Retshegofaditswe 'Tshego' Nché – more commonly referred to as Ox Nché – (born 23 July 1995) is a South African

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 United Rugby Championship and the South African national team (the Springboks). His regular position is prop. He is an internationally acclaimed scrummager.

Club rugby

Youth (2011–14)

Nché first earned provincial selection in 2011, when he was included in the Free State squad that participated at the Under-16 Grant Khomo Week in Queenstown. In 2012, Nché represented Free State at the premier high school rugby union competition in South Africa – the Under-18 Craven Week competition – held in

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, starting all three of Free State's matches, despite still being in the Under-17 age-group. After the tournament, he was selected in a South African Schools squad that played against

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, Wales and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He was an unused substitute in the first two matches, but started the match against England. Nché once again played in all three of Free State's matches at the 2013 Under-18 Craven Week competition held in Polokwane, scoring a try in their opening match against Eastern Province. He was once again included in the South African Schools side in 2013, this time starting two matches against England and Wales. He also made three appearances for the s during the 2013 Under-19 Provincial Championship. Nché was a key player for the team in the 2014 Under-19 Provincial Championship, starting all thirteen of their matches in the competition as his side finished second on the log before losing 22–29 to eventual champions in the semi-finals. Nché scored three tries during the round-robin stage of the competition, scoring in their matches against Western Province U19, and .

Varsity Cup

In 2015, Nché was named in the squad for the 2015 Varsity Cup competition. He started the competition as a reserve, playing off the bench on five occasions before being named in the starting line-up for the first time in their final regular season match against . He retained his starting spot for their 21–10 victory over defending champions in the semi-final and also started the final, helping UFS Shimlas to a 63–33 victory against NWU Pukke to win the competition for the first time in their history.

International

Nché was named in a 37-man South Africa Under-20 training squad and played for them in a 31–24 victory in a friendly match against a Varsity Cup Dream Team that was named at the conclusion of the 2015 Varsity Cup competition. He was then named in their squad to tour

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for a two-match series as preparation for the 2015 World Rugby Under 20 Championship. He started their 25–22 victory over

in the first match, but did not feature in their 39–28 win in the second match four days later. Upon the team's return, Nché was named in the final squad for the 2015 World Rugby Under 20 Championship. He started all three of their matches in Pool B of the competition; a 33–5 win against hosts

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, a 40–8 win against

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and a 46–13 win over

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. Nché scored one of six tries in their match against Australia to help South Africa finish top of Pool B to qualify for the semi-finals with the best record pool stage of all the teams in the competition. Nché started their semi-final match against

, but could not prevent them losing 20–28 to be eliminated from the competition by England for the second year in succession. He started their third-place play-off match against

, helping South Africa to a 31–18 win to win the bronze medal.

Test Match record

Pld = Games Played, W = Games Won, D = Games Drawn, L = Games Lost, Tri = Tries Scored, Pts = Points Scored

Honours

* 2023 - “” (Honour of the Barolong Tribe in Nation) by Kgosi Gaboilelwe Moroka in Barolong, Thaba 'Nchu. * 2023 Rugby World Cup winner * 2023–24 EPCR Challenge Cup winner * 2024 Rugby Championship winner

References

External links

Ox Nché
at Springboks * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nche, Ox South African rugby union players Living people 1995 births Rugby union players from Bloemfontein Rugby union props Free State Cheetahs players South Africa Under-20 international rugby union players South Africa international rugby union players Cheetahs (rugby union) players Sharks (rugby union) players Sharks (Currie Cup) players 2023 Rugby World Cup players Sotho-Tswana people 21st-century South African sportsmen