SA Schools' trio named in U18 Sevens side
South Africa has a schools Under-18 squad of 13 players to play in Windhoek over the weekend.
The tournament will take place on 3 and 4 March 2017 at Windhoek Gymnasium as part of the celebration of the school's artificially "turfed" rugby field, the first of its kind in Namibia.
Teams from five countries are taking part - Botswana, Germany, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Marius Schoeman and Paul Delport, two South African Sevens stars in the recent pass, will look after the team which is part of the South African Sevens Academy.
Three of the players in this Sevens team represented South Africa in the 15-a-side, five-nation Under-18 tournament late in 2016. Grey Bloem centre Rikus Pretorius played for SA Schools while his school centre partner, Janco van Heyningen and the Helpmekaar flank Mark Snyman played for SA Schools A.
The 13 players are from 10 different schools. Grey College have three players, Durban High School two. There are three players from the Free State, two each from KwaZulu Natal and Western Province and one each from Blue Bulls, Golden Lions, Griffons, Griquas, Limpopo and Valke.
Delport, who is a former captain of the Blitsbokke, said of the team: “We had a good training camp over the last couple of days and the boys responded well to the demands of the Sevens code. There is already a good bond amongst them and that will make things easier for us when we face the other countries in Windhoek.
“We are mindful of the fact that these boys are all at school and want to thank those schools for granting them time off to play in this tournament.”
The SA Rugby Sevens Academy Under-18 team: Ruben Beytel (Dr EG Jansen), Phendulani Buthelezi (DHS), whose nickname is Pepsi, Henk Cilliers (Grey Bloem), who is a travelling reserve, Angelo Davids (Stellenberg), Sebastiaan Jobb (Duineveld), Qamani Kota (Welkom Gymnasium), Henco Martins (Paarl Gymnasium), Sanele Nohamba (DHS) (vice-captain), Muzi Nyakane (Ben Vorster), Marnus Potgieter (Affies), Rikus Pretorius (Grey Bloem) (captain), Mark Snyman (Helpmekaar), Janco van Heyningen (Grey Bloem)