Ruwellyn Miguel Isbell (born 17 February 1993) is a South African professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player for the in the

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

and in the Rugby Challenge. His regular position is winger.

Career

Youth

In 2006, he appeared for Eastern Province at the Under-13 Craven Week competition. He then joined Grey College in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein ( ; ), also known as Bloem, is the capital and the largest city of the Free State (province), Free State province in South Africa. It is often, and has been traditionally, referred to as the country's "judicial capital", alongsi ...

and played for the Free State Under-16 side at the 2009 Grant Khomo Week and their Under-18 side at the 2011

Craven Week The Craven Week is an annual rugby union tournament organised for schoolboys in the Republic of South Africa. The tournament started in July 1964, and is named after the legendary Springbok rugby union player and coach Dr Danie Craven. The ...

, alongside future

Springbok The springbok or springbuck (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is an antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus (biology), genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first Species description, described by the Germa ...

Jan Serfontein Jan Lodewyk Serfontein (born 15 April 1993) is a South African professional rugby union rugby player. He plays as a centre for French Top 14 side . He established himself as one of 's key players and made a major contribution to the club's fir ...

. In 2010, he was included in an Under-18 High Performance squad that played in international friendlies against youth sides from France, Namibia and England. The following year, he was included in the S.A. Schools side that faced a France Invitational side, but missed the game through injury. He moved to

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

in 2012 to join the academy. He made ten appearances and scored three tries during the

2012 Under-19 Provincial Championship The 2012 ABSA Under-19 Provincial Championship was contested from 13 July to 27 October 2012 in South Africa. The tournament featured the Under-19 players from the fourteen Currie Cup unions. Competition Division A There were seven participati ...

competition as the side reached the final of the competition.

Sevens

At the end of 2012, Isbell received a call-up to the

South Africa Sevens The South Africa Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament that is held in South Africa. It is currently hosted in Cape Town and is part of the Sevens World Series run by World Rugby. A South African leg of the World series has been included ...

side for the

2012–13 IRB Sevens World Series The 2012–13 IRB Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 14th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for full national sides. The IRB Sevens World Series has been run by the International Rug ...

and he made his debut at the

2012 Gold Coast Sevens The 2012 Gold Coast Sevens was the first tournament of the 2012-2013 Sevens World Series. It was held over the weekend of 13–14 October 2012 at Robina Stadium (known for sponsorship reasons as Skilled Park) in Queensland, Australia, and was t ...

. He also played in the

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

and South African legs of the competition and won a gold medal at the

2013 World Games The 2013 World Games (), the ninth World Games, were an international multi-sport event held in the city of Cali, Colombia, from July 25 to August 4. It is the first edition of the World Games to be held in South America. Host city allocation hi ...

Pumas

He moved to

Nelspruit Mbombela, formerly Nelspruit, is a city in northeastern South Africa. It is the capital of the Mpumalanga province. Located on the Crocodile River, the city lies about by road west of the Mozambique border, east of Johannesburg and north of ...

-based side in 2014. He was included in their squad for the

2014 Vodacom Cup The 2014 Vodacom Cup was played between 7 March and 16 May 2014 and was the 17th edition of this annual domestic cup competition. This edition of the Vodacom Cup was played between fourteen provincial rugby union teams in South Africa from th ...

competition and made his debut for them in the opening match of the season against the . He was a member of the Pumas side that won the

Vodacom Cup The Vodacom Cup was an annual rugby union competition in South Africa. Annual Vodacom Cup competitions were played between its inaugural season in 1998 and 2015 and was contested between February and May each year. The Vodacom Cup was the succes ...

for the first time in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, beating 24–7 in the final. Isbell made three appearances during the season, scoring three tries.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isbell, Ruwellyn 1993 births Living people People from Blue Crane Route Local Municipality South African rugby union players Pumas (Currie Cup) players South Africa international rugby sevens players World Games gold medalists for South Africa World Games medalists in rugby sevens Rugby union players from the Eastern Cape Alumni of Grey College, Bloemfontein Medalists at the 2013 World Games 21st-century South African sportsmen