u19, u20, u21 Rugby

Dawie Theron has named his final team of 28 players to take part in the Junior World Championships in France during June.

The team will be captained by former Monnas and SA Schools captain Stoney Steenkamp and includes 11 SA Schools players from 2011 and 2012.…

The Los Pumitas have beaten the Baby Boks 2-1 in a series in Argentina. After winning the opening match 26-3, the SA under-20 team lost the next two games 27-42 and 22-27.

On the one hand it’s pleasing to see the juniors getting valuable game time as a unit ahead of the Junior World Championships in France in June. However one just has to ask the question again: do we have our best players on board? …

There should be two very good games on in the Young Guns competition today. Tuks takes on the Pukke in a battle for top spot in their pool. The Ikeys Trojans and UJ are both after that very important second place in the Steinhoff pool. With the top two teams from each pool qualifying for the semi-finals, it is everything to play for. The Shimlas from UFS should comfortably beat Wits in today’s other game, meaning that the loser of Tuks versus Pukke will find themselves relegated to third in the pool after today’s round.…

The Varsity Cup Young Guns Compo for under-20 students is into Round 3. Its the first time this season that all 8 teams will be in action. Last week the Pukke hammered Wits as expected but NMMU really put up a brave fight going down just 24-34 to one of the pre-tournament favourites, the Maties from the University of Stellenbosch.…

The first round of the Varsity Cup Young Guns for under-20’s saw the defending champions Tuks squeeze by the Shimlas 18-16 while the UCT Trojans thrashed NMMU 44-15. This week NMMU are going to need all the home support they can get for a very tough encounter against the Maties while the Pukke should be too strong for Wits at the Fanie du Toit Stadium in Potchefstroom.…

The Varsity Cup under-20 competition known as the Young Guns kicks off this afternoon. Tuks beat Maties in an exciting final last year. On paper both teams are again looking like the two strongest teams in the competition this year. Maties will not be in action today but the Tuks have a relatively difficult assignment at the University of the Free State. Both teams are fielding a number of players that did provincial duty in the 2012 ABSA under-19 competition. In the only other first round game the Trojans from UCT hosts NMMU.…

The UCT Trojans squad definitely gives the impressive they are students that can play rugby as opposed to the Maties and Tukkies who seem to be rugby players that know how to study. …

The University of Pretoria (Tukkies) are the defending Varsity Cup Young Guns champions. With this year’s tournament about to kick-off, they have put themselves the best possible position to retain the under-20 title by naming a star-studded 57-man group. …

When it comes to rugby, the University of Stellenbosch (Maties) has a long and proud history. They have produced 172 Springboks and 15 Springbok captains. To this day, their students form the nucleus of the Stormers, the Western Province senior and under-21 teams as well as the Vodacom Cup team.…

With first choice outside centre Justin Geduld’s withdrawal from the SA under-20 squad so that he can join the Blitzbokke for a Sevens trip to New Zealand, good money should have been on Westville old boy Tyler Fisher to slot into the starting line-up. It’s not the case. Coach Dawie Theron has opted to go with Sylvian Mahuza instead. …

Coach Dawie Theron was a satisfied man on Friday evening after his SA under-20 Baby Bok team recorded an easy 65-7 win against the University of the Western Cape. …

For eight standout 18-year-old rugby players a new chapter in their lives is about to begin. Every year the Sharks only contract between 8 and 12 players. These players are carefully picked based on two criteria, the players’ individual rugby ability and the future needs of the Union. Yes, the Sharks don’t necessarily go after the best players on the board, they actually try to work out where their future senior team positional needs will lie and plan succession on this basis. …

The junior player development body of the Sharks is the Sharks Academy. The Academy has an outstanding track-record and has been held in high regard in South African rugby circles for many a year. However the advent and growing popularity of the Varsity Cup, allegations of the Shark Academy being operated primarily as a profit making entity and the highly publicised spending spree of main opponents the Blue Bulls has started to raise more and more questions about the viability of the Sharks Academy. …

Dawie Theron has reduced his SA under-20 squad to just 34 players ahead of three friendly matches against:

18-Jan-2013: University of Western Cape
23-Jan-2013: Maties (University of Stellenbosch)
26-Jan-2013: Ikey (University of Cape Town)…

Baby Boks head coach Dawie Theron has named a trimmed down squad of 38 players to attend his second SA under-20 trials and training camp in Stellenbosch from 2-9 December.…

A squad of 50 Junior World Championship hopefuls was put through their paces during a trial match in front of head coach Dawie Theron and his assistant yesterday.…

The pools for the Junior World Championships (JWC) has been announced. The same irritating format which sees teams divided into 3 pools, with only the winners of each pool and only the single best second placed pool team overall advancing to the semi-finals, stays in place.…

Dawie Theron has named a squad of 50 under-20 players to attend trials and a training camp in Stellenbosch from 9-12 November 2012. …

 …

Hilton College’s Cameron Wright and Hugenote’s SA Schools lock Gideon Koegelenberg are the latest additions to the Sharks under-19 team. The two schoolboy debutants will feature alongside Glenwood’s Marne Coetzee in Saturday’s crucial away game against Free State.…