South African schools rugby has named its first Under-18 Girls teams, and Curro Delft has two learners in the group. Inga Jim and Lethokuhle Madwayi were selected in the squads announced at the end of FNB U18 Girls Week in Gqeberha. Inga has also been named captain of the inaugural side.

Inga will play as a loose/utility forward, while Lethokuhle has been selected at prop. The two 26-player squads will face each other at Grey High School.

Western Province has the largest representation across both squads, with 15 players, including Inga and Lethokuhle.

Captaincy for Inga

For Inga, selection came shortly after her team’s final pool match against Eastern Province. As the names were read out, she remembers quietly repeating ‘please, Lord’ until she heard her own.

‘A wave of emotion hit me instantly,’ she recalls. ‘I was overwhelmed by happiness and relief.’

Her rugby story began at 13, when Curro Delft introduced a girls’ rugby team. She joined partly because she wanted to follow in her older brother’s footsteps.

Since then, Inga has represented Western Province for three consecutive years and played for the Western Cape’s U15 sevens and fifteens sides in 2023.

The captaincy adds another layer to a selection that already places her in a first for South African schoolgirls’ rugby.

‘To this day, I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I got the opportunity to make history in women’s rugby,’ she says.

Her message to younger female athletes is direct: ‘Don’t let anything stop you,’ she says, ‘because if not you, then who?’

Lethokuhle’s move into rugby

Lethokuhle’s route into rugby started after she joined Curro Delft and moved away from hockey and tennis. She joined the girls’ rugby team one afternoon and found a sport in which she felt at home.

When the SA Schools Girls squad announcement came, she was celebrating a win over Eastern Province. Her teammates began pushing her forward, telling her she had made the team. She says it took hearing her name called three times before the news settled.

‘The first thing I did was cry,’ she admits, ‘I did not expect to make it at all.’

Lethokuhle says rugby helped her grow in confidence and become more comfortable in herself. Her parents kept her grounded as she balanced academics and sport, while her coaches helped her see potential she was still learning to recognise.

Selection has changed what she sees ahead.

‘It’s a dream I’m very honoured to live; I know this is only the beginning,’ she says.

She also carries advice from her principal: ‘If you believe it, you can achieve it.’ For Lethokuhle, belief must sit alongside work, learning and the willingness to make mistakes.

Curro Delft part of a rugby first

SA Schools boys’ teams have been selected for decades. The introduction of the first SA Schools Under-18 Girls teams gives schoolgirls a new representative step within South African rugby.

For Curro Delft, the selections mark a school achievement and a wider moment for girls’ rugby.

Ruan Beukes, Executive Head of Curro Delft, says Inga and Lethokuhle have earned the opportunity through their discipline and growth as players.

‘Having Inga and Lethokuhle selected for the first-ever SA Schools Girls team is an incredibly proud moment for our school and for everyone who has supported them along the way. They have put in the work, stayed committed and continued to grow as players, so to see them rewarded with this opportunity is special.’

Ruan says their selection also gives other girls at the school a clear example of what is possible.

‘What makes this even more meaningful is that they are now part of something that has never been done before in South African school’s rugby. They have worked hard for this, and we are incredibly proud to see them represent Curro Delft at this level. I hope other young girls at the school see what Inga and Lethokuhle have achieved and realise what is possible for them too,’ he concludes.