IN CONVERSATION WITH TOBIAS TITUS
The legendary rugby administrator and UWC alumnus officially retired from the SA Rugby executive this year but still has some pearls of wisdom to share By Harriet Box
Now that you have resigned as a managing member of the South African Rugby Union (SARU), what does the future hold for you? To me, this is goodbye but not farewell. I will still be available in support of rugby at the club level in an informal capacity. I enjoyed my time and experiences within the rugby industry and I’m open to offer help where I can. How did you get started in rugby? I grew up on a farm outside De
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Doorns in the Boland and my parents were teachers on a farm outside Worcester. I grew up poor and what we had, we shared with our community of farm labourers. The Hex River Valley at the time (early 1950s and 1960s) was marked by exceptionally cold winters, the “dop system” and farm labourers living in extreme poverty. My parents’ involvement with upliftment and education in the community, church and at club-level rugby really inspired
me. I saw how rugby was a force that brought the labourer community together. My father, Titus William Titus, was the school principal at Sandhill and was a prominent rugby player. He would go on to be the administrator after my grandfather. Club rugby was the only level of rugby available to us and, at the time, my father played for Villagers Rugby Club and was an influential rugby figure back then.
