False Bay RFC’s Ryan Olivier giving the defence a hard time during a league fixture, last season. The Bay face traditional pre-season foe, Helderberg RFC at Constantia, on Saturday. Picture: Gavin Withers Photography
Last weekend saw some rugby clubs kick off their pre-season friendly programme.
Motorvaps False Bay RFC welcome their traditional pre-season foe, Helderberg RFC, at Constantia on Saturday, March 1.
The visitors, losing semi-finalists in last year’s Gold Cup knock-out competition, will be eager to continue building on that success.
The Strand club, Super League A 2023 champions, had a disappointing follow-up 2024 season by their standards and took steps mid-season to remedy their slump.
They appointed the enigmatic and highly respected coach Dr Phil Pretorius, a rugby intellectual with a proven track record across the country.
Pretorius continues his role with the club from the other side of False Bay and they pose a strong test for Ashley Wells’s lads from Constantia. False Bay has been hard at work since last November and are raring to go. This not only refers to the senior squad, but across the spectrum of teams at the Phillip Herbstein Fields.
Wells will be without some of his senior players for a variety of reasons, but this will surely not bother him too much considering that one of the objectives of pre-season friendlies is to measure the depth of the talent pool.
“We’re excited to see our group taking shape”, said Wells. “We’ll have a diverse mix of experience, with a combination of youth, newcomers, and some familiar faces”.
The enthusiasm at Constantia is mirrored at the Morkel Stadium in Strand. Their numbers too are healthy, their success in the Gold Cup invigorating, and the expectations of their coaches have been accepted as a challenge.
The Motorvaps False Bay Second XV will be aiming to continue their 2024 success.
Long-serving coaches Bossie Boshoff and Chris Hewetson have hung up their whistles after illustrious careers at the club, spanning decades as players and then coaches. They indeed left on a high but last year’s head coach remains along with the core of his management team and looks to emulate their 2024 success.
The under-20 section is bristling with energy an optimism. Head coach Kwaks Ngwanya has assembled a powerful team of caches and support staff, essential to perform as a feeder to the future of a club.
Traditionally Helderberg has a strong under-20 group and the rivalry between the two clubs extends to this level too. The match opens the match day programme and it will surely set a tone of all-out entertaining early season rugby.
All in all five matches will take place, further demonstration of the players available at both clubs.
The blockbuster entertainment kicks off for False Bay at Constantia at 1.30pm on Saturday. The main game kicks off at 4pm.
The cost is R20 and free for under-18s.