JUAN van den Berg has been named as captain of the South Coast Warriors once again.
The announcement for the 2016 season came as no surprise as the big 8th man is highly respected among his peers and even his opponents.
He was honoured to be given the responsibility but was under no illusions as to the challenges that lay ahead.
There’s a lot to look forward to for the Warriors, with a chance to show off their skills in the premier league.
“It’s going to be hard work this season playing premier league. It’ll be faster, that’s for sure. We’ll just take it game by game. We can’t win the first game and think we’ve won the league!”
At 31 years old he feels he still has a lot of rugby left in him. “Some guys can play until they’re 40 at club level, and some to even 50, like the props,” he said with a grin.
Scrum-half Chris Mitchell is again the vice-captain. ‘Mitch’ and the skipper have a good understanding on the field. “After three or four years leading the team, we know how to handle each other,” said Juan.
But before league starts there’s the Nashua Sevens at Douglas Mitchell Sports Ground on Saturday, February 27.
With teams coming from far and wide, it promises to be a day of entertaining rugby, with other fun activities planned for the whole family.
The squad for the Usher Cup tournament, due to be played shortly after that, was announced at practice on Wednesday night this week.
“It will be reduced to 25 players by end of February,” said coach Christo Henderson. “Juan and Chris have led the squad very well over the past three years, and we have put our trust in them once again,” he added.
SQUAD:
Ben Oosthuizen, Grant Watts, Lourens Stapelberg, Tiaan Malherbe, Dewet Derksen, Juandré Koekemoer, Jade Nyman, Juandré Coetzee, Karel van Rooyen, Dawie Durrheim, Pieter Smith, Renaldo Brieley, Brendan Rademeyer, Juan van den Berg, Chris Mitchell, Dylan Rist, Bailey Hart, Jaques Petzer-Moore, Cameron McBean, Marcell Sass, Tienie Viljoen, Donavon Horn, Jaco Rademeyer, Kayd du Toit, Vincent Fibiger, Arnold Kruger, Eben Botha, Theo Nicholls.
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