As a Lions supporter the Rugby fare during the playoff stages of competitions can become a bit dreary unless you fancy watching the teams you’ve booed all season.

After all, it’s been a while since the team from Johannesburg had a sucessful play off game.

Personally, I don’t normally watch a great deal of Rugby when the Lions are having a weekend off, but this week I made an exception, and what a treat it was.

I decided to make the effort and watch a certain team in black jersey’s play a certain team in red jersey’s.

The team in black had a long trip to an away game where all of the odds would be stacked against them, but they were determined to make a game of it.

Now, before you all mumble to yourselves that the Sharks played in white and does this fool know what he’s talking about, let me inform you, it wasn’t a Super Rugby game I watched. It was a 3^rd division club game between 2 of the Lions clubs.

When I realised that I wouldn’t be able to see the Super Rugby playoff between the Crusaders and the Sharks because of work commitments on Saturday morning, I decided that I would go and watch a club game, but not any of the Pirates Grand Challenge (effectively the GLRu 1^st division) teams, but just a lowly Presidents league (3^rd division) game, to try and see if much has changed in the year since I’ve been away from the club scene.

I called an old friend / adversry, Vic de Klerk, Chairman of Edenvale Panthers and asked where they were playing. The match was against Panorama Cobras in the North West of Johannesburg.

When my work commitments were over, I did a quick search on the net, found out where Panaroma played and made the 60 odd kilometer journey across the City of Gold.

Arriving at Allen Glen High School I soon realised I was not in for a very warm afternoon! The fields were cruelly exposed, and a stiff, very cold breeze was blowing across the ground.

When I arrived the under 19 teams were already well into the first half, and the enthusiasm was evident despite the weather.

For anyone out there who claims to “love Rugby” but who hasn’t been to a club game, and doesn’t go to watch even their chosen Provincial team on “bad weather” days, let me tell you something, you may think you “love Rugby”, but there are supporters and family of players at every club whose love of the game far outweighs what you imagine a love of the sport is.

Towards the end of the under 19 game, the small pavillion started to fill up quite nicely and despite the bitter cold (never above 6°c) even a few youngsters were running around kicking and passing a ball in their bare feet.

If you think there is a passion on the pavillion when the Stormers run out at Newlands to play the Bulls, think again. The passion shown by club members (both playing and support), family of players and supporters at countless grounds throughout this Rugby mad country every weekend borders on the fanatical.

Rugby clubs, and especially the smaller ones are run on a shoestring budget and rely heavily on revenue from games such as the one I went to watch. Much as the more successful provincial teams tend to land the lucrative sponsorship deals, so too is it in the club scene. A GLRU President’s League club don’t have much chance of securing decent sponsorship.

In Johannesburg the GLRU pays each club manager a small “salary” varying from below R 2000 up to approximately R 7000 depending on a number of factors such as the league you compete in and the number of fields used.

Registered coaches receive a small allowance dependent on the level of qualification among other factors.

On top of this, each club will receive a “field maintenance” allowance (less than R 15 000 for the SEASON), and an Admin’ allowance (Less than R 4 000 for the Season).

That is the total cash income from the provincial Union for many of the smaller clubs, so you can imagine, on matchdays every car through the gate and every boerie roll consumed is an important blow in the financial fight.

However, this article is not a bitch at the plight of the small Rugby Clubs that make the game what it is, but rather a celebration of everyone involved at club level that spends countless amounts of their time and money for the game the truly do love.

Families are neglected, kids birthday parties missed, and I’m sure even some clients ignored when “duty” calls for a Club Rugby person.

Each weekend in Johannesburg, a total of 7 060 registered club players forego being able to watch many high profile games because they are involved in games like that between Panorama Cobras and Edenvale Panthers.

I’m sure that each one of them would welcome any new supporters with open arms. So if you truly do “love Rugby”, next time your chosen provincial side is not playing, why not go down and watch your local club. I’m sure you’ll find it a highly rewarding experience.

Who knows, you may even feel the urge to get involved with the club. Every club desperately needs people to help out, even if only with typing a letter or writing names down at pre-season practice.

I’m sure that if every Club in the country had an additional 2 people to share the burdens it would make a tremendous difference.

The Crusaders and the Sharks may well be the summit of the sport, but you can’t reach the peak of the mountain without the crew at base camp. To my mind, our thousands of Club players are the crew at base camp.

For the record, Panorama won the under 19 game, Edenvale Panthers won the 2^nd team game and in the big game of the afternoon, the Panthers prevailed against a far bigger side in a match that could have gone any way right up until the last moment.

My heartfelt thanks to Vic de Klerk and the Edenvale Panthers members who made me feel very welcome, and also to the members of the GLRU Exco’ who attended the game. It was a pleasure to see you at a low key match.

Here are afew photo’s of the 1^st XV game.

Edenvale Panthers in a huddle

Cobras win an early line out against the throw

Crouch. Touch. Pau... You know the routine

Panthers score the first try, midway through the second stanza.

The sun's almost set, but still no final whistle

The final act of the game after the Panthers scored a late try to take the game away from the Cobras