According to the announcement, the Cheetahs, along with neighbours Griquas, were to head up a five-team, short-term rugby tournament to be played at the rugby stadium in Bloemfontein while the two central region teams are in the off-season.
A BIG, mouthwatering international rugby tournament is coming up for the Windhoek Draught Griquas later this month as the Diamond City squad prepares to take part in the second instalment of the ‘Toyota Challenge’ along with the Free State Cheetahs and several youth international teams.
A week ago the Toyota Cheetahs management made a big news splash with the announcement of the relaunch of the Toyota Challenge which first saw the light of day in 2021.
According to the announcement, the Cheetahs, along with neighbours Griquas, were to head up a five-team, short-term rugby tournament to be played at the rugby stadium in Bloemfontein while the two central region teams are in the off-season.
Excited to be part of this💥
👇👇👇
The Toyota @CheetahsRugby are challenging four teams in once-off matches, of which the winning team will earn R250,000 for every win up to one million Rands !#WindhoekDraugtGriquas pic.twitter.com/Q0sfNITGhL— Griquas Rugby (@GriquasRugby) August 31, 2022
The Free State side announced that they will square up against three international teams as well as Griquas from September 30 to October 21 in the Toyota Challenge, which will be hosted in Bloemfontein.
The teams will face off in once-off matches, with the winning team earning R250,000 per victory.
Griquas team manager Lance Salter this week said that the team was pleased that they were invited to join the tournament. “We are grateful for the invite from (the) Cheetahs for us to take part in this tournament,” he said.
It has to be said that the international competition Griquas are going to face off against in this tournament should not pose too much of a threat to the Kimberley team.
These teams are Emerging Ireland XV, Italy A and United States of America A. According to Salter, all these sides are staffed with very promising, young rugby players who are on the up and up in the game.
“This tournament is an opportunity for them (the international teams) to get valuable game time which in turn will bleed them for action in the senior teams and perhaps Test sides at home,” Salter told the DFA.
Answering a query as to what a tournament of this magnitude will do for Griquas, Salter said this was a massive opportunity for Griquas especially coming, as it does, at this time of the year when they have not been playing much rugby.
“We are excited. It would be very exciting to see how our players are going to fare in this tournament. As you know we’ve lost a lot of players after the last season in which we’ve had such a great time … in which we ended the season well.
“Now that we have lost many players we have taken in new players, we’ve got to bring back that culture and get them ready for the new season, which we expect will kick off sometime in February.”
Salter also rattled off the names of former Griqua players who have gone on to other teams either on contract or loan. Ruan Steenkamp is out with an injury but is on his way out. Stefan Ungerer and Chris Hollis are away to the Stormers. More players such as Siba Qoma and Munier Hartzenberg are gone as well. So are Raynardt Jonker and Cameron Lindsay.
Sango Xamlashe and outside centre Zander du Plessis are away on loan to the Highveld Lions, while lock Mzwanele Zito finally put paid to a badly kept secret and bowed out of the Kwaste to join the Cheetahs.
