Tonight MZWANDILE STICK (24) is king of the biggest little city in South Africa. Here at a hotel on the Port Elizabeth beachfront he’s trying to explain what it feels like to be the captain of the South African Sevens team that won an International Rugby Board Sevens tournament on home soil for the first time in 10 years but he keeps being interrupted.
Men come up to him to shake his hand, asking him to guarantee a win in next year’s World Cup. “We’ll do our best,” he says.
Stick folds his arms across his muscled chest and searches for the right word to describe the emotions shared by the team when they came out tops in George recently. “Special,” he repeats over and over again.
Mzwandile grew up in New Brighton township in Port Elizabeth. As a pupil at Stephen Mazumgula Primary School he excelled at soccer, cricket and rugby.
Then Simpiwe Mavuso, a teacher and rugby coach at his primary school, strongly suggested Stick’s future lay in rugby. “Mr Mavuso said it was time to end my foolishness and concentrate on rugby. And I haven’t looked back since.
“He saved me from making the wrong choices,” Mzwandile says. “Growing up in New Brighton there are many different roads your life can take. You can choose to become a criminal. You can choose soccer but no soccer stars come out of the Eastern Cape.”
Through the years Stokololo, as he was called, improved his rugby and by 2001 he had not only cemented his place in the Spring Rose first team, he’d been chosen for the Eastern Province Craven Week under-18 team.
Being chosen for that team was the turning point. “Rugby had always been a social thing but the tournament showed me rugby could be my future.”
Mzwandile loves his life. His dedication and hard work have brought him opportunities he never dreamt of while growing up in New Brighton. But it didn’t come easily.
“When I woke at 5 am to run nobody saw me, but success comes from all that hard work you put in when no one is watching.”
- To read more expert opinions on the success and future of the South African Sevens team see Sportsbuzz, featuring former Bok Chester Williams and commentator Hugh Bladen, in the latest issue of YOU (18 Dec).
