Masixole 'Coyi' Banda (born 11 June 1988) is a South African

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player for the in the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

. He can play as a fly-half, winger or fullback.

Career

Youth and amateur rugby

Banda played his school rugby at Ithembelihle High School, New Brighton until 2010 under the tutelage of Theo Pieterse, who guided the school to being named the School Team of the Year in 2012. Banda was also named in the squad for the 2009 Under-19 Provincial Championship competition and played for them at Under-21 level during the 2010 and

2011 Under-21 Provincial Championship The 2011 ABSA Under-21 Provincial Championship was contested from 15 July to 29 October 2011. The tournament featured the Under-21 players from the fourteen provincial rugby unions in South Africa. Competition Division A There were seven partici ...

seasons, making six starts. He was also included in an side that played against the South Africa Under-20 side in 2011, scoring eleven points in a 31–16 defeat. Banda then joined club side African Bombers. In 2012, Banda started six matches for the in the 2012 Varsity Shield competition – being named the Player that Rocks in their match against – and in 2013, he played for the Bombers in the 2013 SARU Community Cup competition, starting in four of their matches in the competition.

Eastern Province Kings

In 2014, the announced that several club players would join their wider training 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 the Cu ...

. Banda was included in the training squad and was subsequently included in their squad for the tournament. Banda made his first class debut against the in

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...

and scored two first-half tries on debut to help the Kings to a 60–6 against their Eastern Cape rivals. After making five appearances in the Vodacom Cup competition, however, he was dropped for disciplinary reasons after he played in matches for club side African Bombers and not showing up for training sessions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banda, Masixole South African rugby union players Living people 1988 births Rugby union players from Port Elizabeth Eastern Province Elephants players Southern Kings players Border Bulldogs players Griquas (rugby union) players Rugby union fly-halves