Nico Malan’s centre and captain for a part of the season Selwyn Davids currently stands on 408 points for the season. That is quite something.
Selvyn is a special and an absolute delight to watch. Everything about his play suggests that he’d make the perfect Sevens rugby player. He has such confidence in his own abilities. His speed off the mark is good, he has wonderful balance, his well-disguised stepping off both feet makes his lateral movements amongst the hardest to read and best of all, his attacking instinct that comes from a tuned in rugby brain is second to none. On top of all of this he has great ball-skills and a good boot on him. Watching him play, it sometimes feels like he knows defenders better than they know themselves. He seems to understand their movements, how they will react in given situations, where their limitations will cause them to be vulnerable and how best to exploit this. With a ball ander his arm, Selvyn is poetry in motion.
Selvyn has been a star on the rise ever since he was at primary school at Pelsrus in Jeffreys Bay where he grew up. He represented Eastern Province at under-12 and under-13 levels.
He has been at Nico Malan in Humansdorp from day 1 of high school, making the 15 kilometre school bus trip twice a day. He attends the school without a bursary. Nico Malan do not offer bursaries. A representative of the school said that Nico Malan does not offer bursaries but that it does try it’s best to provide it’s students with a quality learning experience that incorporates family values, developing young people to their fullest potential and rewarding achievers, and it’s believed that with this ethos has come a loyal that has been witnessed in Selvyn. The talented rugby player has turned down numerous bursary offers from other schools. Selvyn growth as a person and his determination to succeed have seen him succeed in his school environment away from the rugby field. He has the respect of his school of 750 students who chose him to be a prefect this year.
In terms of rugby, he has played for the Nico Malan 1st XV for 4 years now. Along the way he earned EP under-16 and under-18 caps. In 2010 he was selected for the South African Under-16 High Performance squad and after excelling for the undefeated EP Craven Week team in 2012 during which he played on the opposite wing to one Sergeal Petersen, he was included in the SA Schools trials in 2012 but did not make the cut. He has also been involved in the SA Schools Sevens training group.
During this 2013 season, his coach Hein Vermeulen has been impressed by the gym effort Selvyn has put in during the offseason. Hein feels that by getting working hard to get bigger and strong, Selvyn laid the foundation for the very successful season he has had.
Don’t expect his to be the end of the road for Selvyn either. As for 2014 and beyond, the flashy stepper has turned down an offer from the Sharks and instead committed his immediate future to the EP Kings, making him one of a number of good local youngsters that the rugby union has managed to hold onto.
@Ludz: I saw Kolbe for the first time this past weekend.What a talent.The kid is destined to break hearts in the future.Haven’t seen Davids yet, but I am licking my lips, and cannot wait to watch him.I share your sentiments, I hope they are not relegated to the “too small” heap that SA rugby is notorious for.Had Matt Giteau been a South African, we would have never known about him.
All the best to this young man, am looking orward to seeing his rugby progress!
Special special player, the Kings have got a gem in this kid, there are a lot of the smaller guys who are hot steppers and very elusive, what I like about this guy and Cheslin Kolbe is that they have rugby brains. They’re both nightmares to defend. 1 can only hope that they grow as players and aren’t discarded to the “too small” heap.