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28 Friday 07 - 13 December 2018 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Times</strong><br />
■ SPORT<br />
Super Rugby<br />
to unleash<br />
Marvel<br />
Super Hero<br />
magic in<br />
2019 season<br />
Cape Town - South African<br />
rugby is entering<br />
a whole new universe<br />
in 2019 as SA Rugby,<br />
SuperSport, Vodacom and Marvel<br />
team up to bring Super Heroes<br />
to life and create an all-conquering,<br />
planet-shifting, villain-busting<br />
“Superpowered” Vodacom Super<br />
Rugby competition.<br />
Some of Marvel’s most iconic<br />
Super Heroes will join forces with<br />
South Africa’s most powerful<br />
rugby stars to turn every one of<br />
the South African derbies in the<br />
2019 Vodacom Super Rugby season<br />
into an action-packed adventure in<br />
and outside the stadiums.<br />
In a ground-breaking collaboration<br />
between SA Rugby, Super-<br />
Sport, Vodacom and Marvel, each<br />
of the South African Vodacom<br />
Super Rugby teams will be assigned<br />
a Marvel Super Hero as their look<br />
for the home derbies next season.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Vodacom Bulls kit will be<br />
emblazoned with the colours of<br />
Captain America, the Emirates<br />
Lions will channel their inner-Spider-Man,<br />
the Cell C Sharks’ kit will<br />
be inspired by Black Panther and<br />
the DHL Stormers will be wearing<br />
Thor’s colours. <strong>The</strong> kit designs will<br />
be revealed at a later stage.<br />
“Marvel Super Heroes are among<br />
the most loved and recognisable<br />
characters in the world, very much<br />
like local Vodacom Super Rugby<br />
players and clubs,” said Luke Roberts,<br />
Retail Director for <strong>The</strong> Walt<br />
Disney Company Africa.<br />
“Whether it’s Spider-Man’s<br />
genius and agility, Thor’s strength<br />
and endurance, Captain America’s<br />
honour and strategy or Black Panther’s<br />
speed and stamina, we are<br />
thrilled to collaborate with clubs<br />
in this year’s South African Conference<br />
in Vodacom Super Rugby,<br />
aligning these character attributes<br />
with our own iconic teams.”<br />
Jurie Roux, CEO of SA Rugby,<br />
said this is one of the most exciting<br />
developments to the local Vodacom<br />
Super Rugby scene in many<br />
years.<br />
“Vodacom Super Rugby has<br />
always been about entertainment<br />
and providing supporters with<br />
something new, and in 2019 we<br />
will definitely achieve that with<br />
this exciting endeavour with Marvel,”<br />
said Roux.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> global rugby landscape<br />
is changing and teams across all<br />
continents are trying new things<br />
to further raise the interest of fans.<br />
We envisage reaching new audiences<br />
and gaining new supporters<br />
for our franchises and the game as<br />
a whole in South Africa.”<br />
Gideon Khobane, SuperSport<br />
CEO, said: “<strong>The</strong>se are great times<br />
in sport with innovation pivotal to<br />
success, which is why SuperSport<br />
is thrilled to support the Super<br />
Heroes initiative.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> true impact of next season<br />
will be felt when the real-life superheroes<br />
take over the story off the<br />
pitch.<br />
With great power comes great<br />
responsibility, and the heroes of<br />
South African rugby are ready<br />
to unleash this as they use their<br />
power for good and tackle cancer<br />
in a partnership with the CHOC<br />
Childhood Cancer Foundation.<br />
Michelle van Eyden, Vodacom’s<br />
Executive Head of Sponsorship,<br />
echoed the excitement for the<br />
forthcoming Vodacom Super<br />
Rugby season and highlighted the<br />
importance of giving back.<br />
“Besides the innovation and<br />
excitement we will be seeing during<br />
Vodacom Super Rugby in<br />
2019, Vodacom is also extremely<br />
proud to be associating itself with<br />
CHOC,” said Van Eyden.<br />
“Every Super Rugby season,<br />
Vodacom partners with an organisation<br />
that is in need of support,<br />
and with the Marvel partnership,<br />
we feel there is a perfect fit between<br />
the rugby superheroes we’ll see<br />
doing battle every weekend on the<br />
field and the little superheroes of<br />
CHOC who fight a far larger battle<br />
every day.”<br />
For every tackle made by a South<br />
African player during the 2019<br />
Vodacom Super Rugby competition,<br />
Vodacom and SuperSport<br />
will each donate R50 to CHOC<br />
through the #TacklingCancer<br />
campaign, with the goal of raising<br />
R1 million by the end of the<br />
season.<br />
And if heroes give us hope, this<br />
will be a season in which every<br />
fan can also be a hero as they join<br />
forces to keep the hope alive for<br />
those who need it most.<br />
Vodacom Super Rugby fans can<br />
also expect the best in-stadium<br />
entertainment and activations that<br />
are going to inject rugby into a new<br />
“Superpowered” era in a fresh and<br />
exciting way. - Nampa/ANA<br />
Shonena retains title in thriller<br />
› Mikka Shonena<br />
Wi n d h o e k –<br />
Mikka Shonena<br />
retained his<br />
World Boxing<br />
Organisation (WBO) Africa<br />
Welterweight title on a unanimous<br />
decision over Tanzanian<br />
challenger, Mfaume Mfaume<br />
after a thrilling bout in Windhoek<br />
early Sunday morning.<br />
<strong>The</strong> two boxers delighted the<br />
fans as they displayed great fighting<br />
skills and spirit during the<br />
Mobile Telecommunications<br />
Limited Nestor Tobias Sunshine<br />
Boxing and Fitness Boxing<br />
Bonanza.<br />
<strong>The</strong> fighters exchanged heavy<br />
punches from the first till the last<br />
round with Shonena landing the<br />
more clear punches in the third<br />
round.<br />
Mfaume clearly had a good<br />
game plan as he consistently<br />
countered most punches by the<br />
Namibian boxer.<br />
In the third round, Mfaume<br />
had Shonena in trouble with a<br />
series of heavy punches to the<br />
head and body, but failed to finish<br />
him off.<br />
As the rounds progressed,<br />
Mfaume grew in confidence and<br />
started showboating much to the<br />
annoyance of match official Jaap<br />
van Nieuwenhuizen.<br />
In the eighth round, Shonena<br />
shocked Mfaume with a straight<br />
punch to the face but failed to<br />
follow up leaving his opponent<br />
to recover and continue fighting.<br />
As there was no knock-out, it<br />
was left to the judges to decide<br />
on the winner.<br />
<strong>The</strong> judges scored the fight 119-<br />
109, 117-111 and 120-108 in favour<br />
of the Namibian.<br />
In other fights during the<br />
night, the main undercard bout<br />
between Paulinus Paulinus and<br />
Bright Mdoka was called off after<br />
one of the boxers failed a medical<br />
exam.<br />
In the flyweight division, Fillemon<br />
Nghutenyi beat Jacob Jacob<br />
in a unanimous decision over six<br />
rounds while Onesmus Nekundi<br />
and Nikoti Johannes fought a<br />
draw in the featherweight bout.<br />
Max Ipinge beat Andreas Nghinaunye<br />
on points after four<br />
rounds in the junior middleweight<br />
bout.<br />
Charles Shinima beat Steve<br />
Shimbonde via a third-round<br />
technical knockout in the super<br />
welterweight division.<br />
Crowd favourite Usko<br />
Rehabeam beat Sheehama Sakaria<br />
in a unanimous decision to<br />
register his first professional win<br />
in the lightweight division.<br />
In the super bantamweight<br />
division, Phillipus Nghitumbwa<br />
knocked out Festus Matias in the<br />
second round and Sam Mathews<br />
beat Gustav Petrus.<br />
Mathias Haita knocked out<br />
Elifas Kambungu in the fourth<br />
round with Andreas Mwenyo<br />
losing to Gabriel Jamba. - Nampa
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