Brakpan Rugby Club’s centenary celebrations postponed

It has been a year since Brakpan Rugby Club last played a match, which was a pre-season game against Tuks University.

At that time, there was plenty of excitement about the 2020 season.

Unfortunately, all the hopes and dreams for the last season went up in smoke as the pandemic forced the cancellation of club rugby last year.

While there is no clear picture of when the local rugby heroes will again be in action, there is some optimism, as SA Rugby recently gave the green light for rugby clubs and schools to start non-contact training. Clubs will have to comply with Covid-19 regulations.

While this can give some level of confidence in a rugby-mad town like Brakpan, there is still no clear indication of when matches will be played or when supporters will be allowed back into the stadiums.

The local club boasts a proud history and this year marks 100 years since it was founded.

The club had planned several celebrations for the centenary year, but they have decided to postpone the events to 2022.

“We had planned our launch where we wanted to honour all the people and whoever is still here from our history. Have a big launch of the 100-year celebrations. Then, there was a sevens rugby festival and our normal rugby day, where we have 35 teams playing,” said club chairperson Harry Nieuwenhuis.

Nieuwenhuis also pointed out that several competitions in which the club normally plays are unlikely to happen this year.

Another issue that is likely to hit many clubs, including Brakpan, is that when play does resume it will most probably be without spectators.

The chairperson pointed out that this would not do justice to the club’s centenary year celebrations.

“We decided that instead of doing something at 50 per cent and lowkey, we felt the club deserves a lot better,” he said.

“So we will do everything properly in 2022. Hopefully, everything will be back to normal by then.”

Despite all the uncertainty around club rugby, Brakpan Rugby Club management has gone all out to keep facilities ready for whenever they will be allowed to start playing.

The club is hoping the first team can start its non-contact training on Tuesday as it believes it can meet all the Covid-19 protocols.

Nieuwenhuis believes they will have most of their players back.

“Our group is still together, except Jacques (Potgieter) who joined the Cheetahs and one of our other guys has been contracted by the Griquas. But the rest of the group is fine,” he said.

He admitted there will be a lot of work to do for the club.

“We’ll have to start from scratch with everything. From (Covid-19) testing to whatever else,” he said.

“We only have two to three months to get ourselves back to playing shape.”

The tournament that is most likely to be played this year is the Valke Peregrine.

“The big problem is that this place (Bosman Stadium) is ready to go (in good condition). We are ready to go, we have our jerseys, we have our sponsorship and everything is fine. But from what we hear the venues out there like at Springs Rugby Club, Kempton and Boksburg, for all intents and purposes, are gone,” said Nieuwenhuis.

Brakpan’s chair believes the venues the other clubs are based at are nowhere close to being ready to play at.
So while the local club has ensured that it takes care of Bosman Stadium every week, this has not necessarily been the case for its rivals.

One can only hope that all the clubs will be ready to take to the fields when they do finally receive the green light to start playing the sport again.

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Contact the newsroom by emailing: Thelma Koorts  (editor) brakpanherald@caxton.co.za or Stacy Slatter (news editor) stacys@caxton.co.za

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