www.matiesrugby.co.za Stellenbosch Rugby Football Club
History
The Stellenbosch Rugby Football Club is the second oldest rugby club in South Africa and was founded in 1875. The oldest club is Hamiltons Rugby Club and the third oldest the Villager Rugby Club. In general the players of the club are referred to as Maties, in all probability derived from the Afrikaans word for tomatoes ("tamaties"), based on the maroon coloured jerseys in which the teams still play. The headquarters of the Maties is The Danie Craven Stadium at Coetzenburg in Stellenbosch. Apart from the Craven Stadium which can accommodate 17 000 spectators, the club utilities thirteen additional rugby fields for training and matches. Forty-two teams of sixteen hostel rugby clubs participate in the Matie hostel league. Seven Matie club teams participate in the leagues of the WP Rugby Football Union. With fifty-three teams and more than 1000 registered rugby players that participate in league matches, the Matie Club is most probably one of the biggest competitive rugby clubs in the world. Through history the Matie Club has produced several rugby legends, such as Paul Roos, AF Markötter and Danie Craven. The Matie Club has its own Supporters Club. The Matie Club has its own Referees Committee with more than forty-five referees who are responsible for the more than 500 matches in the five different hostel leagues. Matie Achievements
The Maties have already produced 175 Springboks and 16 Springbok test captains. Current Springboks are Jean de Villiers, Schalk Burger, Gio Aplon, Juan de Jongh, Lourens Adriaanse and Willie le Roux. The Matie Sevens Team is the first overseas team to win the well-known Melrose Sevens tournament in Scotland on two consecutive occasions, and has also won the Centrale 7’s in France, Bernidorm 7s in Spain and Roma 7s during 2008. The Maties have already won the National Club Championship twelve times. The second-best club team could only win the title on three occasions. Since the revival of the National Club Championship fifteen years ago, the Matie First team qualified to compete in the Championship fourteen times. The Matie First Team has been the WP Champion and winner of the Grand Challenge Trophy for thirteen of the last fifteen years. The Matie First team has won the FNB Varsity Cup in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Also played in the Varsity Cup Finals in 2012,2013,2016 and 2017. Since inception of the Cape Town 10’s tournament in 2009 Maties has been the only team that lifted the trophy by winning the 2009, 2010, 2011 2012 and 2013 tournament.
