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Rugby ATL will have a strong South African flavor to it with three more professionals heading across the Atlantic to take up residence for the 2020 Major League Rugby season. Two have Super Rugby experience. With Springbok Sevens cap Ryan Nell already under wraps, Johan Momsen, Marno Redelinghuys, and Kurt Coleman will join the team for their maiden voyage.
Second row Momsen, 24, arrives on loan from Griquas where he appeared in 6 matches during the Currie Cup Premier Division. He won Varsity Cup titles in 2018 and 2019 with Maties, from the University of Stellenbosch, and captained the side this past season. Earlier this year Momsen was named Western Province Club Player of the Year.
Redelinghuys, like Momsen, played for Maties and stands 6’5″ (1.96m) but operates in the back row at either blindside flanker or No8. The 26-year-old switched to Western Province in 2018 after three Currie Cup campaigns with the Leopards. He skippered Western Province in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge and made his Super Rugby debut for the Stormers as a replacement against the Lions in June of this year.
A flyhalf specialist and accomplished goal kicker, Coleman joined the Stormers as a 21-year-old in 2011 and would play 42 Super Rugby matches including 15 starts through the 2017 season. Coleman moved to the Southern Kings for the 2017-18 Guinness Pro 14 season where he was the starting No10, but a broken leg suffered in March 2018 ruled him out of the rest of the year. Now fully recovered, the 29-year-old brings much-needed experience to a young ATL side whose average age is just 25.
The four professionals will be welcomed by three other South Africans. Former Life University hooker Neethling Gericke also hails from the Western Cape and turned out for Maties in the Varsity Cup. The van Schalkwyk brothers – Duncan and Zander – are originally from Pretoria though they moved to the USA in 2005 with their family.
