Talented athlete Saadiqah Corbett, 18, from Tafelsig and a Grade 11 pupil at Portland High, has been selected as part of the Western Province girls’ under-18 team set to take part in next week’s national Craven Week in Johannesburg.
Introduced to the game while at Caradale Primary School, in Rocklands, Saadiqah’s selection will come as no surprise to those who have been keeping an eye on her progress over the years. An all-round sports achiever, the live wire youngster also excels in soccer and athletics and has a preference for team sports.
Caradale sports co-ordinator Ryan Hartnick, who helped to re-establish the Mitchells Plain Primary Schools Rugby League in 2023, after it had remained dormant for a number of years, says Saadiqah showed signs of promise from the get go.
“Firstly, she’s a gifted athlete with so much talent,” he said.
“At 10 years old, she was already different to the other kids her age. I was her athletics coach then when she made WP at 10. Besides that, her will to win is strong, even at that young age, she had a certain determination when competing. That’s why it was easy to have her playing with the boys’ teams and teaching her the game at primary school.”
Although she’s long left primary school, Hartnick has been keeping tabs on her, tracking her progress on various media platforms.
“I rate her very highly, 9 out of 10, if I should put a number on it… Of course, there’s always room to grow and I have no doubt that she’s more than willing to put the work into it,” he said.
As far as making sure more Saadiqahs come through the ranks, Hartnick said it’s important to put the right systems in place.
“It’s really up to teachers to create the opportunity by starting girls teams, even if it’s a 7s team because once they get a taste of the action they realise their passion for the game,” he said.
WP under-18 girls’ rugby team manager Thembisa Ngamlana agrees, saying,” It’s important to encourage young girls to play, to develop women’s rugby and to remove the negative stigma girls can’t play and that rugby is only a male sport.”
Ngamlana believes mentoring, workshops and team building exercises can go a long way to motivate young girls to pick up a ball.
Among the challenges restricting the growth of the girls’ and women’s game is the lack of support and funding. “Sometimes you see girls that have the potential and are passionate about rugby but find it hard to pursue their goals and dreams because they’re from very disadvantaged families where they don’t even have boots or someone to buy them a pair,” she said.
Sport, along with education, have the power to open doors for everyone. We just have to create opportunities for them to do so,” she said.
Saadiqah, a speedy winger, certainly knows how to spot a gap and to grab an opportunity that come her way with both hands.
“The coolest thing about playing rugby is that you meet new people and that we as women prove that we can play the game as well as any man,”she said.
“Where in the book of history does it show that girls and women are not able to play rugby?”
“So watch this space,” she said.
