Boland Cavaliers built a special side with the help of investment and astute leadership

If you’ve scrolled the sports channels on a random Sunday over the past two months, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the Boland Cavaliers pull off an unbelievable come-from-behind victory in the Currie Cup.

The side playing out of Wellington, in the Cape Winelands, were the surprise package of the 2025 Currie Cup tournament.

They qualified for the semifinals after pulling off lionhearted victories against much-fancied opposition including the Cheetahs, Lions and Bulls in the league phase.

Incredibly, it’s the first time in 73 years that the “Cavas” – as they’re referred to by the players and the surrounding community – have qualified for the knockouts of the premier domestic rugby competition in South Africa.

They made it all the way to the final in 1952, losing 11-9 to the Lions (then Transvaal) in Wellington, having not won the tournament in their history.

After that brief period of success in the amateur area, Boland largely became a feeder team for the bigger unions in the professional era, who have poached talented players and turned them into superstars.

It’s only in the past few years that they have returned to their perch as an ambitious union.

It’s in no small part thanks to financial backing by two of the richest men in the country – Patrice Motsepe and Johann Rupert.

This, along with the astute management of those funds from those in the upper echelons of the union, such as chief executive Quintin van Rooyen, has seen Boland rise to the premier division of the Currie Cup, from the first division, for the first time in nine years and immediately thriving.

Together they’ve built a competitive squad, an impressive coaching staff – led by stalwart Hawies Fourie – a community in love with their team and a fortress of a stadium, where they’ve been unbeaten this season and which is filled to the brim regardless of the opposition.

Focused on rugby

At the back end of 2023, Motsepe (through African Rainbow capital) and Rupert (through Remgro) bought a 74% stake in the Cavaliers, similar to their stake in the Blue Bulls, where they’re also the majority shareholders.

“They assist us with various things to live out the dream and the goal of Boland of keeping the best talent here firstly,” Van Rooyen told Daily Maverick.

The influx of money has resurrected Boland to where they believe they belong, contesting for trophies at domestic level. Simultaneously, Van Rooyen’s astute leadership has ensured the steady income has been directed to the right areas.

His focus has been fortifying the on-field performances with everything else put on the back-burner.

“My philosophy is we need to spend the majority of the money on rugby, and not on the add-ons of rugby,” Van Rooyen explained. “The add-ons of rugby can get the minority, and it shouldn’t be the other way around.”

This included flying the players and staff to Kimberley for their second-round match against Griquas instead of taking a bus, as they would have done in previous seasons, when they couldn’t afford flight tickets.

It was done to spare the players’ bodies the 10-hour bus journey and help ensure they were in peak condition when they took the field.

Among other improvements are physiotherapists, doctors and nutritionists on standby so players have the best possible services at all times.

Off-field sacrifices that Van Rooyen and his team made to ensure the best possible on-field results included not fixing the lights yet at Boland Stadium — which cost about R8-million.

The lights currently installed are 500 lux. Broadcaster SuperSport requires at least 2,000 lux to broadcast evening matches in high definition. That’s partly why all three of Boland’s home Currie Cup matches this season were played on Sunday afternoons.

Making it work

It’s a strange time slot for rugby in South Africa but one the union has made to work in their favour.

Van Rooyen was wary of hosting matches on Sundays, but the innovative CEO thought about how to obtain support for the fixtures.

After consulting with five church leaders in the community he decided to host a church service at the stadium so that supporters, who usually have religious obligations on the day, would have no excuse to not attend matches.

They also opened a beer garden on the opposite side of the field. And while tickets for matches were only R40, entry was free for pensioners and schools (as far as Vredendal) in the surrounding areas were sent free tickets as a ploy to make the stadium experience as inclusive as possible.

Those who bought tickets online also had the opportunity to support the club rugby system in the Drakenstein area.

“If you buy a ticket online, you have the option to donate R10 to a club [in the area],” Van Rooyen said. “If you go online and you buy a ticket for 40 bucks as an adult, there’s a dropdown of all 221 of our clubs (in the area), and then you can select the club you’re from, or you support, or you play for.

“One of the clubs that’s locally based in Wellington is Roses United, one of the oldest and one of the most successful clubs in the Boland area.

“Over the three games (home games), they made close to R10,000 by just putting it on their social media platforms and their members coming to the games.”

Boland has the most registered rugby clubs under one union in the whole world and club rugby in the area has more than 25,000 registered players.

Capacity support

The effort has paid off as fans have flocked to see their idols play at Boland Stadium.

So much so that Boland had to cap the number of fans allowed in the stadium to 9,200 for their last home match against the Bulls, for safety reasons, despite it usually being a 10,000-capacity stadium.

Those fans have made their presence felt as well. “With the way the stadium is structured, you feel the vibe,” Boland flank Sibusiso Sangweni told Daily Maverick. “When you play home games, you feel like everyone is literally next to you and you feel that energy feeding onto the field while you’re playing.

“It’s one of the best atmospheres I’ve played in.” 

Sangweni has experience playing United Rugby Championship (URC) rugby for the Lions, having moved to Boland in March this year.

The home atmosphere has seen Boland Cavaliers pull off a few remarkable victories at home. The precedent-setting match was their opening encounter of the Currie Cup season against the Cheetahs, which they won 37-35 despite trailing 27-35 with five minutes left.

They scored two late tries, the second of which came in the 88th minute in spectacular fashion. Interplay between the entire team and patient phase-play ended with wing Donavan Don dotting down in the corner.

Supporters ran onto the field after the final whistle to congratulate the team for the first time this Currie Cup season, in a throwback to the amateur era. It’s a tradition they’ve kept going in their other home matches.

“We’re one of the unions that’s closest to their communities,” Van Rooyen said.

“The [fan] wants to run to the guy who’s staying five houses from him. It’s his hero. He’s representing a street, a community.

“And the [players] love it. Stravino Jacobs, that’s from the area, he’s playing for the Bulls. One hour after the game, he was still taking photos. He enjoyed it.

“Does that happen with Stravino Jacobs when he’s at the Bulls? People feel close to their heroes.”

They followed the match against the Griquas with home wins against the Lions (29-10), the Bulls (28-20) and another comeback victory, against the Pumas (29-26) away. At that stage they had won four of their first five matches and booked their spot in the semifinals.

They needed one win out of their last two matches to secure a historic home semifinal and play in front of a crowd they’re yet to lose in front of. But a tight away loss to the Sharks XV (31-33) followed by another defeat to a URC-laden Western Province outfit (22-40) meant they would have to settle for fourth on the table and an away semifinal at Ellis Park against a full-strength Lions outfit, which they lost 67-19.

Leadership

The man that brings it all together on the field is Fourie, whose passion for seeing rugby succeed in the area has seen him return “home” to Boland twice before after initially leaving to coach at other unions in the country.

“He’s a very hands-on coach,” Boland fullback James Tedder said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a head coach who will stand behind the poles and catch balls for the kickers or even after training.

“He puts in extra time. He spends hours and hours at home going through videos and sending us clips.

“It’s just something special… because he’s so determined and so hard-working and the players see it, it makes us want to do extras as well and become better players.”

Tedder and Sangweni are rugby journeymen who have found their home in Boland. Before donning the black and gold Tedder played for Sporting Club Albigeois and Soyaux Angoulême in the Pro D2 in France.

Right character

Players like Sangweni and Tedder, who have a high degree of talent but are also ultimate professionals, are two types Fourie looks for when he builds his side.

The other is older players, who are originally from the area, to impart wisdom to the younger players. It’s what their vision was when they secured the services of former Springbok Cornal Hendricks before his passing earlier this year. More recently, former Bok scrumhalf Louis Schreuder, who was born in Paarl and still lives there, also joined the union.

Fourie, along with Van Rooyen, also tempted domestic rugby journeyman halfback Chriswill September – who had already taken up a corporate job – to put on his boots again after hanging them up last year.

The 31-year-old didn’t give up his corporate job, however, and is one of seven players in the Boland squad who reached the Currie Cup semifinals to currently have a full-time job.

September works as a financial planner for Sanlam.

“It’s important for me to recruit the right kind of person as well. You don’t always know what the player is doing in his off time and how hard he works or not if he’s not training with you or in your union,” the head coach explained to Daily Maverick.

“I always try to find out about the person behind the player before offering the contract as well.

“It’s important for me that the player is willing to work hard and to contribute to the team and not just think about himself and his own career.

“I always believe that if the team does well, the individual will succeed anyway, so if you contribute to the team then everyone else will also benefit from that.”

Obtaining these types of players has never been a struggle for Boland, but retaining them once they bloom, always has.

Future ambitions

They would need those players if they are to reach their long-term ambitions of playing in the URC. Van Rooyen is fully aware of the gaps that need to be filled – not least at the stadium – before those ambitions are reached.

“I just now want to play well and perform well in the Currie Cup and stabilise our brand,” the CEO said about his interim ambitions.

Their other short-term goal is much simpler: “Most people will say that the Cheetahs are their second team. We want those people to say that Boland is their second team. That is if we’re not their first-choice team yet.”

Based on the style of rugby displayed by the Currie Cup side out of Wellington, with their never-say-die attitude, and zealous supporters, it’s hard not to love what the Boland Cavaliers are building. DM