Building solid structures from the bottom up is one of the key pillars in Park Rugby Club’s masterplan for success in the EPRU Grand Challenge Top 12 competition, says coach Marius van der Walt.
Park upset the form book two weeks ago when they pulled off a shock 38-29 win over champions Gardens in front of their home fans at a packed Londt Park in their opening Grand Challenge match.
Gardens kicked off as strong favourites to start their title defence with a win but were toppled by a well-drilled Park side who fought back bravely after trailing early on.
It was a memorable day for Park, whose two lower league teams also emerged victorious over Gardens.
“To come out on the winning side against Gardens after being down 17-0 delighted the management, players and coaches, and everyone was over the moon,” Van der Walt said.
“Our long-term goal for Park is to be as competitive as possible and to build a structure from the bottom up.
“We have a group of very good U21 players coming from some of the biggest schools in Gqeberha. That is what we see for Park in the future.
“We want to build the team with juniors and get them in later as experienced seniors to make Park as competitive as possible in all the leagues.
“Park has been underachieving a little bit in recent times.
“I think that is because the bulk of our experienced guys have left or stopped playing.
“We then started to scout around when I was involved with the U21 team at all the schools around Gqeberha.
“Some players give up to play other sports or they don’t play at all. Park are trying to break that cycle because we don’t want anyone to fall by the wayside.
“We want them to carry on playing and to be competitive.
“Park need to sustain that for the next few years; otherwise I see bleak times for any rugby club.”
Van der Walt said Park will play an exciting brand of rugby in the Top 12 and try to keep the ball in hand.
“If you remember, the old Park teams had massive forwards, and then they mauled, rucked and scrummed from that platform,” he said.
“Now we have some young and exciting backs and we will keep the ball in hand a bit more, as one could see from some of the tries we scored against Gardens.
“The tries were really good and well constructed.
“Park attacked in the middle of the field and after we got contact there, we had two sides to play off.
“This is more or less what you will see from Park this season.”
Van der Walt has held several coaching positions and is hoping he can steer Park to success in 2026.
“I am very happy to have been appointed Park head coach for the Grand Challenge,” he said.
“I have done it before and we lost in a final to Progress in 2018, so I have been around the coaching block.
“In the past I used to coach at Police Rugby Club for about 10 years, and then I came to Park and I have been here for about 10 years.
“I also used to play for Crusaders, Diaz and Olympics rugby clubs.
“I am being helped at Park by Arnold du Plessis (assistant coach), Rudi Eberson (manager) and Wayne Swanepoel (logistics).”
Van der Walt said having the support of a big home crowd at Londt Park had given the team a big boost when they beat Gardens.
“The support was amazing and we are looking forward to filling up Londt Park for all our home games,” he said.
“Park attract big crowds and long may it continue.
“We ask fans to please come and support us and the players deserve to play in a cauldron of support.”
Park host Makhanda team Brumbies in their second outing in the Grand Challenge at Londt Park on Saturday (kickoff 3.30pm).
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