EP Rugby and Virgin Active team up to help schools

Aug 6 • General News • 2026 Views • Comments Off on EP Rugby and Virgin Active team up to help schools

CAPTION: SPINNING FOR GOOD: Cheeky Watson, EPRU President (Front, second front left) and Kirwan Frieslaar, Virgin Active Greenacres Operations Manager (to Watson’s right), take the donated spinning bikes for a test run. With them are (From left front) Freddie Makoki, EPRU Executive Member, Sharief Gamiet, EPRU General Manager, Isaac Barendse from David Livingstone as well as (back from left) Reece Maarman from John Walton, Theo Pieterse from Itembelihle and Stephen de Bruin from John Walton.

The Eastern Province Rugby Union and Virgin Active Greenacres teamed up this week to assist schools from previously disadvantaged areas with spinning bikes for their sports departments.

Virgin Active Greenacres, who have recently upgraded their Spinning Bike facilities, donated 38 of their old bikes, valued at around R15,000 each, to EPRU, specifically to assist with development.

The spinning bikes will be shared amongst seven high schools in the Nelson Mandela Bay area, namely Ndzondelelo, John Walton, Tamsanqa, Arcadia, David Livingstone, Solomon Mahlangu and Itembelihle.

“We are thankful for the bikes that have been donated by Virgin Active and we are positive that they will make a positive difference at the schools that will be receiving them,” said Cheeky Watson, EPRU President.

“This was a great opportunity for us to be able to give something back to those less fortunate schools that do not necessarily have the access to gym facilities or equipment,” said Kevin Frieslaar, Virgin Active Greenacres Operations Manager.

Frieslaar said it was great to see that the schools who would be receiving the bikes had a strong rugby culture and said he hoped that the bikes would help the players develop.

“Hopefully these bikes will help the players at the schools, who can now up their fitness and conditioning, which will in turn lead to better performance on the field and who knows, perhaps get a chance to represent their schools at a national or even international level,” said Frieslaar.