Zack Beukman – SACS Captain
Player Profile
The oldest school in South Africa, the South African College School (SACS), plays the second oldest, Wynberg Boy’s High, on Saturday in an FNB Classic Clash. The match will be played at Wynberg and will be televised live on Supersport. Zack Beukman has the honour of leading SACS.
Zack Beukman was born in Cape Town on 15 February 1989 and attended Jan van Riebeeck Primary School in Oranjezicht, just above the Cape Town CBD. Having represented Western Province at Under-13 Craven Week level Zack decided on a move to SACS in Grade 8 (Std 6), largely to enhance and improve his rugby prospects. Zack played No.8 in junior school but has since migrated to the flank and has played A-team rugby all through his years at SACS. Still only in Grade 11 Zack says that although he has found it hard at times, he has generally enjoyed leading the 1st XV this season. It has obviously got easier as the season has gone on and it also helped that the team is young and is made up largely of his peers (eight of the SACS starting fifteen are in Grade 11, with Ross Skeate’s brother, Alex, who plays tight-head, still only in Grade 10).
Zack’s undoubted strength is his high work rate in defence. He makes a mountain of tackles in every game and also, like all good modern loose-forwards, can turn ball over in the tackle. Zack admits that he still needs to work on his ability in attack, as he has not been as effective this year with ball in hand as he would have hoped to. He is working hard on this aspect of his game with his coach for the last two seasons, ex Gardens-Tech stalwart Riaan van der Westhuizen. Zack has two heroes both of whom are great loose-forwards and passionate leaders. Zack admires Corné Krige for his in-your-face approach to the game and his determination never to leave the field under any circumstances. Luke Watson is the future face of Western Province rugby and Zack likes his on field energy and the enthusiasm with which he leads.
SACS have had a goods season this year and if they beat Wynberg on Saturday will finish the season with a 60% win ratio, which in the very tough Western Province schools league is an admirable record. The season started off very well but has been a bit of up-and-down of late with some great wins being interspersed with some extremely disappointing defeats. The highlight for Zack was their win over Paarl Boishaai, which came in the first game back from their successful tour of Argentina, and was the first for a SACS team over their Paarl rivals in a decade. Other highlights have been the demolition (41-3) of the highly rated Strand team and the two wins over local rivals Rondebosch.
The undoubted strength of this SACS team has been their backline, who if given quick clean ball are able to punish any opposition. Zack’s young but mobile pack will be looking to provide their backs with just that on Saturday as they look to avenge the loss they suffered to Wynberg earlier this season. SACS were the favourites for that game and were playing at home. This time the teams are more evenly matched in terms of form and with Wynberg playing at home and having the more abrasive pack, they must go into the game with a slight psychological edge.
Zack hopes to be a school prefect next year and also hopes to make Craven Week. After school he wants to pursue his rugby career overseas, anywhere other than in the UK. Zack is under no illusion as to the magnitude of the task facing his team on Saturday and said that he doesn't care about the game being on TV, he just wants to win!
