force on the global rugby field.

SARLA CEO, Stefan Terblanche, proudly stated that “We’re exceptionally proud of the strides we’ve made in both seeking out and developing raw rugby talent from across our beautiful country” adding that “We believe it’s our duty to ensure that our talent is provided with ongoing opportunities for improvement and recognition at the highest level and Grant Khomo Week is one such example of achieving this goal.”

Grant Khomo Week 2019 provides an opportunity for all players participating to play against their peers and establish themselves in the SA Rugby database. The 2019 team will be coached by former Springbok, Kabamba Floors.

SARLA is also proud to announce that 16 players who played at Iqhawe Week in 2018 have been selected to represent their respective unions in the 2019 Grant Khomo Week. This has resulted in a recent achievement of 39 players who have been part of SARLA’s ongoing programmes playing in White River.

Terblanche further detailed that the success of Iqhawe Week is a positive acknowledgement of SARLA’s Vuka Rugby Development Programme, and that as they  celebrate the programme’s 10-year anniversary their participation in Grant Khomo Week is the perfect anniversary gift and they are incredibly proud of their achievements to date.”

The spotlight will shine upon South Africa’s young and upcoming talent across the various age groups at Grant Khomo Week, and without doubt, history will be made.

The selected players and their regions are detailed below:

BORDER

Lali Khanya

Endinako Myosana

Likhona Ntalantala

SOUTH WESTERN DISTRICTS

Anwill Hendricks

BOLAND

Luke Bok

Jaden Douries

WESTERN PROVINCE

Denver van Wyk

Tiaan Visagie

Moegemat Van Beulin

Lee-Lind Hartzenberg

Uthmaan Lakay

Asolule Mfumani

FREE STATE

Andries Truter

GOLDEN LIONS

Lukholo Makabe

Siphesihle Tsita

Lyle Da Gama

EASTERN PROVINCE

Xhanti Waki

Gershwin Smith

Wessie Odendaal

VALKE

Keegan Koch

BLUE BULLS

Godwin Engelhardt

GRIQUAS

Caleb Baartman

KWAZULU-NATAL

Mawande Mdanda

SARLA is also proud to announce that 16 players who played at carfind.co.za Iqhawe Week 2018 have been selected to represent their respective unions at the 2019 Grant Khomo Week:

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