Rushine De Reuck Bafana Bafana Starting XI

Rushine De Reuck of South Africa during the 2021 COSAFA Cup match between South Africa and Eswatini at Nelson Isaac Wolfson Stadium, Port Elizabeth, on 08 July 2021 ©Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix

Rushine De Reuck savours Bafana Bafana’s Cosafa Cup glory

Rushine De Reuck has no problem with suspending his time off for national duty after Bafana Bafana won the recent Cosafa Cup.

Rushine De Reuck Bafana Bafana Starting XI

Rushine De Reuck of South Africa during the 2021 COSAFA Cup match between South Africa and Eswatini at Nelson Isaac Wolfson Stadium, Port Elizabeth, on 08 July 2021 ©Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix

Rushine De Reuck has no problem with suspending his time off for national duty after Bafana Bafana won the Cosafa Cup.

De Reuck was one of the star performers as Bafana broke a five-year long duck in the regional tournament.

Rushine De Reuck savours Cosafa Cup glory

Taking a leaf out of another regional tournament’s book, Cosafa invited Senegal to participate in the tournament but a South African team made up largely of locally-based players put together a string of solid performances and overcame the West Africans in a penalty shootout in the final.

De Reuck was part of a defence that kept six straight clean sheets in the tournament. He credits the winning mentality at Mamelodi Sundowns with giving him a competitive edge in internationals.

Rushine De Reuck
Rushine De Reuck of Mamelodi Sundowns FC during the DStv Premiership 2020/21 game between AmaZulu and Mamelodi Sundowns at Kings Park Stadium on 21 April 2021 © Steve Haag/Sports Inc

“Obviously I am tired, I am not going to lie, but it was worthwhile for me because we won the trophy,” said De Reuck as quoted by the Citizen.

“After we won the league I spent a few days at home and then went straight to Bafana. It wasn’t easy but as footballers, you want to be part of the environment and be part of the national team so you can’t complain.

“I am happy that we managed to win the trophy because as players we had the responsibility to do well for the country … it is clear that it is not in a good state. The winning mentality starts at Sundowns and I feel like we took that to the national team,” he said.

The former Maritzburg United defender was handed the added responsibility of being vice-captain and as leader of the defence felt he carried out his assignments to the tee.

“I was new in the national team and I am embracing the new role of being vice-captain and I’ve done quite well because I needed to be a leader and lead from the back. We’ve kept six clean sheets and I am very happy about that. As players we knew the responsibility that we have and we knew how many people were watching Bafana, so we knew that we needed to perform really well to make the people of South Africa proud,” De Reuck said.