Boland Rugby has deep-seated respect and awareness for the spiritual and cultural fabric of the Boland community. It is this reverence that has led the recently promoted Carling Currie Cup Premier Division union to host a special prayer service at the Boland Rugby Stadium ahead of every Sanlam Boland Cavaliers home fixture during the 2025 Carling Currie Cup season.
With all home games scheduled for Sunday afternoons, these pre-match prayer services are an invitation for supporters to celebrate both their faith and their love for the game, all under one roof. The services will be open to all and take place before kick-off at the stadium.
“It’s about honouring our people,” says Bennie van Rooi, President of the Boland Rugby Union. “We know Sunday is a sacred day for many of our communities. By creating this space for worship at the stadium, we’re saying: you don’t have to choose between your faith and your love for rugby. Come and enjoy both on one day while also nominating your club to receive 25% of the adult ticket price back.”
Quintin van Rooyen, CEO of Boland Rugby (Pty) Ltd, added: “We’re not just offering a match-day experience — we’re creating a community space that respects the rhythm of life in the Boland. Rugby brings people together, and so does faith. It’s only fitting that we make space for both.”
Leading the service will be Reverend Lyndon Mactavie, who expressed his enthusiasm for the initiative:
“I think this initiative to host a special service is truly a remarkable and unique opportunity. It brings together two central elements of many South Africans’ lives, faith and sport. Rugby unites our people, and faith gives us direction and hope.”
He continued: “Bringing these two together is a powerful way to build one community and to acknowledge God’s presence even in our sporting culture. I believe the broader community will receive this initiative very positively, because it is something fresh, inclusive, and meaningful. I see it as a moment of unity. May this opportunity that the [Sanlam] Boland Cavaliers are creating for us be the one moment where unity lives and triumphs.”
Details on the start time and format of the prayer service will be shared ahead of the first home fixture. All supporters are welcome to attend.
For more info on the opening match against the Toyota Cheetahs, please visit www.bolandrugby.co.za.
SANLAM Boland U21 coach Juan de Jongh knows his team enters this year’s SA Rugby U21 Shield competition with a huge target on their backs.
However, the former Bok says he has the perfect solution and mantra to ensure his young lads stay focused on retaining the title they won last year.
“The hunted must become the hunter, De Jongh says when asked about whether there is putting extra pressure on his management staff and players to lift a back-to-back Shield.
We know we have a target on ours backs, everyone knows about us know in the way were successful [last season].
“But it’s important for us now that we set our goals. We know what we want to do within the camp, how we see the first couple of weeks, how we see the whole season. People will come for us but it’s important for us to keep working and striving to be better.
“Even though we have a target on our back, we have to become the hunters. We can’t become the hunted, so that’s very important, and we want to make sure we keep focusing on ourselves and not put focus on what other teams might bring to the party.”
In his second season as coach of the Sanlam Boland U21 side, De Jongh affirms that he is fortunate to have kept the core of the players that helped Boland win the Currie Cup U21 Shield last year.
“I am very fortunate to have 95 % of the same management team working with me this year, while last year everything went well, so we can just build and improve on this season.
“There are new players that came into the side, but we still have a big crop of last year’s players that can drive the standards that we have built.
“Standards in terms of how we operate, the quality of work and even with our general plays and shapes, they can assist with that and always make it much easier when there are a lot of new guys.
“The old faces around make sure that nothing changes too much.”
With the Currie Cup U21 Shield competition set to kick off toward the end of August, De Jongh’s side are planning to play a fair bit of friendlies and have already had a hit out after facing United States of America (USA) u23 team in a friendly game in Stellenbosch on Tuesday, 8 July.
And although his team came up second best in the chukkas, De Jongh is pleased with what he saw from his side.
“Our build-up has been excellent so far. I am happy in terms of our preparation. The competition is only set to start near the middle or the end of August, so that’s why we have got a lot of training sessions, pre-season warm-up games that we need to play to make sure we are nice and sharp.
“Tuesday’s game against USA U23 was a nice little hit out to see how far we are in terms of our technical stuff and our detail, and also gelling together as a team.
“The American side is a strong outfit, physically strong, so we kind of like the challenge, even though there is a lot of work in various departments that we need to cover. I feel very confident in how we can grow from that experience and strengthen as a squad.”
Sanlam Boland Cavaliers head coach Hawies Fourie expects his team to understand what it will be like to play in the Currie Cup later this year when they face the Airlink Pumas in this coming week’s SA Cup semi-final.
The Cavaliers beat the Eastern Province Elephants 36-22 in their final league game last weekend (10 May) and have a short time to prepare for the knockout clash, which is scheduled for Friday at 19:00 in the Mbombela Stadium.
Sanlam Boland Cavaliers celebrate their fourth-place finish after beating the EP Elephants in Gqeberha on 10 May in the SA Cup. Photo by Michael Sheehan.
The Wellington side faces a Pumas side that has won all nine league fixtures. Fourie knows his team must increase its physicality and intensity to topple opposing coach Jimmy Stonehouse’s charges.
“We are glad about the win over the weekend, but it was not an easy game. The circumstances were difficult, with a strong wind blowing throughout the game, and it made it difficult to control the ball, win our lineouts, and to kick from hand,” Fourie explains.
“It meant that we had to adapt, and, to my liking, we made too many handling errors in the first half, along with conceding possession. In the second half, we conceded too many penalties, and we could not take advantage of having the wind at our backs by trying to pin the opposition in their half of the field, due to those penalties.
“It was far from a pretty performance, but we did enough to end amongst the top four teams in the SA Cup and qualify.”
Albeit the struggles in Gqeberha, Fourie is glad to have the monkey off their backs in terms of Currie Cup promotion, with the Cavaliers now entirely focused on going out and testing themselves against a Pumas team that are Currie Cup regulars and have even won provincial rugby’s most significant prize three seasons ago.
WELLINGTON, SOUTH AFRICA – MAY 03: Xavier Mitchell of Sanlam Boland Cavaliers during the SA Cup match between Sanlam Boland Cavaliers and Airlink Pumas at Boland Stadium on May 03, 2025 in Wellington, South Africa. (Photo by Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images)
Of the challenge that awaits his men in Nelspruit, Fourie says: “[Top four] was our goal from the beginning of the season, and now that we have qualified for the Currie Cup Premier Division, I am immensely proud of the players and the effort everyone has put in during the season.
“We have reaped the rewards of our hard work, and from the very start, it was a team effort where we relied on all the members in our squad. There were a lot of injuries throughout the competition, and there are still players who will be out for a while, but we could rely on every member of the squad.
“Now it is time to go and get back on the saddle, where playing in a SA Cup semi-final and [hopefully] a final will be on the same level as playing in the Currie Cup Premier Division.
“We will need to improve in quite a few areas of our game if we want to compete against those teams, and it is the type of games that will show us what lies in wait ahead of the start of the Currie Cup campaign in July.”
The Boland boss, who coached the Toyota Cheetahs to a Currie Cup title in 2023, says he is looking forward to returning to the top provincial competition with a Cavaliers side that last played against the country’s best in 2016.
“We don’t just want to be a team that is playing in a Currie Cup but one that competes and especially puts those teams that will be travelling to play us in Wellington under huge pressure.
“We know we can expect a lot of support from the Boland community, and we want to go out and make them proud to be associated with the Sanlam Boland Cavaliers and inspire youngsters at every level of the game within the boundaries of the union. So, they can aspire to play on the same level.”
Back-to-back Currie Cup First Division winning captain of Sanlam Boland Cavaliers, Thurlow Marsh, can now add Currie Cup Premier Division qualifying leader to his rugby CV.
The loose-forward could not help but get emotional after leading his side to a hard-fought 36-22 victory over the Eastern Province (EP) Elephants in a final league game of the SA Cup this past Saturday (10 May 2025). It was his 50th as captain of the Cavas as well.
The win sees the Cavas make a return to the top division of Currie Cup rugby after an absence of nine years, when Marsh was still grafting his way as a Roses United RFC (Boland Rugby Union) club player with big dreams of one day representing the union where he has played the game his entire career long.
After Saturday’s win against the Elephants, about what it meant for him and his teammates to realise a goal set out at the end of last season, Marsh says: “Where do I begin…
“I am stunned, I am so overwhelmed with emotion. I feel so out of my body for what we have achieved here today.
Sanlam Boland Cavaliers Thurlow Marsh speaks to his charges after the SA Cup Round Nine against EP Elephants, in Gqeberha, on Saturday, 10 May 2025. Photo by Michael Sheehan.
“I am immensely proud of all the role players involved. From the [Boland Rugby Union] executive, to our managers and the coaches, but especially to the players for the hard work and dedication that they have put in to achieve this goal.”
What we have achieved today is greater than the sum of our parts, and it is something that we wanted to achieve for the entire Boland province, which has more than 20000 amateur players. We have created hope for them, and all glory has to be given to God for giving us the strength and blessing us with the talent to create hope and inspire our communities.
“I know that what we have achieved today will be remembered for years to come.”
Qualifying for the Currie Cup Premier Division is however, is not enough for Marsh and the Cavas team.
At the start of the SA Cup campaign they made it clear that they want to win the tournament and although coach Hawies Fourie’s team stuttered and stumbled on their way to getting Currie Cup promotion, he and captain Marsh’s Cavas side are now plotting how to down the unbeaten Airlink Pumas in this coming weekend’s semi-final at Mbombela Stadium.
Sanlam Boland Cavaliers’ Erik Lambrecht evades two EP Elephants players in the SA Cup Round Nine on 10 May 2025. Photo by Michael Sheehan.
Last week (3 May), the Cavaliers came close to ending the Pumas’ winning run, where Marsh and his men secured two valuable losing bonus points, in Wellington.
However, the shackles of the added pressure of reaching goal one (Currie Cup promotion) has now been released and of giving it a proper go at winning the SA Cup,
“For the season, this was our first away win besides the one against Border, so as the Bible says in scripture: ‘The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD’.
“We are just immensely proud of everything and everything still to come.”
When Sidney Tobias decided to finally come home to the union where he earned his first provincial colours 24 years ago, the Sanlam Boland Cavaliers hooker knew it was not going to be an easy decision.
Especially with his family residing in the Northern Cape town of Kimberley for work reasons, they had decided to plant their roots.
Photo: Sidney Tobias in action against the Suzuki Griquas in Rd5 of the SA Cup. Photo by Louis Botha Photography
Tobias, whose father, Errol, represented the Springboks in six Test matches at flyhalf and centre between 1981 and 1984, however, made a promise to his daughter before joining the Cavas from the American Major League Rugby club, Rugby ATL, at the beginning of 2024.
“That [promise] was to give my all in every game I play for Boland as part of the sacrifice of not being with them on a daily basis,” the 36-year-old front rower says.
“My wife has a very good job there in the Department of Education, but it is still not easy being away from them, although I always try to fly out to Kimberley every third week to reconnect. And because I am not seen in terms of age as the youngest in terms of what age a player can still play on a professional level, one has to make provisions for the future, you know.”
Tobias reveals that it was after a call from good mate and former Springbok Gio Aplon as well as Boland Rugby (Pty) Ltd CEO Quintin van Rooyen, that convinced him to make the move to Wellington after the hooker’s time at Rugby ATL in the US had come to an end and he was about five months into a new playing deal with a French third division club.
“I was there for about five months when I received the call from Gio and Quintin, who told me to consider a move back home, as big things are happening in the Boland.
“At that stage, the news broke that coach Hawies Fourie had decided to leave the Cheetahs and was set to join Boland. With flyhalf Ashlon Davids also signing on to represent the Cavas, I immediately knew that the union was serious about taking their game to a higher level.
“And for me, this move feels like a full circle moment after I last donned the famous black and gold hoops as an 11-year-old kid for the Boland u/12 team,” Tobias recalls. “My dad also represented Boland more than four decades ago and made my arrival at the Cavas two years ago an even bigger full circle moment for me, as it is an honour to now say that I have played on the highest level for a team that my dad had also represented,” says Tobias.
The Caledon-born hooker can be considered a journeyman of sorts in terms of the different cities he has called home as a player over the years.
Sidney Tobias training with daughter. Video supplied
After completing high school at Paul Roos Gymnasium and representing Western Province at his age grade level, he signed for the Cape side and played in the famous blue and white hoops until 2012. This also included two loan spells—first with Sale Sharks in 2010 and then with the South Western District Eagles during 2012.
Tobias then had his first stint as a Bulls player from 2013 to 2014 and then represented the Griquas from 2015 to 2016 before signing with the then Italian Pro12 (United Rugby Championship) side Zebre.
“But after the birth of our daughter, I decided to end my professional career as I felt I needed to get a more stable job to provide for my family.
“I then got the opportunity to work and play for the Northam Rhinos team in the Limpopo Province for three and a half years.”
Little did Tobias know that Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White had been tracking his progress at club level with Rhinos. In 2021, he found himself back in the professional fold, helping the Pretoria outfit win the 2021 Currie Cup Premier Division title.
Then came the move to the USA with Rugby ATL, where Tobias credits the lessons he received from New Zealand-born coach and former Crusaders player Stephen Brett, taking his game to another level before Tobias’ arrival in Wellington, South Africa.
However, the Cavas team’s Mister Accountability (Meneer Aanspreeklikheid) – a nickname given to Tobias by good friend Lucian Cupido for his unwavering work ethic – knows that talking of his sacrifices and those of his teammates would not mean a thing if they do not deliver on the Union’s ideology of qualifying and regularly playing in the Currie Cup Premier Division.
“Yes, Lucian likes to poke a bit of fun at me, but that is Lucian for you. He is someone with strong Christian values, like me, and he is one who always tries to uplift me spiritually.
“My slogan for this year has been to hold myself accountable, and that is how I try to play in every game when Coach Hawies selects me. I just want to give my best for this Union because I, and the rest of the team, know that we are playing for something bigger than ourselves.
“This is a union that belongs in the Currie Cup Premier Division. It is not just something that we say, but that is truly where Boland belongs when you consider the amount of rugby talent this Union develops for the National and other provincial teams.
“And I have to tell you, since my time here, it has been one of the periods in my career that I have worked extremely hard, and the change that coach Hawies and his management team have brought can be seen. With our conditioning coach, Iver Aanhuizen, putting us through our paces during pre-season and making sure we are in the correct condition to play the game.
“Credit must also go to the other assistants like Alshaun Bock (defence), Mornay Kurtz (forwards) and Jacquin Jansen (attack), team managers Moses [Fortuin] and Grant [Jantjies], as well as our stadium staff Oom Maans and Abraham. They deserve their flowers for the hard work they have been putting in.”
On the subject of hard work, one would have thought that Tobias would have taken most of the Easter weekend to reconnect with his family in Kimberley. But not Mister Accountability, who was hard at work in Kimberley, making sure he is ready for when the Cavas take on the Leopards this coming weekend in their seventh SA Cup game of the season at the Boland Rugby Stadium in Wellington.
According to a prepared Tobias, he and his Cavas mates have five games (the semi-final and Grand Final included) left before they start preparing for the Currie Cup season.
A win against the Leopards will help Boland, currently in fourth position on the log, move closer to qualifying for the knockout rounds and booking their spot in the Currie Cup Premier Division.
And of how he and the team are determined to reach their goals, Tobias says: “We had a fantastic pre-season, and we covered everything. I feel we are well prepared. I think the biggest shortcoming at the moment is just that we need to go out with that extra bit of belief.
“For example, in our loss to the Griffons, we were up by 35-17 and up by 31-21 against Griquas, and then we let the victory slip out of our grasp. As a team, we know nothing is physically wrong with us, maybe just that extra bit of belief.”
Tobias also feels he has a major role in Boland’s goals, particularly as a leader within the squad. He continuously strives to mentor youngsters within the playing group, such as Jurick Lewis, Lunathi Nxele, Xavier Mitchell, Keenen Opperman, Duren Hoffman, and Gift Dlamini.
Something he had learned during his second stint at the Bulls from ex-Springboks Bismarck du Plessis, before he retired from the game, and Tobias is now paying forward before he finally decides to ride off into the sunset as a pro player as well.
But until then, Tobias relies heavily on support from family members and friends close to home, and he does not see his wife and daughter that often.
“My good friend and sports agent Shafiek Mouton is one I have to give credit to for the motivational role and managerial advise he has given me and of course I can’t forget my dad who has always been my biggest role model and advisor since I started to follow in his footsteps,” says Tobias.
The Sanlam Boland Cavaliers reclaimed the fourth place in the SA Cup standings after a 52-3 victory against the Border Bulldogs in East London on Saturday, 12 April.
Although the scoreboard reflects an easy win for the Boland side, Cavas head coach Hawies Fourie praised his side for showing resilience in difficult conditions. The game was played at Police Park field, the home base of the Police Rugby Club in East London.
Sanlam Boland Cavaliers on the attack against the Border Bulldogs in Rd6 of the SA Cup in East London, 12 April. Photo by Given Nathaniel
According to Fourie, his team had to get used to handling the ball in windy conditions while also navigating a challenging playing surface.
“It was a difficult game against Border; we played on a club field with a lot of uneven patches [of grass] on the surface,” Fourie explains. “It made it difficult because the grass was not properly cut, and it is quite a small field.
“There was a very strong wind blowing, so [very] difficult conditions.”
The Sanlam Boland Cavaliers’ boss, however, also credited the Bulldogs team for putting his team under pressure early on, with the hosts looking desperate to snap a five-game losing streak.
“I must say the Border guys pitched up. They made it difficult for us at the breakdown to get quick ball, and they defended quite well.
“However, I was not satisfied with our first-half performance, especially from our forwards.
“We didn’t scrum well and conceded two scrum penalties early in the game, but then we reacted well and played a bit better in the second half.
Sanlam Boland Cavaliers packing down at scrum time against the Border Bulldogs in Rd6 of the SA Cup in East London, 12 April. Photo by Given Nathaniel
“It was difficult to handle the ball well with a strong wind, and I would have liked for us to score a bit more tries. Points difference is going to be vital at the back end of the competition,” Fourie added.
Points difference is certainly going to play a vital role in the final three SA Cup league rounds. Boland, the NovaVit Griffons (fifth), and the Valke (sixth) sit on 20 log points. The Cavas certainly gave their points difference a huge injection with the points difference column reflecting 89, with the Griffons on 69 and Valke on -29 points.
Following the conclusion of nine SA Cup round-robin matches, the top four automatically qualify for the semi-finals and book their spot to compete with the top dogs in the Currie Cup Premier Division later this year.
And of how important it is going to be to rake in points as the squad prepares for the Easter weekend break before tackling the Leopards in Wellington on 26 April, Fourie continued: “I would have loved to see us score two to three tries more in the last 20 minutes, but on the positive side it was good to see us not concede any tries. The guys worked hard on defence and closed the gaps, and when there was a chance to turn over possession, they took it.
“We are in the mix on 20 log points with the Valke and the Griffons and only two behind the Cheetahs, so there is everything to play for in the next three games. We are now four teams fighting it out for two positions in the Currie Cup Premier Division.”
