Cecil Afrika - FNB Player of the Week
Player Profile
Cecil Afrika comes as a breath of fresh air in the stifling biff-bang of modern rugby. He is an exciting young player of verve and infinite promise.
He belongs in the same exciting category as JP Pietersen of the Sharks, Joe Pietersen and Gio Aplon of Western Province, Stefan Basson of the Blue Bulls, and Springboks Brent Russell and Bryan Habana, who is Cecil's hero. They are the players who set out to avoid the tackle in an era when players have become robotic bash-em cars. They are the players who can bring back excitement into rugby.
Cecil was wonderful at Craven Week with his ability to play and let play and stay running throughout a game. But then he avoids tackles – which used to be a back's whole aim. He is wise to do so as he does not have the physique to pretend he is a tank or even an armoured car. He ways 67 kg and is 1,79m tall. He us tall rather than wide, lithe and athletic. And when he plays, his head his up, his eyes sparkling. He has vision. Not only does he see but he is being seen.
This year has been a great year for the lad from Virginia. He has played at Craven Week for the Griffons and was then chosen for SA Schools, where he was the star whose creativity broke the resolve of the Italian Under-18 team in Bloemfontein. Before that he had gone off to Kenya for the Tusker Sevens, playing for the Emerging South African sevens team. They ion the tournament and Cecil Afrika was named in triumph as the Player of the Tournament with prize money of R1 800 which enabled him to spoil his mother back in Port Elizabeth.
Port Elizabeth? Cecil Sabastian Afrika was born in Port Elizabeth on 3 March 1988. He went to Missionvale Primary School and started playing rugby at the age of seven, more seriously from the age of ten on, encouraged by his parents. His father had played club rugby but, consonant with Doc Craven's belief that sporting ability comes from the mother, his mother was a keen sportswoman – an athlete and a tennis player. While at Missionvale, Cecil played for Eastern Province Under-12 and the he went on to high schooling at Hillside.
Port Elizabeth at the sea to Virginia on the Free State goldfields, far from the sea?
The Griffons got together with the gold mines and the education department, the Sports Foundation and fashioned a sports academy, first called Virginia Sportskool, now called Harmony Sports Academy. The idea was top develop sporting talent in the area by attracting players from all over South Africa. Scouts went out throughout the land and they found rich rugby nurseries especially in the South Western Districts and the Eastern Cape.
One of those from the Eastern Cape was Cecil Afrika who came to the Sports Academy in Grade 10 and is now in Grade 11. He went to the Grant Khomo Week in 2004 and to Craven Week in 2005 and again this year. There is no doubt that he is a star and could shone even brighter if he so wishes.
Chris Oosthuizen, who is in charge of the Academy, says that there is not a province in South Africa which has not approached him about Cecil's future. The man who spotted Cecil is Jan Oberholzer, the former Northern Transvaal prop and captain and the first rugby coach at the Academy. The present coach is Jacques Juries who played provincial rugby for SWD, the Griffons and the Pumas was a Springbok Sevens player when Chester Williams was the coach.
Cecil plays fullback. He could, obviously, play wing with ease, but the more freedom he is given to run the better. His does not like kicking. Running and passing are his game. Apart from his speed – which he says he does not need to practise – he has great skills ("That's in me."), vision and an intuitive understanding of the game. To see him enter the line, give a wonderful, level pass to the wing with either hand, and then back up to take in inside pass is wonderful. To watch him swerve or step out if a tackle is breath-taking.
And his greatest ambition is to play for South Africa.
