Worcester Warriors’ two South African imports might have totally different jobs on the pitch, but off it centre Wynand Olivier believes a budding partnership with lock GJ Van Velze will help the Club’s Movember fundraising more than ever before.
Premiership Rugby’s 12 clubs have already hit the £14,000 mark for donations to the charity, thanks to a variety of weird and wonderful mos.
Warriors’ Movember captain Olivier is making sure everyone at the Club gets involved, even pulling rank over regular skipper Van Velze.
He said: “One or two of the guys got together and had a chat about it, stuck our hands up to do it for a fantastic cause and hopefully all our efforts will be worthwhile.
“For us it was just to get the word out as much as anything. We want to raise lots of money, we have targets in mind, but if we can do that while getting the word through to as many people as possible about the dangers of cancer, then we’ll consider it to be a success.
“I’ve managed to get GJ involved – I didn’t leave him with much of an option, but there are still one or two boys who will need convincing to keep it going for the whole 30 days!
“But I reckon GJ will pull off a good one – he’s got a nice bit of red in there which should look strong come the end of the month!
“But while there’s a hugely serious side to why we do this, it’s also a massively fun thing to do. It’s usually clean cut during the year so it provides something different, and it always adds a bit of fun into the dressing room which is fantastic.
“The beard has only just gone so I’ve managed not to get too much flak so far, but I imagine that will change quite quickly!”
• The Movember Foundation is the only global charity focused solely on men’s health
• Men are dying too young, on average men die four years younger than women in the UK
• Premiership Rugby are urging rugby fans to join the Movember movement and take action
Support Wynand and his Warriors teammates for their mo-growing efforts by clicking here.
To date, the Movember Foundation has funded over 1,200 men’s health programmes around the world, focusing primarily on prostate cancer, testicular cancer and suicide prevention.
None of this can happen without the incredible community of Mo Bros and Mo Sistas, and Premiership Rugby is supporting the Movember Foundation to create a Mo League.
Worcester, alongside the other 11 Premiership Rugby clubs, are helping to spread the word by grooming weird and wonderful moustaches throughout the month of November.
And former Ricoh Black Rams, Montpellier and Bulls player Olivier admits the mo movement in this country is on a different level entirely to when he has taken on the challenge on his travels.
He said: “I played in Japan five years ago, so that was when I first started and I’ve done it once or twice while I’ve been in South Africa too. For a year I was in France too so I’ve got the flak all over!
“It’s not as big in other countries as it is in England, but people are always keen to get involved and do what they can, which is fantastic.
“Each year the goal is to get more people involved, more people being aware and themselves raising awareness, and if I can sign a couple of Warriors up for next year then I’ll be happy.”