A big thank you to all that participated in the Nines Festival , yesterday on the 24th of February. The Nines Festival is an effort to promote Rugby League among the public and especially school children. We hope to host three more such festival days during 2018. Information  regarding these days will soon be available.
Tuks, BVR, Mustangs and  two teams from Mpumalanga, Panthers 1 and Panthers 2 entered the competition of the day with the Panthers coming out tops and won the competition of the day.
I have to remark on the sportsmanship of the day when Tuks and also the Panthers made players available to Mustangs, who was short on players. 
Jean Coetzer had a quick training session with the two teams of Prestige College before their game. The boys enjoyed their game and told me that they are looking forward to the next Rugby League Festival. 
Hein Roos of Roos photography took photos of the day. One can view this photos on Hein’s webpage, Roos Photography. Please support Hein the way he supports Rugby League. Click HERE
We would love to hear from you on Facebook. Please place you photos and comments. Do not forget to send Deo Botha your photos and comments for our webpage.
Deo can be contacted at;
info@deodatadigital.co.za
or his cell phone:
0829284080
At last and not the least, thank you to the Pretoria Task Team and Prestige College who made this event possible. Let us all support future events like this in an effort to promote Rugby League.

Click on Image to enlarge...

The current management team of Wizards are determine to grow the game in the Cape. One of our strategies is to create pathways for young men to better themselves to transform our communities through LEAGUE, and counter the drug and gangster problem. Through my engagement  on social media with Luke Garnett, the founder of Global Rugby League academy, we have decided to send 4 boys over to play and study abroad in the UK. We are cognisant this is a risk as we have not been over there but we have been tracking the progress on social media – and these boys have the resilience to survive anything 
 
The program include the following

• They will play for a club for 12 months 
• They will have to enrol in an education program
• They will have gym membership
• The will do RFL accredited coaching and referee courses 
• They will train with PRO and semi clubs…

SARL have again been invited to participate in the 2018 Commonwealth Games – Festival for Rugby League that will be hosted in Australia.
 
The previous Commonwealth Games was held in 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland and an Under-19-side was send to present South Africa.  The 2018 Commonwealth Games Federation have decided that the age-limit for this forthcoming Festival for Rugby League will be upgraded to Under-23 age-limit.
 
The Festival for Rugby League will be played on the Nines-concept whereby 9 players will take the field (similar to the 7s of Union Rugby) with 4 rolling interchanges.
 
The core SARL Tour Management Team have now been selected to start initial preparation for the Festival to take place on the 22 – 24 February 2018.  Hosting venues on the Australian Gold Coast will be identified in due course by Rugby League International Federation (RLiF) and the Commonwealth Games Federation’s (CGF) Festival Committee.
 
The key objective for the tour management team in the preparation stage will be to-

• Gain Sponsorships
• Visit all SA-provinces to identify & screen potential Rugby League players for final selection to this high pace Nines-concept.

 
SARL U/23 Touring Management Team:

• Fanie Bredenhann have been elected to coordinate the 2018 tour-process.
• As senior coach Hendrik (Drikkies) Mulder will manage the coaching team with Jean Coetzer (assistant coach) & Addie de Witt (trainer) in preparation for the Games.
• A big “add-on” to the squad will be the services of doctor Frans Erasmus that will assist in the endeavor to ensure that the selected players will be in good physical & healthy condition on and off the pitch.

 
SARL Representative Team

• Kobus Botha (SARL President) & Frans Parsons (SARL CEO) will represent the SARL Board.
• Nigel Goos, as SARL International Development Officer (based in Brisbane, Australia) will assist in matters related to international based-SA-players.
• Deo Botha will be manage the media pre and during the Festival.
• A SARL Match Official will be identified at a later stage to join the representative team to Australia to represent the SARL MOs.

 
For enquiries, please contact-
 
Fanie Bredenhann
2018  SARL Tour Coordinator
M: +27 (0)83 677 2111
fbredenhann@deloitte.co.za

The Mpumalanga Panthers has beaten the Northern Bulls in the Jan Prinsloo Cup Final on Saturday18-16.

This is the 2nd Consecutive year that the Panthers wins the Cup.