by Francois de Wet
Sanlam Boland Cavaliers captain, Thurlow Marsh, will reach a special milestone when he plays in his 50th game for his province.
The Sanlam Boland Cavas tackle the Toyota Cheetahs at 15:00 on Saturday 8 March in both sides’ SA Cup opening game at Boland Stadium in Wellington. However, Marsh recalls a period in his club rugby playing days for the well-known Wellington-based team Roses United when his dream was to play in just one game for his beloved province.
“I can still remember before I made my debut [in 2019] for Sanlam Boland Cavaliers, I discussed with former head coach Franzel September where I described myself as an unconventional loose-forward because I am not as big as the other guys you see out there but I would just like to get the honour of playing one game for the [Sanlam Boland] Cavaliers, Marsh says. “I would have reached my goal as a player.”
The Wellington-born skipper then finally got his chance to don the famous black and gold jumper, coming on as a replacement, in 2019, in the Sanlam Boland Cavas’ 52-0 win over the Border Bulldogs in a SuperSport Challenge game in East London. And a few weeks later he made his first run-on debut in a 52-16 win against Zimbabwe at Boland Stadium in Wellington and even scored his first try for his province in the emphatic win.
Marsh had not only reached but surpassed his initial dream and goal of “just one game” for the Sanlam Boland Cavas.
“I quickly realised that I now have to reset my goals to try and get to at least 50 games for the Sanlam Boland Cavas,” he recounts those earlier days. “And here we are today [one game away from that goal] and it will be truly amazing to get to that mark playing in front of my family and friends, as well as members of my club Roses United when they take on Hillcrest United in a Boland Grand Challenge derby on Saturday.
“I don’t think I could have written the story of getting to 50 caps at home at Boland Stadium in a better way.”
The Sanlam Boland captain, who was appointed captain after his first season with the team back in 2020, does not want his milestone to distract him and his fellow teammates from the task that awaits them against a strong Toyota Cheetahs outfit.
He says: “As a group we are locked into that goal of getting promoted to the Carling Currie Cup Premier Division. It’s not just something that is going to fall into our laps – some goals have been put out for us to try and achieve that.
“One of those goals is to win all our home games in the SA Cup. We also want to win some of our away games. But the one thing we have set out to do is be consistent in our efforts and perform to a higher standard. And play to a tempo that only we as the Sanlam Boland Cavaliers can play.”
Photo credit Gallo Images
The past year and a bit has been a phenomenal one for Marsh after he lead his team to back-to-back Carling Currie Cup First Division titles and getting nominated for the competition’s player of the year award.
The winner of this award will be announced on Thursday 13 March at the South African Rugby Union’s Award Ceremony in Cape Town, and Marsh says of begin nominated: “It almost feels like it was written in the stars.
“The reason I say that is because, at the start of last year’s season, coach Hawies Fourie asked all the players to go and write down all the individual goals we would like to reach as players. Those goals were all put on a page and pasted on the wall in our dressing room.
“Funny enough one of my goals was to get nominated as Currie Cup First Division Player of the Year. Yet, I could not believe it when I got the news that I was nominated for the award – it felt like someone was pulling my leg.
“Just because one sometimes sets such high goals that, when you reach that, it is sometimes very difficult to comprehend.
“As a God-fearing person, I am just honoured and grateful to be nominated because it is just Grace that has carried me this far.”
Meanwhile, Marsh says he expects Saturday’s game between Sanlam Boland Cavaliers and the Toyota Cheetahs to be a tough one, where the home side will face a stern effort from the visitors’ forwards in the tight exchanges.
“That is why we have recognised and put in the hard work of shoring up our defence from lineout mauls as well as getting our scrum moving in the right direction,” Marsh says.
“The [Toyota] Cheetahs are strong in the scrum and from lineout mauls and they will look to target us there, but we also have a few things in our arsenal that we want to try out.
“That being said, it will be the first game of the season for us and we have put a lot of energy into getting our campaign off to a positive start.”
Sanlam Boland Cavaliers: 15 Darian Hock, 14 Duren Hoffman, 13 Xavier Mitchell, 12 Cornal Hendricks (v/c), 11 Lunathi Nxele, 10 Ashlon Davids, 9 Chriswill September, 8 Thurlow Marsh (c), 7 Khwezi Mafu, 6 Keenan Opperman, 5 Marlyn Williams, 4 Michael Benadie, 3 Doctor Booysen, 2 Sidney Tobias, 1 Wayrin Losper
Replacements: 16 Neil Rautenbach, 17 Vernon Matongo, 18 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 19 Schalk Oelofse, 20 Gift Dlamini, 21 Godlen Masimla, 22 Garth April, 23 Jurick Lewis
Sanlam Boland Kavaliers vs Toyota Cheetahs
Date: Saturday, 8 March 2025
Venue: Sanlam Boland Stadium, Wellington
Kick-off: 15h00
Referee: Cwengile Jadezweni