A Rugby Institute C19 Weather update- the effects of weather on rugby as brought to us by the C19 cold front!

We have learnt to welcome the winds of Cape Town, that often reach wind speeds of up to 6 meters per second, (https:/weather-and-climate.com). It has also often challenged the kicking boots of rugby world-cup winning stars, Handre Pollard, Morne Steyn and legends such as Joel Stransky, Naas Botha (to name but a few) on a typical Newlands winters game day or training session.

It is now safe to say that after living in the Western Cape for a few years, as a previous Gauteng loyalist, who also followed the “semigration” trend in South Africa, a new term trending on Business Tech, that Cape Town weather is as unpredictable as a novel on a murder mystery by novel writer Patrick Radden Keefe. 

The Cape just never fails to disappoint, living up to its reputation as the “Cape of Storms”, even though it took time to adjust to four seasons in one day! Now we have also come to understand why rugby western cape south africa weather trained rugby athletes, become some of the best players in the world, having learnt how to play under such EXTREME weather conditions.

On a lighter note, watching the Russians play in a snowstorm in the Soviet Union, makes rain and wind speeds a champagne problem when it comes to the perfect weather in rugby!

But these storms bring the early spring rains to the central South African regions, as dry winters there come to an end and the earth anxiously awaits water to bring new life. But as we know winds signals change in weather patterns, and as the News channels announce strict water restrictions in Gauteng, we have now also grown to accept constant change that erupts in our lives due to the current pandemic and the unfortunate or fortunate change it brings. 

We are less prone to try and predict the future and focus on today, we have perhaps too often allowed predictions to upset our lives and steal our joy. Maybe this is one of the best lessons that many of us had to learn from the past 17 months. To adapt and change and make the most of every day!

We are learning to break down our own ”Berlin Wall” barriers to adapting to change!

It has however become an increasingly challenging and a difficult trait to cultivate in oneself, “Adapting to change”!

Talk about winds of change, and we can tell you all about that in South Africa and the power ballad of South African rugby today! With most school tournaments cancelled including another year’s prestigious Craven week sport event, what do these changes signal for the future for the sport we all love so much? One thing we can tell you for sure is that these Rugby Institutes, like the rain, came at the right time, to bring CHANCE and HOPE!

At the Rugby Institute (WPRA), based in Stellenbosch Western Cape the 1^st year players are entering their 7^th, uninterrupted training month of the High performance rugby development program of 2021 and the 2^nd years their 15^th. Coaches and players had to learn to adapt and accept constant changes more often than the weather patterns change here located in the southern tip of Africa, from the cold war we have entered with C19 to the hotter weather that Spring brought! However they never stopped TRAINING!

The C19 pandemic wave predictions have now become like a “weather forecast” for the Rugby Institute programs too. Once a new wave is announced we have learnt that the planning around it becomes more important than the rugby Western Cape South Africa’s hourly weather forecast!  

But no heat stress on our teams! They DO what it takes and are improving and developing MORE and MORE by the day and so doing have become better at it than what any other Sports program is able to accomplish in South Africa currently. They are achieving the ultimate key attribute of high-performance and this is continuous growth and improvement that has their blood flowing!

World-class coaches and mentors in the UXI Sport system, drive a program designed for constantly changing conditions, to curb the impact of C19 on it, as much as they plan for how the weather in the western cape impacts on rugby games.. The Coaching and rugby teams implement this with meticulous planning and execution.

 This program has become a catalyst to cultivate important traits in the player athletes like adapting to change and growth mindsets. Traits now listed as a Future-fit skill to become and stay employable!

And so, as the winds of change signal the inevitable change in weather conditions for rugby and the seasons, so the Rugby institutes prepare and inspire young men for Life through their Sport with a holistic program that will, if they endure, build the super traits the world now requires of them to possess in order to survive in it. It’s like learning the effects of weather on sports!

In spite of the C19 impact we predict hot weather conditions for Mpumalanga, Bloemfontein, Kimberley and Stellenbosch for the UXI Rugby Institutes that are determined to offer CHANCE every day to their student players. They are producing LEGENDS FOR LIFE who will stand strong through the winds of Change and the TEST of time!

                         INSPIRING GREATNESS NO MATTER THE WEATHER!

From a South African Rugby Institute, to the Professionals Teams Abroad!

From the diamond-mining centre of South Africa, to the Polish city on the coast: Gdynia! UXI Griquas Rugby Institute backline player, Devon Pretorius, has recently been contracted to play professional rugby in the beautiful country of Poland! 

Devon, who enrolled himself in the UXI high performance rugby programme, has proven once again that rugby academies and institutes are phenomenal gateway into professional sport. 

Arka Gdynia is a Polish rugby union, who is renowned for their fantastic success within the Ekstraliga – the Super Rugby equivalent for rugby union in Poland. Rugby Club Arka Gdynia has won this rugby championship in 2004, 2005, 2011, and 2015. Hopefully with Devon in their backline, they will be adding several more titles to their name. Devon is flying the SA Rugby flag high, by already making his rugby debut for this international rugby team.  

Lending to the development of World Cup players, such as Willie le Roux, the Griquas Rugby Union identified the need to accelerate the empowerment of the youth in sport. UXI Sport took hands with the Rugby Union to establish the much-needed Griquas Rugby Institute, which assists in providing a national pathway for rugby’s youth in South Africa, specifically catering for the developmental gap from 18 until 24 years old. 

Situated in the historic town of Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province, the Institute is housed in the beloved Tafel Lager Park. At the Institute, rugby players are exposed to the same level of high-performance training and development as a player who is contracted by a pro rugby Union. 

By exposing young and talented rugby players to these high athletic standards, professional sporting skills, values and disciplines are well established within the first two years at the Institute. The self-funded UXI Rugby Institute models truly hold a pivotal place in the sustainability and longevity of South Africa rugby; and it is this Institute model that has prepared Devon for this fantastic moment in his rugby career.

The UXI Rugby Institutes can be found across South Africa! From the Western Province Rugby Academy in Cape Town, to the Pumas Rugby Institute in Mpumalanga, to the Cheetahs Institute of Excellence in Bloemfontein. The opportunities to achieve your rugby dreams have never been greater!

This incredible achievement of Devon’s offers INSPIRATION and ignites HOPE and opportunities to many young aspiring rugby boys, who too want a spot in a professional rugby league or national team. Success stories like these are testaments to the power that the youth have to achieve their dreams – but you cannot sit around and wait for opportunities to come knocking. YOU must create them for yourself, just as Devon took the initiative to create his. We wish Devon all the best with his career at Rugby Club Arka Gdynia!