Girls take center stage on the rugby field
Rugby is deemed as being male dominated because it is a contact sport but these girls are just as eager to get their jerseys dirty on the field
POLOKWANE – Review spoke to a few young passionate female rugby players from in and around Polokwane, to find out why they love the sport and what they enjoy the most about it.
16-year-old, Mahlatse Lekola, has been playing rugby since she was introduced to the sport in Gr.8 and has been enjoying the sport ever since. “Before I started playing rugby, I knew nothing about the game and I learned as I practiced every day from my coach. I also enjoy watching rugby as I now fully understand the game, despite being mocked and called names,” she explained.
Her team mate, Lethabo Tlou shared similar sentiments and said, “Playing rugby has taught me to never give up and to never allow painful circumstances, emotional and physical, to deter me from achieving goals and dreams. Rugby is a contact sport so when you get tackled over or bumped over hard and fall down, you do not back down and cry, you have to be strong and get up and continue playing. It teaches us as young women to be firm and to be able to fight back,” she said.
Their coach, Coach Titus Maluleka spoke about how hard and challenging it was to teach the girls about the basics of rugby and pushing them to be firm and strong in order to be able to play the sport. “Women are naturally soft and pain to them is much more real than it is to men, so I knew it was going to be hard to teach these young women how to play rugby. I must say they have proved me wrong and showed me that indeed women too can play rugby, in fact, any given sport,” he explained.
Mahlatse and Lethabo are just some of a few girls who will be representing Limpopo during the National Girls Youth Week that will be held in Gauteng from the 24-29 June 2018.
