Fresh from winning a Commonwealth Games gold medal for South Africa, DHL Stormers speedster Angelo Davids is harnessing his sevens skills to make an impact in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
Davids scored 10 tries, including three hat-tricks, at the Birmingham Games in July, playing an integral role in the Blitzboks’ gold medal victory.
This came after a sensational Currie Cup campaign for Western Province, where Davids scored eight tries in nine games for his boyhood union.
Sevens commitments and the form of top try-scorer Leolin Zas limited Davids’ involvement in the Stormers’ 2021-22 title-winning campaign to just three appearances.
However, in the new season, Davids has taken the opportunity to start in the No 11 jersey with some solid performances helping the Stormers make an unbeaten start in the URC.
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Davids has not had the easiest road to get to this point in his career and this stage in his life. A born-and-bred Capetonian, Davids was raised in Klipheuwel – a small impoverished hamlet between Durbanville and Malmesbury – where drugs, alcohol abuse and unemployment are rife.
Sport afforded Davids, a gifted young sprinter, the chance to escape his circumstances when he was offered an athletics scholarship to attend Stellenberg High.
It was in high school where the rugby bug bit Davids, and he went on to represent Western Province at U16 and U18 levels. After being impressive at an U18 Sevens festival, he was drafted into the national sevens academy in Stellenbosch.
Davids made his Blitzbok debut in 2019 and represented the Junior Springboks at the U20 World Championships that same year.
Davids has been a regular in the national sevens squad ever since, but earlier this season he put pen to paper on a two-year deal with the Stormers, which will ensure his full-time commitment to fifteens.
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“Angelo is exceptional and a big part of our plans,” said Stormers head coach John Dobson. “The Sevens World Cup was his last sevens tournament for the foreseeable future and he will fall in with us and push for a starting berth.”
Davids is delighted to be back with his Stormers teammates at the start of an exciting new chapter in his career.
“After working with the players and the coaches here in 2020, I know that this is the right place to grow my abilities in the 15-man game,” he said. “I am now fully fit and ready to give it a full crack. I look forward to contributing in any way possible for the Stormers and Western Province.”
Photo: Gerhard Duraan/BackpagePix
