The South African Rhinos have a goal.
And that goal is to play in the 2026 Rugby League World Cup based in Australian and Papau New Guinea. Having just announced the tournament, the Rhinos target has not shifted their plans in any way, as they plan to join the world heavyweights at the showcase tournament.
Their captain and staunch rugby league diehard, Shane Gilham, from the North Beach Sea Eagles Club, knows that it won’t be easy.
“We play in a world series 2025 against cook islands, Jamaica, South Africa & winner of European qualifier In a tournament and top 2 will go through to the 2026 World Cup,” commented Shane.
“We are just lucky all the work being done in SA at ground level. As USA, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Greece all couldn’t qualify for the world Cup because they aren’t a full member anymore. Work needs to be done in the home country with rugby league, and we have got some big supporters back in South Africa”.
And its with the help of some WA talent that the Rhino’s are looking to make their mark.
5 players recently player in two fixtures for the Rhinos in some warm up games last weekend, to help fine tune the side for the upcoming tournament.
Including coach Isaac Thomas, a South Perth Lions and WA Rugby League legend, the below players all participated for South Africa last weekend.
Shane Gillham & Kalum Gulliver Brown (North Beach Sea Eagles), Brad Sparrow & Dylan Bindczus (Joondalup Giants) and on debut Marcelle Loader (Rockingham Sharks) all took part in the games for the Rhinos.
It was actually only happenstance that someone tipped off captain Shane Gilham that Marcelle might actually be South African.
“I actually got a wierd message from Shane about Marcelle a couple months back asking if he was South African. I’ve seen Marcelle represent Samoa, and have links to NZ, but I honestly had no idea or even thought about it until Shane asked me,” Caleb Reedy from NRL WA commented.
“Lol well he didn’t really know to much but yeah his dads parents were born in South Africa,” explained Shane Gilham.
“Marcelle went real good stood up physically and to the game plan really enjoyed the camp, so will be apart of the core forwards for the world series we are hoping.”
A big win against a Cook Island Kuki Airani by their top side, was preceded by a nice hit out for the South Africa “Development” side who went down to an Asian RL team, consisting of basically all rugby league players of Asian Heritage.
And what’s the dream personally for Shane?
Well its not that simple for the big man.
“Dream is to represent South Africa at a world cup and be a tier 1 nation where we are making Playoffs,”
“And get a South African team into League One to play in the UK Super League competition to develop local talent to represent South Africa at a World Cup”
“Or in a position where NRL clubs can start picking kids up from school rugby in South Africa and then have enough in the NRL to represent South Africa and be a tier 1 rugby league nation”
Big dreams for the big front rower, but he and his WA cohorts are doing their best to make this dream a reality.
