Excitement is brewing and dreams are being dreamt as the TRY Tournament, which sees township rugby take the spotlight, gets ready for another instalment.
South Africa (30 April 2025) – As South Africa now has the most Rugby World Cup wins, thanks to an incredibly talented squad that got us there two times in a row, many young men and women have been building on their dreams, thinking they could be the next Siya Kolisi, Makazole Mapimpi or Nolusindiso Booi. And why not?
Take the Township Rugby Youth (TRY) Tournament, for example — a brilliant initiative putting township rugby firmly in the spotlight. Focused on boys’ and girls’ teams, the tournament creates a real platform for young talent to shine, especially in communities that have too often been overlooked.
Katlego (Andy) Dikobo, a local businessman and Neville Jardine, the President of the Golden Lions, started doing the groundwork to make the TRY Tournament a reality in January 2024 and by June 2024, it was live and on the ground!
Last year, the initiative put on a stellar 10-week round-robin Township Rugby Tournament where approximately 1,200 players took part in matches and information sessions; these players were aged from U8 to U18 from 10 township clubs in the Johannesburg area. That is a massive reach and a seriously big dose of dreams in action.
The tournament took place at the UJ West Sports fields, with sponsors helping to get every team and teen to the field for their matches. Teams were kitted out, and clubs and coaches were given stipends to facilitate training and travel. Every participant had a meal each week and most were reluctant to head home at the end of the day – and who can blame them!
The whole experience was life-changing for many of the young men and women. Rugby hopefuls came from Alexandra, Ennerdale, Eldorado Park, Kagiso, Soweto Eagles, Davidsonville, Ditau Diarora (Soweto), Eden Park, Inner City viz, Yeoville/Berea/Hillbrow, Raiders Central Cluster viz, Westbury, Riverlea, Bosmont, Noordgesig and Langlaagte.
And now, the hope is to do it all again!
This grassroots initiative is hopefully here to stay but it’s going to take real support and investment to turn it into the kind of programme that finds South Africa’s very best players. Director of TRY, Hanyane Baloyi, has been busy making connections and rallying South Africans to join this dream and make it an established reality.
The next instalment of the tournament is set to kick off on the 10th of May 2025 at UJ once again.
You can find out more about TRY and how to get involved via the website or Instagram.
Sources: TRY Tournament
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