CJ Stander – South African Schools Captain
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:39
Christiaan Johan “CJ” Stander from Oakdale Landbou (Agricultural) School and South Western Districts has the honour of captaining the South African Schools team this year. On Saturday they take the field at Absa Stadium in Durban to face the South African Academy team in a curtainraiser to the Springbok/Australia Tri-Nations fixture.
CJ Stander was born in George and attended Blanco Junior School. He started his rugby career at flyhalf before settling into his current position of No. 8 in Under-13, although he did campaign at lock for the South Western Districts Under-13 team. CJ comes from a sporting family, his mother having played netball for South Western Districts, while his father and uncle both played rugby for South Western Districts for a number of years.
CJ’s parents are dairy and vegetable farmers in Grootboom just outside George. He says that the fact that he may farm one day did factor heavily in his decision to attend Oakdale but there were other factors like the strong discipline and the rugby that attracted him there. Oakdale has 375 pupils, all except five of whom are in the hostel. Just about every boy in the school plays rugby enabling them to field an impressive sixteen rugby teams.
Oakdale has been good to CJ both as a rugby player and person. It has helped him hone his leadership skills by appointing him head boy of the school. From a rugby perspective it has seen him represent the South Western Districts Under-16 Grant Khomo team (at flank) and play two years at No.8 for the South Western Districts Craven Week team. Last year he captained the South African Academy team.
Under CJ’s leadership South Western Districts won the showpiece game at Craven Week this year against Free State. CJ credits the success of the relatively small South Western Districts union at Craven Week to the fact they the team have basically played together since Under-12; so they know each other’s play well. The team members come mainly from three schools, Oakdale, Outeniqua and Oudtshoorn.
CJ says that apart from his leadership the strengths of his play are his ball carrying ability and speed. At 1.89 metres and 100kgs he is already an impressive physical specimen in the mould of his hero Pierre Spies. With an four-second flat time for the thirty-metre sprint he is difficult to beat on cover defence.
CJ has received a two-year contract from the same union that employs his hero, the Blue Bulls. He is very excited about the move up north and will be studying at Pretoria University (Tukkies). CJ feels that being at the Bulls will enable him to best develop as a forward and it helps that his family have always been Blue Bulls supporters.
CJ played his final game for Oakdale last week, a disappointing 16-8 “Inter-schools” loss to rivals Boland Landbou from Agter-Paarl. All sixteen Oakdale teams travelled down by bus to Cape Town for the weekend and were hosted by their Boland counterparts. The 1st XV stayed over and trained in the Strand before travelling through to Agter-Paarl for the game on the Saturday. CJ compared their performance to that of the Springboks later that day. Nothing went right for them on the day and they missed six kicks at posts.
Overall Oakdale had a good season though winning ten of the fourteen games played. They faced some tough opposition and CJ says that he is very proud of his team’s efforts. The highlight for him was their other inter-agricultural win against Marlow Landbou, 26-12. With the boy’s all living at the school Oakdale are able to train every day and CJ says that they are together six days a week, which builds an unbelievable team spirit.
CJ flies up to Durban on Wednesday morning to begin preparations for Saturday’s game. He is happy with the team selection and knows quite a bit about his team from what he saw at Craven Week, although he is yet to meet the coaches. The team has good kickers like Franna du Toit from Grey College as well as some serious speed out wide. He travels to Durban with the two others members of the South Western Districts Craven Week to make South African Schools, prop Neethling Gericke, also from Oakdale and lock Neil Kapp from Outeniqua.
Although CJ is slightly disappointed that South African Schools will play only one game together he will be fulfilling both a goal and a dream when he leads out South Africa’s finest young talent in Durban on Saturday afternoon. CJ is very honoured to be leading South African Schools and is hoping that it will be another step in the direction of the ultimate honour, namely donning full Springbok colours.
