Being a son of the goldfields soil in Welkom, newly elected Free State Rugby Union president Jerry Segwaba was always going to gravitate towards rugby.
After all, the home of the Purple People Easters (The Griffons/Northern Free State) is 153km north of Bloemfontein, the central rugby heartland with a school (Grey College) that has provided 45 Springboks.
The 48-year-old Segwaba, who is also a South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) board member, said South African Rugby is in need of transformation while stressing the need for Free State Rugby to have its own academy.
"My number one goal is to ensure there is an academy for the union so we cannot only harness the available talent, but also nurture those who are new to the game but are very talented," he said.
"We don't have our own academy and we're actually outsourcing it.
"I also want to help increase the annual grant to the clubs so the clubs can develop properly through age groups.
"There needs to be more investment in that regard while there also needs to be more growth in schools rugby outside of Grey College."
TRANSFORMATION STILL NEEDED
"There's no doubt about it, transformation has to be part of rugby for the next few years and the SA Rugby Union made a commitment in terms of transformation.
"They said come the next Rugby World Cup, the team must be made up of 50% black players.
"We have to do our work in terms of being the correct feeders at all levels from a merit perspective and not just filling up quotas."
While Segwaba's administration roll call since 1995, when he served as Japan's media liaison officer in the World Cup, to his replacing of Lindsay Mould last week, being a Sascoc board member means being part of the inquiry into the Olympic body's maladministration.
Segwaba, who is also president of the Free State Sports Confederation, said he was happy to be part of this process.
"By virtue of being a Sascoc board member, when the inquiry does eventually start, I will be part of that process," he said. "There's no way I can't be part of it because of the post that I occupy there."..