Panthers ready to pounce

Edenvale Panthers Rugby Club recently welcomed three new coaches.

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This comes as the club prepares to develop its ranks for the next rugby season and take 2023 head-on.

Coaches welcomed to the club included Kyle Hendricks, André van Wyk and André Mynhardt.

Known for being light on his feet Hendricks, known as Twinkle Toes, will be head up the Panther’s senior side.

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Hendricks, who started playing rugby as a prop at high school, said coaching is something new to him but something he feels passionately about.

“I’ve been playing rugby my whole life, now I want to give back and develop the sport,” he said.

Hendricks started his professional career with the Falcons in 2009 in the Currie Cup. In 2011 he played for the SA Emerging Sevens.

With over 20 years of coaching experience, Van Wyk has worked the Vodacom Cup and coached the Vodacom Sharks as well as at Michael House.

Van Wyk, Curro Edenvale’s head of school, said club chairperson Ernie Enslin contacted him about joining the club.

Van Wyk will be assisting Willie Nel with the U20 team.

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Mynhardt, a former Panthers player himself, used to play for the club in the 1990s.

Once he left the club, Mynhardt joined up with Joburg Police before moving to America for two years where he coached the Denver Harlequins.

Speaking about his coaching experience in America, Mynhardt said it was similar to that of SA. He said there were athletes from various rugby-playing nations.

After returning to SA, Mynhardt coached at Union before stepping away from the sport. Eventually, he decided to return to the Panthers as a coach.

“It was brilliant to come back.”