If ever a player can be classified as “coming through the ranks”, it’s the Golden Lions’ 20-year-old openside flanker, Thabo Mabuza.
Mabuza was born in Mpumalanga and attended primary school in White River before moving west, where he matriculated at Centurion High School.
He quickly established himself in the Blue Bulls’ structures and represented the province at the Coca-Cola Grant Khomo Week for u.16 teams in Upington in 2010, where he was identified and subsequently invited to take part in SARU’s u.16 High Performance and Elite Squads.
At 1.82m and 90kg, Mabuza is a hard-working flanker, who is similar in build to Heinrich Brüssow and Deon Stegmann. He played for the Blue Bulls in the Coca-Cola u.18 Craven Weeks in 2011 and 2012 and made the SA Schools team on both occasions. In 2012 he started in all three of the SA Schools team’s matches in the triangular series against France, Wales and England.
Last year, he moved south to the Golden Lions and was one of the star performers in their u.19 team, which finished runners-up behind the Blue Bulls in the Absa u.19 provincial competition. Mabuza made his senior provincial debut for the Golden Lions in the Vodacom Cup earlier this month, and celebrated by scoring both their tries in a narrow win over the Leopards XV in Potchefstroom.
Now a member of the wider Junior Springbok training squad, Mabuza has a chance to further his career climbing the rugby ladder. But first, he’s got to learn the tricks of the trade in the Vodacom Cup.
Half of the Vodacom Cup fixtures this week will take place at venues that can be described as “off rugby’s beaten track”, as South Africa’s premier development competition continues to spread its wings.
Cradock’s Rovers Field, the DP de Villiers Stadium in Sasolburg, Leeudoring Rugby Club in Leeudoringstad and the Bill Jardine Stadium in Industria, Johannesburg will all host Vodacom Cup matches this weekend, as the competition passes the halfway mark of the group phase.
The pick of the fixtures in the North Section is on Friday March 28 in Nelspruit, where the Steval Pumas will host GWK Griquas at the Mbombela Stadium. These are the only two unbeaten teams left in this section, and the side from Kimberley will be looking for revenge after losing this fixture at home last year to the eventual runners-up.
Also in the North Section, the Valke and Assupol Limpopo Blue Bulls will be looking for their first win of 2014 when they take on each other in Sasolburg on Saturday afternoon, while interest should be high for the Leopards XV’s home game in Leeudoringstad against the Vodacom Blue Bulls.
The two top teams in the South Section also take on each other this weekend, when the Cell C Sharks XV host the SWD Eagles in Durban on Saturday afternoon. The KwaZulu-Natalians are unbeaten, but following a defeat in the opening round, Bevin Fortuin’s Eagles side have recorded two solid victories and are looking strong.
The EP Kings, currently lying fifth in the South Section, will be keen to get back to winning ways and not lose touch with the front runners when they host the third-placed Toyota Free State XV in Cradock.
