Sydenham Young Adults host Springbok Jean de Villiers

OWN CORRESPONDENT

The guest speaker was former Springbok rugby captain and current SuperSport commentator, Jean de Villiers, who came from Cape Town especially for the event. He was joined by his agent and good friend, Stanley Matthews, CEO of SuperSport United.

Jean was introduced by Matthews who described the rugby star as a humble and honest man whose life’s dream was to use his G-d-given talents to represent his country playing rugby.

In his speech, flavoured with wit and humour, Jean spoke about his rugby career which started as a young child in Paarl in the Western Cape and led him to becoming captain of the national team

He shared the ups and the down, including the multiple injuries he experienced and explained how he managed to overcome the injuries and return to the field to continue playing rugby.

“It was all thanks to three things: faith, family and friends,” he said.

During the Q&A session, Jean shared some thoughts on the performance of the current Springbok rugby team in Europe where he had spent the last few weeks as a commentator.

“His message of overcoming adversity left everyone with an inspiring and practical lesson to take home,” commented Rabbi Yehuda Stern, director of the Shul’s Young Adults division.