The Alex Wolves Rugby Club ladies showed determination at the Township Rugby Youth Festival, fighting their way through tough competition to reach the finals at Bill Jardine Stadium over the weekend.
Yet despite their performance, one issue overshadowed their campaign: Fitness.
“We were unfit,” coach Tebogo Mofokeng admitted. “Our problem is with training, because some of them are working.”
He emphasised that for some players, balancing work commitments with regular practice has proven difficult, leaving the squad short of conditioning when it matters most.
The lack of consistent training sessions has become one of the team’s most pressing challenges. Even as the players pushed themselves to the limit on the field, Mofokeng said the fitness issue was clear.
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He believes the solution lies, not in quick fixes, but in a long-term plan to grow players from the ground up. “For our girls to come to training, it is a challenge. We have to start at a development level, and try to develop the younger players.”
His confidence in this approach comes from his experience with the boys’ team, which was nurtured from an early age and has since matured into a competitive team.
The coach is convinced that building a pipeline of younger players, trained consistently from the start, is the only way to overcome the fitness and attendance issues that continue to hold the women’s side back.
While the process will take time, he sees it as the most sustainable way of ensuring that they are not held back by fitness challenges in the future.
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