Khosa Rugby Club honours its stars
Khosa Rugby Club members gathered for their year-end event recently to celebrate making it through a tough year.
Monument — The 2020/ 2021 rugby season will go down in history as one of the most difficult and stressful yet as the pandemic continued to force the Golden Lions Rugby Union (GLRU) to postpone or cancel games for long periods.
Nevertheless, the Khosa rugby players never backed down and gave it their all, racking up points and showing the West Rand why they’re a club to be reckoned with.
On Saturday, November 13 club members looked back on the season and awarded their players and all others involved in making this tough season a successful one.
Khosa Rugby Club chairman Nico Swartz said, “Having played in one sevens tournament in 2020 in Randfontein only and then in a Senior Grand Challenge which was changed to the Memorial Shield in 2021, our performances are something to be proud of and remembered”.
Nico also explained that their youth club had to play their home games away from the club which obviously comes with some disadvantages.
It was difficult for the juniors to feel that they were part of the Khosa Club. The youth section, under the leadership of Nick van der Schyff and Reinhardt Bel and his predecessor Morné Voster is still a work in progress. All age groups are well represented and the sides are doing well in their respective age groups.”
All things said, rugby is a spectator sport. But, for the most part, fans weren’t allowed to cheer players on from the sidelines, often forced to watch from outside the gates. That didn’t stop most, though, as there was always a roar of support, albeit from some distance away during the matches, with Krugersdorp High School (KHS) providing as much support to the club as they could.
The main purpose of the event, of course, was to award their members for their hard work and grit this season.
The following people received awards:
• Nethezko Malinga – U/20 Player of the Year
• Jason Godwin – U/20 Backline Player of the Year
• Ricardo Dias – U/20 Forward Player of the Year
• Mabutho Mongwe – Snakes (Third team) Player of the Year
• Bevan Heyns – Snakes Backline Player of the Year
• Riaan Lottering – Snakes Forward Player of the Year
• Paul Cilliers – Rams (Second team) Player of the Year
• Jaco Vewas – Rams Backline Player of the Year
• Braidy Barlow – Rams Forward Player of the Year
• Zihan Coetzee – Hawks (first team) Player of the Year
• Michael Tolmay – Hawks Player of the Year as voted for by players
• Spyker Estherhuizen – Hawks Backline Player of the Year
• Jose Dias – Hawks Forward Player of the Year
• Michael Tolmay – Hawks Top Try Scorer of the Year
• Zihan Coetzee – Hawks Top Points Scorer of the Year
• Ettienne Maritz – Most Improver Player of the Year.
• Jacques de Villiers – Coach of the Year
• Mike Allin – The Nico Swartz Chairman’s Award
• Khosa Hawks – Team for 2021
• Khosa Rugby Club Exco – Special Khosa Sports Club (The Three Stooges Award)
