Skipper confident morale will prevail until rugby resumes again
Pike, a fly-half for the Owls, was selected as skipper during the off-season to kick-start the PG Park outfit's renewed era
Club rugby was among very few competitions on the country’s rugby calendar which survived Covid-19 for as long as it possibly could have.
But with time ticking by, coupled with the coronavirus pandemic fast approaching its peak, the window for club rugby’s survival this year closes day by day.
This eventually forced the country’s top rugby hierarchy at SA Rugby to make what had turned out to be the inevitable hard decision to cancel all club rugby action countrywide for this year.
This is a decision many would’ve seen coming, but was hard to swallow nevertheless.
One person who did not take the news of the cancellation of the amateur game well was Makopano Boksburg Rugby Club’s new captain Henry Pike.
He has been denied by the pandemic the chance to lead the Prince George Park outfit for his first season in charge of the armband.
Pike, a fly-half for the Owls, was selected as skipper during the off-season to kick-start the PG Park outfit’s renewed era, which also included a change in the coaching seat with forwards coach Lukas van der Schyff promoted to the hot seat to replace backline coach Francois Erasmus.
On the cancellation of the campaign, the skipper said: “I think it’s a shame for not just Boksburg, but all the clubs around the country in general. I think we all looked forward to it, we all thought we were going to get a couple of games in, even if it was four-five games, but at the end of the day the decision is made so hopefully next year we can kick off with a bang.
“I’m hoping that we can start as early as January or early February and we won’t have to wait until March again. It’s bad because we had a great team this year. I think the spirit was high, and now everyone is down and disappointed. Who knows, maybe it’s the best decision for all of us. I really looked forward to this year with the guys.
“But I think this will make us more eager to get out there next year with guns blazing. I think everyone is going to be very excited. Let’s look forward to next year.”
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