Forward Legends player Christiano Beckitt in action during the tournament at the Markötter fields in Stellenbosch at the weekend. Photo: Liam Hamer-Nel


A total of 12 teams, including local clubs, community teams and a South African men’s sevens team, featuring a few experienced Blitzboks and up-and-coming national stars, were in action in the very first News24 Forward Faster Tournament that has shown promise of becoming an annual event.

The tournament took place at Paul Roos Gymnasium’s Markötter Field in Stellenbosch on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November.

Local teams included host team Forward Legends, Dragons from Garden Village, Somerset West and Assassins from Macassar. The Forward Legends won the Plate final while the Dragons and Assassins finished just outside the top four teams.

A number of club-rugby 7s players impressed Blitzboks coach Sandile Ngcobo after showing off their skills in the News24 Forward Faster Invitational Sevens tournament and their progress will be followed with interest by himself and his coaching staff.

The SA men’s 7s team walked away with the title after beating Chris Dry’s Stellenbosch Academy of Sport (SAS) Sevens by 38-7 in the final.

Besides the victory, Ngcobo was particularly pleased with getting game time for his wider squad of players ahead of this year’s HSBC 7s World Series that kicks off in just over four weeks’ time.

He said: “Tournaments such as these are essential and I can’t say thank you enough to Le Roux Conradie from the Forward Foundation as well as News24 and the other generous sponsors and partners.”

“This is valuable for our preparation and from previous tournaments such as these, we had two guys that graduated from the academy to the SA A 7s team; one of them was Ricky Duarrtee. One year later, he is playing regularly. It is quite an important tournament, and we don’t have a lot of local sevens tournaments so that is what makes these ones so important, to not only test us but identify talent.”

Apart from the talent on show on the field of play, a boisterous crowd of fans dressed in green, and gold came out to add to a wonderful atmosphere at the Markötter stadium.

The crowd was also entertained with live music from husband-and-wife duo, Raaf, and dancing, while the national anthem was also sung proudly ahead of the grand finale.

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