{"id":52330,"date":"2026-03-11T05:17:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T05:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=52330"},"modified":"2026-03-11T05:17:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T05:17:40","slug":"100-cap-marco-van-staden-bulls-stormers-urc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/11\/100-cap-marco-van-staden-bulls-stormers-urc\/","title":{"rendered":"100 up for Marco van Staden: &#8216;I&#8217;ve learned a lot along the way&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>&#8220;I&#8217;ve learned a lot along the way, met great people, players and coaches. They all make every bit of effort going the long way worth it.&#8221;<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The final United Rugby Championship local derby of the season between the Bulls and Stormers on Saturday brings a special milestone for a player who went from rugby obscurity to becoming one of the pillars of a proud union and a regular for the national team.<\/p>\n<p>Loose forward Marco van Staden will line up for the 100th time for the Bulls at Loftus (kick-off 2pm).<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old\u2019s achievements, including a World Cup and three Rugby Championship titles, are remarkable given the scrumhalf-turned-forward first failed to join a varsity rugby programme.<\/p>\n<p>Van Staden played at nine until a shift to flanker in Grade 11 at Ho\u00ebrskool Bekker in Magaliesburg. He never played Craven Week and was not part of the national youth systems.<\/p>\n<p>He failed to join North-West University\u2019s rugby programme but was given an opportunity at the University of Pretoria (Tuks).<\/p>\n<p>Van Staden shone there, went on to the Bulls, made his Currie Cup debut in 2017, and the next year earned his first call-up for the Springboks.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-big-privilege\">\u2018Big privilege\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Thirty-two Test caps later and the rest is history. Aside from one season at Leceister Tigers, the loose forward, who is increasingly playing backup hooker, has been a stalwart in Pretoria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a big privilege playing 100 games for the Bulls,\u201d Van Staden said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot along the way, met great people, players and coaches. They all make every bit of effort going the long way worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said special moments included his first Super Rugby cap, against the Hurricanes at Loftus in 2018, which the Bulls fought back to win 21-19. Also, winning the Super Rugby Unlocked title in 2020 after Covid put professional rugby on hold, was a silver lining.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut every game is special for me. I know how short a career can be so I try to make every game as special as I can, try and give everything that I can because you never know when it will be your last.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-bulls-captain-praises-van-staden\">Bulls captain praises Van Staden<\/h3>\n<p>Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee said they would try make Van Staden\u2019s 100th cap special.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I think of Marco, the first word that comes to mind is warrior,\u201d Coetzee said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s fearless. He gives his heart and soul for this union every day. He\u2019s a humble guy who puts the team above his own needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bulls captain said it was an honour to play with Van Staden, who was a great servant of the union.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think his family, wife and kids can be very proud of what he\u2019s achieved so far. May it long continue.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Marco #van #Staden #Ive #learned #lot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve learned a lot along the way, met great people, players and coaches. They all make every bit of effort&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52332,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52330\/revisions\/52332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}