When Alice Ncube, Alex Wolves Rugby team’s rising fly-half, was selected to be part of the nation’s first SA schools girls rugby team, the moment was as much of a shock to her as it was to some of her coaches when she broke the news to them.

Alice formed part of the local team’s group of 10 girls who were selected to wear Golden Lions colours at the prestigious FNB U18 Girls Week in the Eastern Cape earlier this month. That tournament would later introduce the country’s first-ever two SA schools girls squads. Exhilarating as it was for Alice to be part of the SA schools girls team, she admitted the moment was surrounded by uncertainty. “I was scared. I knew the pressure when it comes to the Bokkies would be very high, but I was also proud and happy that I had made it there.”

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The feeling of a dream attained was overwhelming, especially considering that it has been about nine years in the making since she walked onto the Kwabhekilanga Sports Ground as a budding 9-year-old who knew nothing about the sport. Like most overachievers, who know that sometimes enough isn’t enough, she admitted she wasn’t fully convinced she would make the cut for the team. “I never thought that I would be part of it because when I looked at my performance, I didn’t think it would put me where I am.”

While to her it might not have seemed conceivable that she would make it, to some of her coaches it would have been inconceivable if she hadn’t. Coach Jack Moloi said the coaching staff had spent time discussing who they thought would make the cut, and Alice’s name was on the list. “Immediately after their final game, we had a group call as coaches, talking about players we expected to make the cut for the national squad. It was undisputed, Alice’s name was there.”

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The moment was both proud and emotional. Moloi recalled receiving an emotional call from Alice , in which she broke the news that she’d made the team. Proud as he was, he said he had never felt the weight of his responsibility as a coach more heavily. “She said to me, ‘Coach, I made the team’, and she started crying. Then I told her that from where we are, she just needs to work a little bit harder so that she can wear the main green and gold.”

Alice’s growth has been hard to miss. Just last year, she made the cut for the U16 girls’ national squad, and this year the U18, progress that Moloi said speaks for itself. That progress is largely because she has always been ready to do what it takes to grow.
After the final game of the FNB U18 Girls Week, she knew she would be facing an even tougher week ahead. From playing the final to hitting the ground running and training again, she was ready for it. “I believe that hard work, determination, and discipline put me where I am,” she said.

This is exactly what she has shown throughout her journey, according to Moloi, and even her teammates know it, which is why they, too, had hoped she would make the team. “They were saying, ‘Coach, even if we didn’t make it, we wanted Alice to at least make it’,” Moloi recalled of his conversations with the other players.

He said Alice serves as an inspiration to her teammates and to players in the lower divisions, and as proof that if they work hard, they will get there.

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