Two home games announced for Poorte in Gold Cup draw
Roodepoort Rugby Club managed to qualify for the 2019 Gold Cup after finishing the 2018 Pirates Grand Challenge as the top-placed open club within the Golden Lions Rugby Union.
Roodepoort Rugby Club has been handed a favourable Saru Gold Cup group draw, which sees them receive home ground advantage for their first two group games.
The club managed to qualify for the 2019 Gold Cup after they finished the 2018 Pirates Grand Challenge as the top-placed open club within the Golden Lions Rugby Union. Poorte came close to bagging the overall title as well, but narrowly lost out to North West University in the final.
The outstanding effort in the 2018 season was a complete turnaround of the club’s fortunes in the 2017 season which saw it narrowly avoid relegation. Poorte will be hoping to carry its 2018 form into the Gold Cup this year, with the club receiving a horde of new players and coaches from all over the country.
The club has since been dealt a good hand by Saru at the draw for the Gold Cup’s group stages, which took place on Tuesday, 5 February. The draw saw the placing of the 16 amateur open clubs from around the country that will be taking part this year, into four different pools consisting of four clubs each.
Roodepoort was placed into Pool D alongside two-time Gold Cup winners Rustenburg Impalas and Springs (Falcons Rugby Union) and Swallows (Border Rugby Union) who will both be making their second appearances in the tournament. Roodepoort’s campaign will get under way on 9 March against the Impalas at Ruimsig Stadium, with Springs making the trip to Ruimsig the week thereafter, and their final group stage game will be away to Swallows on 23 March.
First team head coach, Alwyn Hollenbach, said that they are happy with the draw they received, but admitted it still won’t be easy. “There’s no such thing as an easy game in the Gold Cup, but having two home games is a real boost,” he said. He highlighted the Impalas game as one they are really looking forward to.
Alwyn and his troops have been training hard for the last few months, but he admits they aren’t ahead of the curve. “We’ve been putting in a lot of work, although the rain has made it difficult, but the boys are definitely on par with where we need to be.”
Poorte will play three warm-up games prior to the Gold Cup to try and get back into the swing of things before taking on the country’s best rugby clubs.
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