Beach & Bush: RSA’s Best vs The Rest – UPL Tournament

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GET RANKED and DRAFTED

With the lack of international participation to challenge the Age Group RSA teams in the Beach and Bush Tournament, South African players were drafted into teams to challenge RSA’s Best Age Group players.

Players were ranked based on information supplied on entry into the competition. Captains were selected by the tournament organisers.

Five men’s teams were drafted to take on the U19 and U24 Men’s RSA team:

TEAM ANONYMOUS              Captained by Willem Zylstra
TEAM CJP AQUALORDS        Captained by Johann Prinsloo
TEAM MEGALODONS            Captained by Kevin Cooke
TEAM POSEIDON PIRATES   Captained by Roger Bester
TEAM FLUFFY DUCKS           Captained by Ryan van Zyl

And three women’s teams were drafted to take on the U19 and U24 Ladies RSA teams:

TEAM WOLVES                        Captained by Roché van der Merwe
TEAM RHINOS                         Captained by Keandra Langston
TEAM FIREBIRDS                    Captained by Zandre Coetzee

For the first time ever a media campaign with funky video clips and interactive updates designed by Lynn Swanevelder created an exciting build-up for the live draft which took place on the 20 September.

Captains were only given 30 seconds to select players and forfeited their turn if no player was selected in the appointed time. All teams had to have an equal number of ranked players to ensure teams were evenly matched.

What made this unique was that the teams were comprised of very experience players and players with little experience as well as the age difference in the teams.

Feedback on the tournament:

“Was a wonderful experience playing with younger players”

“I learnt a lot from the older, more experienced players”

“It felt great to give-back to the sport by encouraging and coaching the younger players in a tournament environment”

“What a wonderful way to make new friends. We never get the chance at a tournament as we just arrive and play; this was great as we got to meet new players from all of the country”

“I thought the games would be easy as the teams were not as strong as we usually play; how wrong I was. Because we have a variety of experience, we had to plan and strategise more and play harder! What a wonderful experience”

“When will next year’s take place? Count me in”

SAUWHF was proud to hand over the new Beach and Bush Medals to the winning teams2

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The U24 ladies, with only 6 players, took on the rest of SA and with winning results.