Alonely dirt road leads to a rustic farmhouse with old-fashioned shutters, wooden beams and creeping vines. By the entrance are a few ageing oak barrels, still sturdy and red from years of storing wine.
It is a fitting prelude to the man you are about to meet.
We are at Vriesenhof, a farm nestled between the Stellenbosch and Helderberg mountains in the Paradyskloof Valley of South Africa’s Western Cape. These winelands are rife with grapes and gossip, and boast a colorful cast of characters, mostly wine farmers who relate the valley’s stories, and often are stories themselves.
This is a world where wine and winning are spoken of in the same breath.
And in this cavernous house, a remodeled 18th century cellar, Jan Boland Coetzee, the renowned Springbok rugby player and venerable vintner, exemplifies both.
Within seconds of meeting him on this impromptu visit, Coetzee shows he is a true son of the soil. It is a warm April. Barefoot and brisk, in beige shorts, he darts from the living room, to the kitchen, to the backyard – where his elder daughter Hanle, who lives close by, is earnestly laying out tables for an evening do at the house.
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In the kitchen – shelves laden with wine bottles – there are sizzling sounds on the stove, followed by the aroma of – possibly – deep-fried fish cakes. Coetzee is issuing instructions to a few laborers at the back. He soon returns to sit at the large yellowwood dining table, decked with flowers in vases set like a Vincent van Gogh painting.
Originally Dutch, Coetzee says his ancestors came to the Cape in 1679. It is here, in this valley at the foot of the Stellenbosch mountains, that he learned the game of rugby and the art of making wine.
Coetzee purchased Vriesenhof in 1980 – “for its south-facing slopes on the cooler side of the foothills” – and has been here since, cultivating plantings of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, pinotage and pinot noir, sold under the labels of Vriesenhof and Paradyskloof.
“I love to take pride in what is ours, what is South African,” says the valley’s doyen of pinotage.
“I focused on pinotage when I was young, as it is the only grape variety since its birth that has really taken on a commercial collective in the world of wine. And if it is doing well, it means we are proud of it, because it is born under the African sun, it is performing under the African sun, and we take pride because we believe it is ours.”
Coetzee pauses between words and sentences, but when he speaks, he makes you feel the earth around you: the air, the sun, the soil. Clearly, it is his territory – and terroir.
“Wine is a mirror of the environment first and foremost, because it is a product of the soil. In that, lies our future. Man needs to understand the soil, the plant, to put it in its right place in the right environment to give it its best. And the more you care, the better it gets,” he says.
The man has a deep love for the farm, and is happy just to be in it – with his glass of chardonnay.
“I love what I am doing, I love the farm, and I love drinking good wine. It’s as simple as that,” says the sprightly 70-year-old whose days on the 85-hectare farm begin at 4AM.
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Coetzee studied oenology and viticulture at Stellenbosch University.
“I didn’t become a vet so I became a viticulturist. It’s amazing how many winemakers wanted to become vets,”
he laughs.
“I still have the record for writing the most exams before I passed. So I have a very broad knowledge. Like the wooden barrel, it’s [like] the un-opening of old wine.”
While still a student, Coetzee became captain of the university’s Under-18 rugby team.
“Everyone in South Africa plays rugby from a young age,” he says.
He played for his provincial team, Western Province, from 1967 to 1979, and played flank for the national team, the Springboks, from 1974 to 1976.
He stopped playing when a tour was cancelled in 1979 on account of apartheid when South African sport also took a hit.
“From a South Africa point of view, things were bad in terms of international rugby because of apartheid. We were isolated… When the tour was cancelled, I stopped playing and went to France in 1981 to work in a wine house in Burgundy for a year,” says Coetzee.
That was the tipping point. He returned wiser, and helped lift the profile of wine in Stellenbosch. Today, he sells his wine all over the world; Scandinavia is his biggest market.
Coetzee may have stopped playing rugby, but he uses it well in his wine analogies.
“We used to export 74 percent of our crop, but now try and get as close as possible. We do 50:50 local and export. Rugby has taught me to have two legs. If you kick [with] one leg, one can hopefully stand on the other,” he says.
Coetzee vividly remembers that tear-jerking moment when Nelson Mandela handed the trophy to Springbok captain François Pienaar during the 1995 World Cup final. Coetzee was present, as a spectator.
“It was a special day, not only for sport but also for mankind. I remember that moment clearly. I can still see it.”
Coetzee has ensured his legacy – in both rugby and wine – lives on.
“My grandsons [between the ages of five to 10] all play rugby. They also made their first wine in 2015. Each of them has a barrel from the vintage of the year they were born in,” says Coetzee.
Divorced, Coetzee lives by himself. Fortunately, his four children are all into farming in some way, and visit frequently. His daughter Hanle says the most remarkable thing about her father is his humility.
“He has 40 years plus of experience of harvests and climates in the wine industry. He has seen good vintages, and bad. The new, younger winemakers are well-traveled, whereas in his time, the exposure and material were limited. He has old-world knowledge. If he drops dead tomorrow, it’s all gone, I don’t know how to capture it,” she says.
How much is he worth? Coetzee thinks long and hard, before answering: “I actually can’t put a number to it; we are not [into] numbers. We want to be loving and caring people, and that you can’t measure in currency. Money is an evil necessity. I am a big believer of the barter system – milk farmers and cheese farmers must drink wine, and I must eat cheese. They must produce meat, and they must drink wine. I try to convince all my farming colleagues in the mutton, beef, cheese, fish and lobster businesses to [barter].”
And are they listening? For sure, he says with certainty.
Coetzee has many admirers in the valley, across generations. About three kilometers from his Vriesenhof farmhouse, at the Kleine Zalze estate, its owner Kobus Basson, another Stellenbosch success, says Coetzee was instrumental in exposing him to the lifestyle around the wine business. He turned the rugby-playing lawyer into one of the region’s top wine farmers.
“Jan Coetzee is one of the characters of Stellenbosch, you can’t tell a wine story without him,” says the 57-year-old Basson of the senior entrepreneur.
“He is the type of guy [who] if there is snow in the mountains, would still walk in his short pants, with muscles like he has. He is a Stellenbosch legend, one of the five wine personalities that built this industry.”
Basson’s father was a figurehead in the local rugby club and that was his first connection with Coetzee. Plus, Basson’s initial 10-year legal practice ensured he interacted with most of the wine farmers.
“When you work with them, it’s like a friendship. Jan was the guy who spent a lot of time in France, and knew all the wine areas well. In 1996, I went with him and a few other prominent guys – while I was still a legal guy – on a trip to Argentina, and that gave me a completely different perspective of the industry. They were much ahead of us.”
Basson says South Africa’s wine industry matured only in the last 20 years. After he finished his law degree at Stellenbosch University, Basson took a year off to go to central Europe to be a rugby coach.
“I went there to play and coach and work on relationships, in what they called the European B-League rugby countries. It actually exposed me to other things – to wine, food and the lifestyle around it… I understood how the Germans, Dutch and French work in a different way with wine… I immediately got this idea about lifestyle and food and wine combinations.”
Returning to Stellenbosch, he practiced as a lawyer, and got into the wine business more by default than design.
“My wife came from a wine family, and told me she wanted to live on a farm. I said ‘forget it, I am not farming’. Eventually, in 1996, her brother was running the family farm, and was looking for an opportunity with a winery, and I told him about Kleine Zalze [that I had heard] was on the market. He asked me for money to pay the deposit, and that’s how I got involved. He said ‘in the meantime, you can have 50 percent share of it’, and before I realized, I was sucked into it, because this is a business that sucks in money, in terms of capital investment.”
They bought the 40-hectare farm and after the first harvest, signed up with importers from Britain, who had high expectations.
“I thought, ‘either you do it properly or bail out’. In retrospect, I can see how the year in Germany helped, how my friendship with Jan Coetzee formed me,” says Basson.
During the nineties in South Africa, golf and wine tourism was just starting, so he thought: “Why do we go to Tuscany and Provence, when we actually have everything here? Why can’t we create it here?”
It was hard work. Every day, for a decade, Basson woke up at 3AM.
“I had no choice. It was crazy and difficult years, the interest rates went up between 1998 and 2002. I had to invest my shares and everything I had. Cash flow was the challenge during those years; we had to slowly and steadily build this up.”
Today, Kleine Zalze is 280 hectares, including the wine estate, an 18-hole golf course, a 47-bedroom lodge and the award-winning Terroir restaurant with chef Michael Broughton. Basson says all the businesses are doing very well.
“We are doing well in terms of exports [too]; I would say we do more than 200,000 cases of Kleine Zalze wines a year. And we have won several awards,” he says.
Chenin blanc is the brand’s specialty.
The last season for wine tourism in Stellenbosch was wonderful, adds Basson, who is also a director of the Stellenbosch Wine Route.
“If we stay calm and focused, it’s a very exciting period ahead… We have done research and the interesting thing is they compared different regions, and Stellenbosch has by far the highest visitor return rate. We have guys who have come to Stellenbosch 18 years in a row. You won’t find [a place] more beautiful. You have no idea how sexy Stellenbosch is.”
And like any good sportsman, he says his greatest asset is his team.
“You need strong players in your team… [The wine industry] is a little bit like top-end sport. It’s so competitive, if you don’t play with your best team, you are not going to win.”
What is it they say about wine and winning in the valley? It’s the same thing. And Coetzee agrees.

Long Days Of  Sun, Rugby And Wine

What else could brother and sister, both professional athletes, do other than compete?
“You mean a squash match between me and her? I am in. I have been waiting for this, I have a score to settle here,” says the little brother.
“Come let’s go warm up,” says the big sister.
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“You’re the one who needs a warm-up, I am warmed. I’ve come from a practise an hour ago,” says little brother.
This was South Africa’s women squash champion Siyoli Waters and her younger brother Luvuyiso Lusaseni, a professional rugby player with the Lions Rugby Union in Johannesburg. This keen encounter at the Wanderers squash courts, in Johannesburg, was a legacy of competitive teenage days, back in East London, in the Eastern Cape.
“I was in boarding schools most of my life, whenever I came home in December I trained with friends. When he was about 11 years old, he joined in and each year he would say ‘when you come back again my arms will be bigger than yours,’… My brother plays for the Lions now, I am so proud of him. He has a good head on his shoulders,” says Waters.
“We always woke up at about 4 o’clock and go for a nice jog. It was a very friendly and fun competition. It kind of motivated me. It was inspiring to see the work that she was putting in to get where she was and where she wanted to be. At that point, I didn’t have any idea what I wanted to play, but I think she ignited my love for sport,” says Lusaseni.
Thirty-one year-old Waters was a late bloomer. In 2009, she turned professional and was ranked 279 in the world. She is now ranked 34 and number one in South Africa. This is a spot she has held since June 2013. In August, she was in Johannesburg to defend her title at the South African National Championships.
“I have achieved what I achieved, but I would love teaching others to do it with me. I would love to bring others along. It’s very clear to me, if you are trailblazing you should have other people following the trail. You cannot be on your own; then something is wrong,” says Waters.
“When it comes to accolades and family gatherings, maybe I felt a little pressure to bring something to the table,” says Lusaseni.
Standing at 1.96 meters and 110 kilograms, the 26-year-old is a lock forward. His sister stands 1.7 meters tall. Lusaseni was in the South Africa Schools rugby team in 2006 and represented his country in the IRB World Championships in 2008. Playing for the Springboks is the next step.
The two are worlds apart when it comes to sport and physique. They are one when it comes to competition.
Was there ever sibling rivalry?
“I always think of Serena and Venus Williams. Whatever the world thinks about them, those are sisters, one would win and one would lose, but because they managed their sibling rivalry, not only were they both able to be world champions, by working together they were able to rise far above the rest of the competition. Their story is fantastic, I use it often to encourage young kids not to quit,”
says Waters.
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In South Africa, professional squash is little known and sponsorship is scarce. It was only in 2013 that Waters secured a two-year sponsorship to pay her passage to international events. Before then, Waters juggled her career and coaching to pay her way in Cape Town.
“The fact that I am a champion today, I think its testimony that South African squash has been always open to transformation. As a teenager I felt like I was welcomed in squash community. That’s probably why I chose squash over tennis. In my time, multiracial schools produced a lot of black players but unfortunately they were lost in the university stages. It’s a money issue. You would rather be an accountant than a squash player.”
Waters had made peace with the fact that the sport she fell in love with will not make her a multimillionaire. But she enjoys the travel.
“I have been to every continent in the world except South America. It helped me discover that I have a love for languages though I have studied science. Squash tours are similar to tennis tours; they require monthly traveling around the world. I love playing in Malaysia; you get a sense that squash is a spectator sport. They have adopted squash as one of the major sports in the country,” she says.
Although Waters campaigned for the inclusion of squash in the Olympic Games in 2016, it remains unclear if she will ever play for her country on sport’s biggest stage. Waters missed out on the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in August. Her disappointment was huge and she is still waiting for an explanation. So is FORBES AFRICA, repeated attempts to speak to Paene Galane, a spokesperson in the sports ministry, proved fruitless.
But this does not seem to bother Waters who represents players on the South African squash committee. Since age is catching up with her, she says her focus is on slotting into the world top 20 and going to the 2020 Olympics as a coach.
“It’s important sharing what I know, especially as one of the few black squash players in the country. I need to be a role model for my sport,” says Waters.
Waters also won provincial colors in hockey, tennis and athletics at junior level, but sport is not her only talent. She met her husband in church with a song on her lips.
“It was funny that it wasn’t sport that brought us together. I was impressed by her voice in the church band. But it was later that I discovered her sports talent,” says Dave Waters, her husband who runs the Africa Soccer Development academy in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The big arms did not help Lusaseni to settle old scores on the squash court as he lost heavily. But few would take up the challenge of a return match on the rugby field.

Sister Squash vs Brother Lion

It’s a rare cold and windy Saturday afternoon for Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, a seaside city known for its year-round summer days. Around 100 people and their dogs making noise of 1,000, braved the weather at Kings Park for Durban club College Rovers against Welkom Rovers.
Among the 30 men pounding the turf was Jongi Nokwe, once the most expensive and exciting player in South Africa. In his heyday, Nokwe had one thing that all rugby players, envy – speed. He could run 100 meters in 10.4 seconds.
It was August 30, 2008 at Ellis Park stadium, in Johannesburg when Nokwe did the damage with four tries in 55 minutes.
“No man, that was a long time ago, 2008. I have long passed that. The feeling was great at the time, I was not playing for the record, I was enjoying my game,” says Nokwe.
Although a lot of time has passed since then, most fans have vivid memories of that day.
“I remember the long distance try. Jongi ran like he had stolen the ball and the police were chasing him down. He had incredible speed but the tries could not be classified the best ever. Not everyone scores a test try against the Aussies but Jongi crossed the line against them four times,” says Simnikiwe Xabanisa, the Sunday Times sports editor who was at Ellis Park that day.
“Coach Peter de Villiers was just appointed to the position. Being a black coach, he had all odds against him. To get the best out of a player you need to know which buttons to push, this is something white coaches didn’t understand about black players. De Villiers was able to get the best out of Nokwe… Peter was under a lot of pressure. He had lost the away games in Australia and New Zealand and needed a crucial win in Ellis Park. South Africa won 53-8.”
Thirty-two-year-old Nokwe played four tests for South Africa in 2008 and 2009, Australia was the third. With the glory, came pain. Seconds after the fourth try, Nokwe was stretchered off with an ankle injury. Damage born in the joy of success; that troubles him to this day.
A career plagued by bad luck had its good luck too. In 2004, former Springbok coach Jake White picked Nokwe from nowhere &#8211; small country union Boland Cavaliers. White had plans to play Nokwe in the 2007 World Cup, but the winger had to wait until August 2008 for his debut against Argentina under Peter de Villiers.
Another blow for Nokwe, De Villiers was forced to drop him from the World Cup squad in 2011 because of injury, just weeks before the tournament.
“I have come to peace with the way my rugby career has been. I have enjoyed myself in topflight rugby, it was a wonderful experience. I have now found home with the team, this is where I will be dedicating my last days of playing,” says Nokwe.
On that Saturday, before a small crowd, Nokwe picked up the ball in his half and outran everyone for a brilliant try that sealed the win. He was so far ahead, he walked the last few yards.
Although Nokwe does not write off his chances of scraping back into topflight rugby, he says he wants to first win the national Community Cup. But it was not to be, despite beating Welkom, College Rovers finished fourth. This was a disappointing result for the Durban side that finished runners-up to Despatch from Port Elizabeth, in the inaugural tournament last year.
Kaizer Chiefs sevens coach and former Springbok player, Gcobani Bobo, played a part in Nokwe’s move from the Falcons Rugby Union in Gauteng province to Durban. During the offseason in December, Nokwe plays for the Kaizer Chiefs sevens team, an offshoot of the famous football club, in George in the Western Cape. Former South African cricketer, Makhaya Ntini, is the manager.
Guiding the 115-year-old College Rovers is another former professional player, a winger for the Sharks, Dutsy Noble, from Stellenbosch. Noble also represented South Africa in the sevens version of the sport.
“At 29, I have my first day job as an HR personnel. This is something I never planned but I am working hard to adjust from the many years of changing-rooms to the boardroom. Playing rugby is an addiction, but this is my next chapter in life,” says Noble.
The two experienced players are valued members of the squad.
“Jongi and Dusty Noble are two different characters. Each brings their different expertise to the youngsters in the club. Jongi does not speak all the time but when he starts talking everyone listens. He has that aura,” says Brian Batesman, head coach for College Rovers.
“It is our goal to strive to get players with wonderful experience. We are not a professional team like the Sharks, we can’t put our players on salaries but we look after them. Maybe we have the responsibility to facilitate for them to access work.”
The club’s investment in professional players gives it the edge. College Rovers have been rampant for the few past few years with a team of office workers, security personnel and students.
“I was an 18-year-old kid when Jongi demolished the Aussies. At the time, I couldn’t imagine I will one day play with him in the same team. I feel even more privileged that he’s my neighbor and a big brother. It’s an eye opener to have someone of his stature in your midst,” says lock forward Sanele Sibanda.
Sibanda is one of the two Zimbabwean professionals in the team, he has eight national caps. He says playing for the club will improve his chances of international rugby.
“It is very physical here, it’s a different environment all together. I have grown since coming here,” says Sibanda.
Xabanisa met Nokwe in his birthplace Keiskammahoek, where they were born in the Eastern Cape. Nokwe was a promising athlete breaking school track records. Xabanisa thinks Nokwe was not well looked after by the game. When Nokwe was in his prime, there was little money in rugby.
With the pace Nokwe had, he could have easily made a career in 200 meters or 400 meters track racing but he loved rugby and enjoyed playing it, says Xabanisa.
“Whoever was responsible did not do a good job. The teams he won games for had a responsibility to look after him, to equip him for life after rugby. That’s how you deal properly with your players. One thing about the sports career, there’s no guarantee,” he says.
“The train is never too late to prepare yourself for two careers.”
Nokwe, the conqueror of the Aussies, is working on both.

Whatever Happened To The African Who Destroyed The Aussies?

It is Wednesday morning and the big man is 20 minutes late for our rendezvous at an upmarket restaurant in Sandton City, Johannesburg. At 1.7 meters tall and 105 kilograms, you can’t miss him as he arrives. This is Chiliboy Ralepelle, one of the hottest properties of the rugby world.
Springbok hooker Ralepelle grins at the FORBES AFRICA crew as I wave, we shake hands as he apologizes for his tardiness.
“Sorry guys, I have miscalculated my time. These days I am a bit slow because of the back injury,” he explains.
Ralepelle inherited the nickname Chiliboy from his great-grandfather, a farm laborer famed for growing chilis. His given name is Mahlatse.
Ralepelle missed two international test matches against Argentina after he injured his back in the gym. The Springboks won 73-13 in the first encounter.
“I would have loved to have been part of that feast,” he says.
It is a sad reality that Ralepelle and half of the South African national team will soon no longer be feasting in Africa, after Japanese, Australian and European clubs lured 22 players abroad.
Among the Springboks that will be missed at home in 2014 are Ralepelle, Zane Kirchner, Bryan Habana, Andries Bekker, Wynand Olivier, JP Pietersen, Heinrich BrÜssow, Meyer Bosman and Mornè Steyn.
All are expected to double, or even triple, their earnings. South Africa’s big spenders, the Stormers and the Blue Bulls, cannot compete.
Most of these players will be claimed by Top 14 clubs in France. According to French newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, 30-year-old winger Habana, is the third highest paid player in France, taking $66,000 per month. Habana&#8217;s Toulon teammate Jonny Wilkinson is the highest earner with $74,000, followed by Racing Metro&#8217;s Jonathan Sexton on $68,000.
The 27-year-old Ralepelle will double his earnings in France and Toulouse will also pay for his accommodation and car.
However, it is more than mere money that led Ralepelle to break his decade-long stint with the Blue Bulls to join Toulouse for the next three years.
“Toulouse is one of the most successful clubs in the world. It is a privilege to be part of such a prestigious and unified team. I will be able to improve certain aspects of my game there. I fell in love with Toulouse when I spent time training with the team, and realized that was what I wanted for my rugby career,” says Ralepelle.
In France, Ralepelle, an avid FORBES AFRICA reader, will follow his entrepreneurial spirit. He says that while the rest of his teammates listen to music on flights, he reads the magazine for business inspiration.
“I can’t really say I am the jack of all trades. I am young and I need a feel for everything before deciding what kind of business will be good for me. I am currently involved in mining and construction and I have a few properties,” he says.
With a keen interest in business, Ralepelle naturally has some thoughts on how South African rugby should be run.
“South African rugby is professional, but not as professional as it should be. The clubs are not as successful as overseas clubs. They need to be privatized like our Premier Soccer League. The soccer league has been attracting international players because of its success. I think individual business people can run our rugby better,” he says.
Ralepelle, who is learning French, will be joined at Toulouse by Blue Bulls teammates GurthrÖ Steenkamp and Jano Vermaak, as well as his younger brother Ngoako, who has signed a three-year contract with the club’s academy.
The first black Springbok captain says he won’t lodge with his 19-year-old brother, who played as a flanker for the Blue Bulls academy.
“I advised him to stay with the academy so that he can focus more on his own game and studies.”
Ralepelle dispels the talk that Ngoako rode into Toulouse on the family name. He does not, however, deny having a discussion with Toulouse management about his brother.
“Ngoako went through trials and was successful because the talent scouts liked what they saw. Two to three years there and he could be a Frenchman,” says Ralepelle.
“Politics in rugby in South Africa makes life very tough. It’s not for the faint-hearted. He is not as strong as I am, I won’t allow him to go through the same struggle I had experienced in my career. As the elder brother I wanted the best for him,” he adds.
Across racial lines Ralepelle’s rugby career has been criticized, with some referring to him as a quota player who was only selected for the national team because of his race.
Ralepelle was born in Hazyview, in northern South Africa, was raised by his soccer playing father Peter.
“Before my dad could turn professional, he had an injury as he was preparing for Orlando Pirates trials. As we grew up we all played street soccer with friends. My position was left back,” he says.
Ralepelle fell in love with rugby at Pretoria Boys High and soon realized he was good at it.
“I broke away from the family [soccer] tradition to play rugby, but that was the hardest thing to accept for my parents. My mum thought the sport was very aggressive.”
At 16, Ralepelle started training with the Blue Bulls. At the same age, Ralepelle played at the Under-18 Craven Week in 2002. He was the youngest player in the tournament.
“It was the blessings of the man upstairs and a bit of luck, I got a surprise call to join the Under-18s Craven Week squad, three hookers were injured and I was pulled out of the Under-16 team. My junior rugby was great, free of injuries. It was the most amazing time. I was voted the world rugby junior player of the year when I played for the Baby Boks.”
Four years later, Ralepelle was playing Super Rugby and had earned his Springbok colors. He also captained the Baby Boks to the Under-21 world title that season.
Under World Cup-winning coach Jake White, Ralepelle became the youngest Springbok to play against the World XV in 2008.
A spate of injuries then threatened his career, but he came back strongly in the 2011 Super Rugby competition and earned a place in the World Cup squad.
There is talk that the present national coach, Heyneke Meyer, dislikes Ralepelle. Since Meyer took over, Ralepelle has seen little game time. But Ralepelle would not be drawn on the issue.
“With Heyneke, we have an open book relationship. I understand he can’t please everyone, including me. When I get a chance, I have to play very hard and hope to impress the coach.”
He has much to look forward to.
“My focus and energy is with rugby now, but I have some business interests on the side that I will have to pursue when I am done with the sport. I want to enjoy my rugby at Toulouse and be the best I can be. Keep focussed,” says Ralepelle.
So, the harsh European winter awaits one of the most powerful rugby players Africa has produced. If the going gets tough, at least he has his own flesh and blood, Ngoako, close at hand for a chat.
And who knows, with Chiliboy’s guidance, Ngaoko could be playing for France at the 2019 World Cup.

Why Chiliboy  Is Hotfooting It  To France

It is a blistering hot afternoon at a stadium in Johannesburg in 2025 and the sports commentator mops his brow before launching into his words at a rattling machine-gun pace.
“Ngobeni steals the ball off Bandisu. Ngobeni surges up field, past Mavuso… Passes to Klate, Klate to Phangiso. Phangiso scores! The crowd erupts. The cup is theirs, they’ve worked for it all season.
No, this is not the South African Premier Soccer League—it is merely a distant dream nurtured by those bringing Aussie Rules football to the African continent.
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Aussie Rules—a strange hybrid of rugby and Gaelic football—has been planted at the grassroots of South African sport, where a small bunch of enthusiasts hope it will flourish. It would be an achievement as the game—as Australian as ‘g’day’—rarely strays too far from its home in Melbourne, Victoria.
It all began when the Australian Football League (AFL) launched its ‘FootyWILD’ program in Africa in 2007. Four years later, there are 8,000 young South Africans playing the game, many as young as eight, plus 500 volunteers, coaches and umpires.
In a few short years, the home-grown stars are starting to shine. Bayanda Sobetwa is a 21-year-old from Khayelitsha near Cape Town, who has spent the past two seasons in Australia playing a level just below fully professional. Tsholbolko Moagi, also 21, from Johannesburg and Khaya Sikiti, 25, from Nyanga, spent the last season in Tasmania playing state league competition.
The organization is based in Potchefstroom at the country’s North West University—home to the North West Academy of Sport—which has hosted many international events from the Davis Cup to cricket. The well-equipped sports facility recognized Aussie Rules as one of its 11 sporting codes in 2002.
Operations manager for AFL South Africa, Joel Kelly, says the plan is to reach 30,000 players by 2013.
“We have had preliminary support from the private sector and the Australian government, who have been attracted to the unique role the AFL can play in the South African community and our position as a developing brand and game. Our focus, though, has been on building the base and strength of the asset in the early days to ensure we create a strong and sustainable platform for a variety of partners. As we continue to grow, we are confident we will deliver strong value for future partners,” he says.

G’day Africa!

It’s been a rotten year for Kenyan rugby—a year soured by defeat and disappointment. On the field, the national team all but gave away the Victoria Cup by losing to Zimbabwe at home and to Uganda away—the latter after leading for most of the game. There was a poor showing in the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens, where Kenya finished ninth. Off the pitch, there are more optimistic signs that Kenyans are getting to grips with the game and the money men are not too far behind.
Crowds are growing. In 2007, around 1,000 supporters were watching Kenya play rugby. In July, when Kenya took on Zimbabwe, 6,300 spectators were there. Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) officials said some of the huge interest was a result of sponsorship from an internet service provider—which allowed gate charges to be halved to around $1.
<div id="attachment_114" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-114" class="size-large wp-image-114" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Kayange-003-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="711" />Kayange</div>
There was so much interest that the match had to be moved to the 35,000 capacity Nyayo National Stadium to accommodate the crowd. The player base of around 1,000 players is also widening as more high schools take up the sport. The most prestigious schools trophy, the Prescott Cup, had for long been the preserve of eight elite schools in Nairobi. Now, the league has expanded to accommodate another eight schools in different parts of the country.
Most importantly, more sponsors are willing to offer money to the national team and Kenyan rugby clubs. Kenya Airways, the national carrier, sponsors the Sevens national team; Safaricom, Kenya’s leading mobile phone company, sponsors the Safari Sevens and there are other non-traditional rugby sponsors such as Cadbury and an entertainment group—Homeboyz.
Money is not enough, though. “We should get more of the sponsors to support the grassroots development of the sport,” says Humphrey Kayange, the 29-year-old captain of the national Sevens team. Kayange speaks from experience. He went for trials in South Africa two years ago and didn’t make it, but learned a lot about the country’s system of unearthing young talent.
“We need to get our development right if we are to make it to the next World Cup,” he says. “We need to get consistent wins and maybe play outside our traditional opponents.” The secret could be holding Kenya’s young teams together— something that appears to have worked in the rugby Sevens side. The core of the team, which reached the semifinals of the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai in 2009, had been together for about three years. They included Kayange, Collins Injera, Lavin Asego, Innocent Simiyu and Sidney Ashioya. This policy also helped Kenya climb to 33 in the IRB rankings in 2010.
The money followed. Kenya Harlequins reaped one of the game’s most lucrative sponsorship deals, worth about $40,000. The club ploughed the sponsorship money into increasing the number of players to around 90—the largest pool of any rugby club in Kenya. Undoubtedly, the game is in the hands of those who love it, interest is growing and money is flowing in. Maybe for Kenyans watching Kenyan internationals on TV, fighting for the World Cup in 2015 may not be such a pipe dream, after all.
<div id="attachment_115" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115" class="size-large wp-image-115" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Kayange-017-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="316" />Humphrey Kayange</div>

Tag: Rugby

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