The top Under-16 Girls rugby players in South Africa will look to make their presence felt next week with an eye on earning higher honours in future when they take to the field in the 2014 SARU Girls U16 Week at Glenwood High School in Durban.

The tournament, which is now in its fifth year, will run from July 7 to 11.

The matches will be played on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to ensure that the players have sufficient time to recover in between games.

In total, 16 teams will participate in the competition, and similarly to the Coca-Cola Youth Weeks, no official champions are crowned, as the main objectives of the tournament are to ensure competitive matches between the provinces, while simultaneously boosting the interest in rugby among young players.

Border will meet the Limpopo Blue Bulls and DHL Western Province – last year’s comprehensive tournament winners – will take on Border A in the opening matches on Monday at 10h00, with hosts KwaZulu-Natal finishing off the day’s play against Griquas at 15h00.

The SA Under-20 selectors will attend the tournament and will also select an elite squad which will be invited to a training and conditioning camp during the September holidays.

Springbok Women’s hooker Thantaswa Macingwana, who is currently on tour with the national Women’s team in France for their Rugby World Cup warm-up tour, as well as Kirsten Conrad, Lusanda Dumke, Christal Williams and Faith Chauke, who all represented the South Africa Under-20 Women’s team, are among the players who graduated from this Week.

SARU Girls Under-16 Week fixtures (Day One – Monday, July 7):

10h00: Border v Limpopo Blue Bulls; DHL Western Province v Border A
11h00: Free State v Leopards; Eastern Province v Blue Bulls
12h00: Boland v Golden Lions; SWD v KwaZulu-Natal XV
14h00: Pumas v Griffons
15h00: KwaZulu-Natal v Griquas