Photo taken by John Woods

Winkler's Reinhart Blignaut has made the Provincial Rugby team after playing the sport for roughly two months, and will be competing at the Canadian Rugby Championships in Markham Ontario in August.

"It feels pretty good. I'm really excited for where I can go with this," said Blignaut.

Team Manitoba and Blignaut are preparing for the championships and he noted there are going to be National Team scouts at their matches in Markham. Rugby for Blignaut started when his mother signed him up for the Winkler Rookie Rugby program earlier this summer.

"I started going there and it was just learning basic skills, like passing and kicking," said Blignaut. "She (his mother) put him me in a tournament that was happening in Niverville and there was a guy there who said 'You'd be really good for Team Manitoba' even though I have only been playing about a month at that time. I went to the Manitoba try-outs and they said 'wow, you are really good, how long have you been playing?'. I said 'only a month'. They couldn't believe it and I kept on playing. They put me in game situations and I scored one time. I had a lot of fun and they said that I made the team. That's how it has taken me in two months."

Blignaut explained that Rugby isn't just a bunch of guys bashing into each other, it's actually a very strategical game similar to chess, he added Rugby is a very mental game as you are always thinking one step ahead of what you have to do.

Rugby is similar to the sport of football, but has no padding.

"It would probably be that it doesn't hurt as bad as it looks out there. When I started I was thinking 'I was going to get killed today and it's going to hurt so much', but really it doesn't hurt that bad."