5.6.11

"Bulletjie" Rugby

In my country we have a religion that just about every white person, and lately more and more black persons, follow.  It is called Rugby.  Now in the Christian religion we have Sunday School and in the Northern Provinces we now have Sunday School for Rugby also... it is called Bulletjie Rugby (Rugby for little Bulls).  Now whether you are a Rugby fan or not (like me) Bulletjie Rugby is cute!


All the basic Rugby rules apply and although the boys (and coaches) are very serious about their game, it is in fact just a big load of fun.  No actual score is kept and the referees are not very strict.  However, watching the parents, especially the mothers, get extremely excited and their reaction when their son scores a try, can be likened to the reaction of most South Africans when the Springboks score a winning try in the World Cup Series.


My son is the coach for one of the teams at a school in Potgietersrus (Mokopane) and yesterday we all piled into the car and went off to watch the last tournament of the season.  Altogether 880 boys between the ages of 4 and 8 years of age took part and it was great fun being part of this event.
 Team talk before the game.
 Not a chance that he will be stopped.
 On the way to the goal posts....
...and he scores!

Click on the photos to enlarge.

4 comments:

Gaelyn said...

How very fun! I used to coach my son's soccer team and parents went wild.

DUTA said...

The boys at this age are so cute!
It must be great fun to coach them and for the parents to watch them in action.

janis said...

Too sweet!
And the little guys play barefoot? That is crazy!
:)

A human kind of human said...

Gaelyn, the parents get so excited that one of the official "Bulletjie" rules is that parents are not allowed on the playing field... that is of course, if the parent isn't a coach, or a referee, which they normally are - lol.
Duta, sometimes it is even more fun watching the parents (especially the mothers), than watching the kiddies.
Oh Janis,over here "kaalvoet" (barefoot) is part of the culture. Shoes only become part of the official school uniform from Grade 3. In Grades 1 & 2 the school prefers them to go to school barefoot and it is only when they play tartan or cement, like mini netball and tenis, that they where sports shoes.