RIP Solly Tyibilika

In what has become a very tragic weekend of sport in South Africa, it has now been reported that former Springboks flanker Solly Tyibilika has been murdered outside a tavern in Cape Town. Tyibilika was 32.

Tyibilika was born in Port Elizabeth and first played rugby ay Loyiso High School in the Zwide Township. He made his professional debut for Griquas in 2001 before moving on to the Lions and the Sharks.

He made his test debut in 2004 against Scotland in Edinburgh, earning the distinction of scoring a try on his first appearance to achieve the significant milestone in rugby history of becoming the first black African to score a test try for the Springboks.


He played in eight tests in total – scoring three tries – the last of them against New Zealand in Pretoria in 2006.

He moved to the Lions in 2007 but never settled in Johannesburg and re-emerged in his native Eastern Cape playing for Border between 2008 and 2010, captaining the Bulldogs from time to time. He had spent the 2011 season playing club rugby for Hamiltons in Cape Town.

He made 158 first-class appearances in all, scoring 24 tries, for Griquas, Sharks, Lions and Border, including 16 appearances in Vodacom Super Rugby for the Sharks.

I remember Tyibilika quite well. He played in a time when the Boks were blessed in the flanker stocks - Tyibilika was up against Juan Smith, Joe van Niekerk, Schalk Burger, Pedrie Wannenburg, Luke Watson, Wikus van Heerden, etc. A superb player if not quite the best out of his colleagues.

Nevertheless, a life taken too soon and it just illustrates the problems South Africa still experiences to this day.

RIP Solly Tyibilika (1979-2011)