Former Club Captain Returns to the Weston-super-Mare fold.

Weston-super-Mare RFC have announced former Club Captain Marcus Nel, rejoining from Clifton, as their first signing ahead of the 2025/26 season with the Seasiders having been given a sideways move to the Regional 2 Tribute South West league.

The former Zimbabwe international was named in the Rugby Paper’s National Two West Dream Team, where they said: ‘Nel possesses strong running and is a hard-tackling centre who’s been at the heart of Clifton’s success this season.’ He was also voted the National League 2 West Player of the Season.

PALMERS QUALITY BUTCHERS of Weston-super-Mare, a long-time supporter of Marcus and the Weston-super-Mare Club, will sponsor the powerful and athletic centre as the Seasiders look to progress back up the rugby pyramid.

“The experience, both on and off the field, will be invaluable to Weston-super-Mare as we will face several Clubs for the first time in the South West league,” said director of rugby, Mark Matthews.

“After a disappointing start to the 2024/25 Regional Tribute 2 Severn season, which saw six defeats in eight outings in the opening two months, Weston-super-Mare 1st XV rallied to finish the campaign in seventh place.

“Marcus is the first of a number of signings that we will be announcing in the coming weeks to ensure that we have a strong squad of players ready for pre-season training in July and a series of exciting pre-season games in August.”

Nel is a lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at the University of the West of England as well as the Founder of ‘Ahead for the Game’, which has the vision that individuals must be prepared and in the right headspace for performance.

The highly qualified Sport Psychologist has also worked with organisations such as the Bristol Bears and Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, delivering tailored psychological support to optimise performance and wellbeing.

Born and bred in Zimbabwe, Nel studied at Rhodes University in South Africa. He represented the Zimbabwe U20s side and played a season with the Zimbabwe Goshawks in the Currie Cup First Division.

He moved to the UK in 2016 to do an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of the West of England. He joined Weston-super-Mare Rugby Club and made his debut in the Somerset Cup semi-final win over the University of Bath.

He made 11 appearances that season as Weston remained unbeaten to be crowned South West One champions, securing promotion to the South West Premier, and beating Clevedon in the Somerset Cup final.

Having made 74 appearances in his four seasons with the Seasiders, scoring 22 tries, he succeeded Sam Coles as Club Captain when Weston finished the 2019/20 as the South West Premier league’s runners-up.

‘It was a tough choice to leave the Club in June 2020, but I said that it was a place that made me feel at home and will be ‘my club’ forever and that I hoped I’d be able to return one day. That time is now,” said Nel.

“My view then and now of the Club is unchanged. It is a Club capable of playing at a higher level and needs to strive for that as a collective. Ultimately, to continue to be an open-arms Club that welcomes people and strives to make them better players and people.”

Nel signed for Clifton at the end of that season but did not debut until the start of the 2021/22 season owing to the pandemic. On his debut against Barnstaple, he scored two tries and collected the man of the match award.

He made 90 appearances for the Lavender and Blacks, scoring 20 tries and landing a conversion, and had a spell as Club Captain. He was part of Clifton’s side, which won promotion to National League 1 for the coming season.

In May 2021, Nel, who can play in the centre, fly-half or full back, was named in Zimbabwe’s training camp in Harare, preparing for the Africa Cup, the precursor for the Rugby World Cup, and 2023 World Cup qualifiers and gained five caps.

Photos HERE of Marcus Nel with Craig Kennedy, Director of Palmers Quality Butchers of Weston-super-Mare, who are sponsoring Marcus.