Sharks U21 call up for academy player

IT seems the Sharks Academy SKZN is already bearing fruit, with hooker Sbu Mkhize having been selected for the Sharks U21 squad for this season.

He attended school at St Charles in Pietermaritzburg, where he made Pietermaritzburg schools’ U18 team and then the KZN Duikers team.

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Dougie Haralambous, who is heavily involved with the Sharks Academy on the coast, spotted Sbu at the Salga Games hosted by the Ugu District Municipality last year.

They chatted a bit and Dougie offered him the opportunity to join the academy. And, as they say in the classics, the rest is history.

“Sbu is an exceptionally hard worker, especially in the gym, and this was confirmed when our academy took him to Durban to be assessed. He scored top marks of all the players that were assessed that day at the Sharks Academy in Durban,” said Dougie.

From an academy point of view, Dougie was thrilled that Sbu had been given the opportunity to improve his rugby skills and strength and conditioning.

“To make the Sharks U21 is just great. It’s a feather in the cap for our local academy… to produce a squad player in the first year is quite something,” he said.

“Congratulations must go to Andrew Binikos and his team for making this happen. Hopefully there will be plenty more making the Sharks U19 and U21 teams in the future.”

In other rugby news, the Riversmead Warriors won their last league game easily.

It’s now a case of wait and see what happens in terms of a few other matters beyond their control.

So, they might stay up next year, or might not.

There’s now some sub-union rugby to look forward to (Ebbo Bastard Trophy), with Southern KZN playing against Durban Rugby Sub Union at Kings Park this Saturday at 12.50pm.

It’s the curtain-raiser to the Sharks vs Pumas game.

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Squad (in no particular order): Riversmead Warriors – Lourens Stapelberg, Damian May, Joseph du Preez, Brendan Rademeyer, Dawie Durrheim, Juan van den Berg, Chris Mitchell, Jayden Onkers, Tiaan Gericke, Theo Nicholls, Jaques Petzer-Moore, Luyanda Sithole and Nico Smuts; Kokstad – Mort du Plessis, Kaya Siqwaji, Wonga Gede, Juan Botha, Unathi Mgugudu; Kapaailand – Inus Thompson, Jason Kashula, Klippies Pretorius and Sipho Dunywa; Scottburgh – Ross Bartlett and Lucas Burger.

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