South African Press Release, Date: 9/11/12
2013 Rugby League Festival of World Cups: South Africa to send a student team
Kobus Botha, President of SARL, today confirmed that South African Rugby League will send a Student Team to the 2013 Rugby League Festival of World Cups in the United Kingdom in July 2013. “We are very excited about participating in this competition, especially after the senior side narrowly missed qualification when they were beaten by a heavily experienced USA in the Atlantic Cup in Philadelphia last year. We are building towards the future here and the students of today will be the superstars of tomorrow.”
The announcement comes at a critical time for South African Rugby League as the National Board recently voted to take over the role of SARL (Pty.) Ltd and rather appoint individuals to work directly with the National Board. This gutsy move was intended to take inject some much-needed energy into the sport after a quiet few months. It will now be the task of Jeno van Biljon, Fanie Bredenhann, Nico Pretorius and Denzil Watson to put together a feasible plan for success at the Student World Cup next year. Mr Botha also announced that a few more appointments to both the management and coaching structures for both the senior and student teams are eminent.
South African Rugby League National Board steps in
In an expected move, the National Board of South African Rugby League decided today to step in and resolve a few outstanding issues. SARL President, Mr Kobus Botha, said: “The provincial chairmen and members of the executive realized that the formation of the commercial arm, SARL (Pty.) Ltd, was a step too soon for an amateur sport such as rugby league. The decision was made to bring the management of the sport back to the National Board, who in turn will appoint the relevant persons that we see fit, to perform certain key tasks for South African Rugby League.
As such the roles of the Chief Executive Officer and directors will be placed in hold, and the opportunity will be afforded to passionate supporters of the sport to make an impact. We will most certainly table the issue for discussion in 6 months’s time, but for now the focus needs to be on the Student World Cup, development of the game at club level and a pathway going forward. In the next few days SARL will announce which persons have been appointed into key positions.
At present we can confirm that Fanie Bredenhann, Jeno van Biljon, Denzil Watson, Andre Booyse, Deo Botha and Nico Pretorius will form the core of this group. We call on all rugby league players and administrators to please support these individuals as they have a mammoth task ahead of them.”
The focus of the National Board would now have to be on the National Teams and the respective coaching squads. More announcements are expected in the next few days from the National Board in terms of the various key positions and role players.
The National Board consists of the chairmen of the various provinces, the President and the Vice-President of SARL. (President: Kobus Botha, Vice-President: Jan Prinsloo, Northern Gauteng Rugby League Association: Nico Pretorius, Mpumalanga Rugby League Association: Deo Botha, Western Cape Rugby League Association: Peter McIvers, Orange Free State Rugby League Association: Pikkie Meyer, Southern Gauteng Rugby League Association: Johan Labuschagne, Limpopo Rugby League Association: Banna Botha, Eastern Cape Rugby League Association: Laurence Finn, Northwest Rugby League Association: Christo de Lange)
