SA Jewish rugby on the up and up

LUKE ALFRED

With this in mind, Berger has thrown down the gauntlet to those hoping to make the South African Maccabi squad come the next games in 2021. “The level is getting much better,” says Berger approvingly. “There are some good players out there, and King David has just put in a high-performance centre – its under-18 side have also just had a very good season.

“We’re going to take sides in three age groups – open, under-19, and under-16 to the next games – and I’m hoping that getting into the next Maccabi side is going to be difficult.”

Every sport needs its generational pioneers, and Jewish rugby is no exception. Hacjivah Dayimani, the former Jeppe Boys schoolboy and Igbo Jew, has played a barnstorming role in recent seasons. Then there’s Jordan Chait, the Maties flyhalf, who helped the “Maroon Machine” to the 2019 Varsity Cup title a couple of months ago.

This weekend, Cullen Collopy will be sitting on the Sharks bench when they travel to Canberra in Australia for their Super Rugby quarter-final against the Brumbies. Collopy, who is comfortable playing at either hooker or flank, has shown good domestic form and, without either Beast Mtawarira or Phillip van der Walt in the touring party, has cracked the nod in the 27-man Sharks squad.

Such players might ultimately be a step or two beyond Maccabi structures (indeed, Chait has spoken recently about going overseas after graduation at the end of the year), but they do provide others with a template of what is possible.

Besides the inspiration these players provide, the system itself has become more streamlined. Berger monitors every player in the country, just over 60 all told. That is whether they play at either of the two main English-speaking universities, Pirates, or College Rovers, as is the case with the much-travelled Collopy, who has played some of his rugby as far afield as Barcelona in Spain.

A Jewish side now participates regularly in the Cape Town Tens, and the system is generally more sensitive to the day-to-day goings-on of the players. “Ideally, we’d like a Test against Israel next year as part of our preparation for Maccabi the following year,” says Berman. “And we’re definitely aiming for a camp to bond and get the guys together.”

All of this represents a significant improvement from eight years ago, when rugby for the Jewish community was in the doldrums. The schools weren’t particularly interested, structures were poorly-developed, and talent was wasting away.

Enter Maccabi SA Chairperson Clifford Garrun and a couple of like-minded rugby-fans who didn’t want to see the game they loved vanishing before their eyes. In essence, they started taking the game seriously, and giving it the respect they believe it deserves.

“Now we’re looking for the community to start taking notice,” says Berger. “If it knew a bit more about what was going on, maybe it could help a bit more financially.”

Budapest awaits

There is just more than a month to go before the departure of #TeamMaccabiSA to the 15th European Maccabi Games in Budapest, Hungary. With a delegation of more than 90 participants and officials, #TeamMaccabiSA will be competing in tennis, table-tennis, futsal, swimming, and the half-marathon. They will also be joined in Hungary by a 70-strong party of well-wishers and supporters.

According to Elan Sawitsky, the South African team’s head of delegation, planning is on track to ensure that #TeamMaccabiSA have a successful and enjoyable event. “We are taking a large delegation which requires a fair amount of logistical planning. We are now finalising the last details to ensure that our games run efficiently, allowing our athletes to focus on competing.”

The games are not only a sporting extravaganza, but a cultural celebration. Running parallel to the games in Budapest is the Jewish Cultural Feast, the largest Jewish cultural event in Europe. The teams will have a unique Shabbat dinner at the famous Great Synagogue of Budapest. Otherwise known as the Dohány Street Synagogue, the Great Synagogue is the largest in Europe, seating 3 000 people.

“We wish all our participants the best of luck,” says Garrun, the chairperson of Maccabi SA. “We trust that the experience will be rewarding and meaningful, taking place, as it does, in a city steeped in Jewish history.”