Top U18 players assemble for High Performance camp in Stellenbosch

Fifty Under-18 players within SA Rugby’s Elite Player Development (EPD) system will gather in Stellenbosch for a four-day training camp from 18 to 21 March where the focus will be on grooming them to advance to the SA Schools and Junior Springbok teams in future.

The camp will feature Under-17 and Under-18 players, many of whom attended the Under-16 and Under-17 camps in October last year, and have been in SA Rugby’s High Performance structures since Under-16 level.

Apart from offering members of the Rugby Department an opportunity to work with the players, it also serves as a vital platform to ensure continuity from school level to the junior national structures.

SA Rugby’s EPD 2 Manager, Herman Masimla, will manage the camp while SA Rugby’s High Performance Manager Louis Koen will steer the coaching. The SA Schools selectors will also attend the camp.

“The camp is the culmination of years of hard work with the players behind the scenes by SA Rugby’s EPD managers,” said SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux.

“Their respective talent identification units, which include managers, coaches and scouts from all 14 provincial unions, have identified, assessed, trained and monitored these players for the past three years.

“The camp plays a vital role within our rugby pathway to prepare these players to make the step up to the SA Schools and Junior Springbok teams in future, and hopefully they will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Damian Willemse, Salmaan Moerat and Handre Pollard in the coming years.”

The players will participate in a series of training sessions over the four days, with the main focus areas being skills, attack, defence and kicking, while there will also be split sessions with the forwards and backs.

SA Rugby U18 Elite Player Development camp squad (in alphabetical order):

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Hannes Nienaber

Hannes Nienaber covered schools' rugby in South Africa for Volksblad, Beeld, and Rapport for 11 years. He also created the biggest school rugby website in South Africa - School of Rugby - back in 2007. It eventually morphed into Supersport Schools Plus. He still occasionally milks cows.

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