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Young Standards RFC celebrate 125th anniversary

PUBLISHED: February 25, 2016


Young Standards RFC will be celebrating their 125th anniversary in 2016. The club was established in August 1891 in Paarl with most of its members coming from the vicinity of Berg Street and Tempelier Street.

Young Standards RFC will be celebrating their 125th anniversary in 2016. The club was established in August 1891 in Paarl with most of its members coming from the vicinity of Berg Street and Tempelier Street.

Pioneering individuals like Messrs. Kowie Damonse, Aries, Waries, Freek Pietersen, Johnny Hoeft, Esau Damonse, John Bell and Marthinus Mackier were responsible for the establishment and early leadership within the club.

Even today the children and grandchildren of these gentlemen form the backbone of the club members at various levels.

The motto of the club: “We lead others follow” echoes the rich traditions that were prevalent in the previous two centuries and are still applicable in the club today.

The club has during their illustrious history delivered excellent administrators and players who represented the Coronation Union, Paarl Recreational Board, Paarl Rugby Union, Western Province League, Boland Rugby Union and South African Rugby Union.

A proud moment for the cub was the selection of players from Young Standards Rugby Club to represent South Africa on a tour to the British Isles in 1939. Unfortunately this tour could not continue due to the outbreak of World War II and selected members like Ike Sampson, Nick Blanche, Frans Pietersen and M.F Pietersen counted themselves extremely unlucky to have missed out on this opportunity.

The club also played a pivotal role in the amalgamation of the different unions into SARFU in 1992 and has since that time remained an affiliate of the WPRFU where they played in the league competitions.

The club always made an effort to celebrate their anniversaries with regular tours. In celebrating their 110th anniversary in 2001 the club toured to Namibia and in 2011 they celebrated their 120th anniversary with a tour to the Southern Cape. For their 130th anniversary in 2021 the club will again arrange a tour.

The club competes in the Paarl Regional League with strong performances over the last few seasons. They regularly qualified for the Top Six knock out competition ending fourth and fifth in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

The club also won the inaugural Paarl Regional knock-out competition in 2008, and in 2011 and became the only team in the Paarl region to win the knock-out competition twice. In 2016 the team acquired the services of ex-women’s Sevens coach, Aslam Abrahams to take the players through their paces.

The Young Standards RFC junior teams U12, U14, U16 and U18 teams are regional champions in the Paarl Regional Competition while the over 40s team is also very competitive in their league.

Reaching the unthinkable milestone of 125 years in existence is a truly remarkable achievement and more so a feather in the cap of the many leaders and players of this remarkable club and the broader community of Paarl.

The club will be hosting a programme of events throughout the year culminating in a festival rugby match against long standing friends in Retreat RFC. The club hope to host their Trophy Presentation on 15 October 2016 and closing the 125 year celebrations with a thanksgiving service on 23 October 2016 in Paarl.