They are hoping to catch the head coach’s eye and make it to the national Deaf Rugby Team, which will later this year play a friendly against Australia or England. 

The tournament, which kicked off last night at the Sentraal High School in Bloemfontein, provides deaf rugby players in the country with a platform to showcase their talent as well as represent their respective provinces as they participate in deaf rugby. 

OFM News spoke to Franco Louw, who is the chairperson of the Free State Deaf Rugby Union, which also falls under the South African Rugby Union.

Louw says the rules in deaf rubgy remain the same as in hearing rugby. The only difference, however, between the two games is that in deaf rugby, when the referee whistles, he uses hand signals informing all the players to stop. 

In last night's first leg of the tournament, which started at 16:00 at the Sentraal High School, the Blue Bulls Deaf Team  beat the Western Cape Thunder Deaf team, 45- 12. In the second game, the South Africa Deaf Invitational XV team beat the Western Cape Province Cyclones 15-12. 

Louw said there will be three matches for the remainder of the week, starting on Wednesday, 03 April, which will be at Bobbies Park and will comprise of two matches. 

In the first match, the South African Deaf Invitational XV will play against the Western Cape Deaf team at 18:00, while the second game, which will be at the same venue and will kick off at 20:00 will see the Blue Bulls Deaf team play against the WP Cyclones Deaf team.

On Friday, 05 April, the two teams from the Western Cape, namely the Western Cape Thunder Deaf and Western Cape Cyclones Deaf teams will go head to head from 18:00 at the Bobbies Park sportsgrounds. 

Saturday, 06 April, which will be the last match day and will be between the SA Invitational Deaf XV will line up against the Blue Bulls Deaf at the Toyota Stadium in a curtain-raiser to the Pro14 match between the Cheetahs and Ospreys.

OFM News