NEWS

Life Off the Pitch with Legion’s Joe Pietersen

Joe Pietersen will be returning to San Diego for the fourth season of Major League Rugby next March. Joining the Legion ahead of their semi-final against Seattle in 2018, Pietersen has quickly become a fan favorite in Southern California.

A reliable goal kicker, game manager, and bringing a tremendous amount of professional experiences from around the world, having played rugby at an elite level in his native South Africa, Japan and France.

Several years ago, Joe began thinking of his future away from the pitch. Living back in South Africa, he formed Nkombe Rhino. At the time, Nkombe’s primary mission was to protect rhinos. It was at the peak of the rhino wars, when poachers were killing the animals for their horns and putting the endangered species at a high risk of extinction.

Since starting work, Joe’s venture into conservation has organically grown into something much larger, Nkombe now aids in the protection of several endangered species, as well as supporting dedicated anti-poaching units and even running a safari lodge throughout the year for tourists to experience life in the South African bush and the conservation done there.

“Growing up in South Africa, you are exposed to wildlife and the more you educate yourself on it, the more you become aware of endangered species,” Joe explained. “Back in the day, you would go to a game reserve and see animals and then you would pick a favorite.

“Then, the more you learn about them, you learn that some animals are key species to an environment and certain animals are key for tourism and a part of our heritage and being threatened.

“When we started Nkombe Rhino, the rhino wars were going on and the poaching and the slaughter of endangered species for a trade that is totally a myth. Our main focus was supplying financial aid, yes, but also goods for the guys on the ground, people actually fighting on the frontline; the antipoaching units, the game reserves, their aerial surveillance, the technology that is needed.”

Starting out with the conservation of rhinos, Joe and Nkombe Rhino have since gone on to provide wild elephants with water and the conservation of South Africa’s most endangered carnivorous species, the Africa Wild Dogs.

There remains a distressing amount of species endangered in Africa, the lion and the cheetah the most commonly known, alongside the white and black rhino.

“When you delve into it a bit more, you become aware of other species that are all interrelated and all interdependent and how they have different needs,” Joe said. “That is how we grew. We grew and grew and got a lot more people involved, looking after different projects and different species and as we grew further, we started to couple that with tourism.

“It is all safari based conservation that tourists experience. If we have guests over from America or England, on a typical day they will do what everyone else does on safari, but on one day you get to help out and do something in conservation. Through the tourism, we raise funds to be able to do these conservation projects and tourists get an experience that is otherwise unobtainable.

“As you get more tourists involved, more tourists, the more projects you can then take on. That then provides more education and more impact on the people around. There is a big economical divide in South Africa, where the poverty numbers are higher than other countries, so the impact for people living on the boundaries or on the borders of these open wildlife areas, the circumstances for them usually aren’t great.

“Through responsible tourism, we can them impact them and go into a community and say that we can impact them through the exposure and experience of what is happening in South Africa. It is quite a big network of interactions between wildlife, humans, culture and the environment.”

When Covid-19 hit South Africa, the countries borders closed. For some this meant that they could not return home, but for a country heavily dependent on the tourism trade, it decimated the industry, with Joe and Nkombe Rhino went from having a fully booked safari lodge to repaying deposits.

Joe is set to be joined by two more South Africans in California when he returns for MLR’s 2021 season. Bjorn Basson collected 11 South Africa caps between 2010 and 2013 and joins the Legion following a spell playing professionally in Russia.

Cecil Afrika is another headline name joining Zack Test and Scott Murray’s squad. For the last 12 seasons, Afrika has been a star on the Sevens World Series, where he has racked up a staggering 1462 points in a Blitzboks jersey and has won an Olympic silver medal in 2016 and a Commonwealth gold medal in 2014.

After a 5-0 start to 2020, before Covid-19 forced MLR to shutdown for the safety of players and fans alike, San Diego will look to build on what was a promising start to last campaign. Joe will be leaving Nkombe Rhino in the capable hands of his brother, Willem, and their employees as he returns to San Diego.

“I have to play rugby and enjoy that while I still can,” Joe said. “I have realized at my age that when it is over, it is over. There is a really good balance at the moment as, when I go to America, I really enjoy playing rugby, I really enjoy what I do out there.

“As a spinoff, by being in America, a lot of our tourism clients and a lot of funding for conservation projects is US-based. So, it really has positive knock-on effects with me being in America and not being in Africa for six months.

“Plus, I do have that team of people on the ground, so it is not like when I am gone it will fall flat. In fact, it may run much better.”