Email received about Ithembelihle who will be playing at the Grey High School rugby festival 2023.
Dear Beet,
Yip in reference to Itembelihle, the weakest school in the competition. I’ll summarise what you need!
Some of the underprivileged (black) schools, primarily neighbourhood schools in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)’s nodal Area of Ibahi, make up the Itembelihle School of Rugby team.
YES, a team made up of athletes from various Ibahi high schools where rugby isn’t being played either due to a lack of players or because there are two individuals who like the sport but don’t have a team.
They also lack the infrastructure, rugby fields, and even rugby equipment is needed to take part in a yearly school programme. Be aware that these players will stop at nothing to enjoy the rugby match. It’s standard operating procedure for the team to use black isolation tape to prevent the uppers of their boots from coming undone.
You can only imagine how delighted they are to be invited to rugby festival, given that some of these players have never been outside of the nodal region.
You know, some of the players come to practise, rugby games without being properly fed; they leave the house without food because there is no food available to them.
Imagine all schools having the same principle, giving one team in their local nodal areas a change at a higher level?The scoreboard might have them down, but one thing is for sure: Ithembelihle play winning rugby.So I challenge you to watch the game and, in the end, know how many struggles the boys overcame before they ran onto that pitch.
@Djou: stem saam
We need more of these initiatives to grow the game. Proud of the boys and coaches. This also demonstrates some true passion and love for the game.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
That is where uncle Siyabonga Tom was found & probably many more since
This would be a great opportunity for EP Rugby Union to provide assistance like boots, and other practical support. Maybe they are, apologies if I’m making assumptions. Ithembelihle could become something special, thank you Grey for including this team. How they fare against PBHS will be interesting to follow. Thanks for the info.