Prince William hooked on rugby as he tackles climate change in Africa

Prince William got a taste of the Springboks’ legendary physicality as he joined a charity rugby event in Cape Town.

The future king, wearing a smart jacket from an earlier event in the South African city and sporting a full beard, joined children from Ocean View Secondary School in a training session with several South African stars, including Joel Stransky.

Getting stuck into a drill encouraging kicking, handling and counter-attacking, Stransky – who scored all of the Springboks’ points in their 1995 World Cup win over New Zealand – saw William going for the ball and couldn’t resist grabbing his arm.

The prince got a consoling pat on the back from England legend Jason Leonard.

“It just happened – instinct took over, I guess. I just thought afterwards, ‘oh no, I’ve grabbed a prince’,” Stransky said.

“But he’s a lovely guy, very humble. He was so genuine. And I think he enjoyed it, to be honest.

“I expect in his role he would like to get out there and do more things like this.”

William was meeting young people who live in the Ocean View, Masiphumelele and Lange townships who take part in the Atlas Foundation rugby training and digital skills programme, founded by Leonard, hours after arriving in Cape Town for his annual Earthshot Prize environmental awards.

Several children shouted “tackle the prince” and grabbed the royal, stopping him in his tracks.

Earlier in the day, William, 42, met young environmentalists taking part in his Earthshot initiative and told them: “You’re going to change the world.”

During an off-the-cuff speech, the prince told the 120 youngsters from across Africa and South-East Asia: “The Earthshot Prize believes in you and the reason we set the prize up is for moments like this.

“All of you in this room are future change-makers, you’re the leaders, you’re the people who are going to make the difference going forwards.’

The Earthshot Prize was devised by William and his team after the prince expressed frustration at the level of “pessimism and despair” around the environment and climate crisis.

Entrants range from a company which has created sustainable refrigeration to one that takes harmful CO2 out of the oceans.

Africa is an emotive location for William, who found ‘healing’ on the continent following the death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales. He also proposed to Kate Middleton in Kenya.

But Africa is also the continent that, while contributing least to global warming and having the lowest global emissions, is more adversely affected by the impact of climate change than any other.