Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2020 i SA RUGBY

The first anniversary of the Springboks’ World Cup triumph recently passed by, and there was no shortage of memorable reflections from last year’s unforgettable tournament. Beyond our review of the fascinating Chasing the Sun documentary (pages 68-71), this issue sees us also celebrate the multi-faceted career of stalwart Frans Steyn. The 33-year-old was one of the Springboks’ unsung heroes, and in our cover feature we take a look at the integral role he played on and off the field. We chat to the utility back, as well as coaches and players who know him well, to find out more about the humble superstar who has won two World Cups and remains very much on track for another shot at victory over the British & Irish Lions in 2021. Unfortunately we…

I honestly can’t believe it’s been a whole year since the Springboks lifted the coveted William Webb Ellis trophy in Japan. What is even harder to believe is the fact that on that historic day, when the English were beaten into submission, it would also be the last time we’d see the Boks play rugby for more than a year. If you’d told any rugby supporter this would be the case back then, they would have looked at you sideways. Even so, we’ve all been recently reminded of how it takes a very special team, but more importantly a unique blend of talented and caring individuals, to lift that cup. It may sound like the easiest thing to do but in a brutal professional sport like rugby, not only do…

JACO KRIEL Lazy much? Taking it easy on the last off weekend for a while,’ teased the Lions flank during a relaxing day spent with his dogs. NIZAAM CARR ‘Finally settled in,’ joked the Bulls flank after a training session at Loftus. WILLIE LE ROUX ‘Over 30s club/ joked the Springbok fullback with several of his Toyota Verblitz teammates in Japan. ROHAN JANSE VAN RENSBURG ‘Keep your focus on the things you want to achieve and don’t let people sidetrack you,’ commented the Sale Sharks centre after winning the Premiership Rugby Cup. JOSEPH DWEBA ‘No love is greater than the love of a father and son,’ said the Bordeaux Begles hooker. RHYNO SMITH ‘I am grateful and privileged to have met my childhood hero on the rugby field. True gentleman…

STEFAN TERBLANCHE: ‘There’s a lot of rugby left in Frans Steyn, and he can offer a lot at the Cheetahs and to the youngsters, as well as going into the massive British & Irish Lions tour. He’s such a great rugby talent with natural ability.’ BRAAM VAN STRAATEN: Just looking at Frans, he’s one of the tough guys and he doesn’t mind taking on anyone. That inspires people around him to do the same. He’s an incredible talent, he showed it when he first won the World Cup as a 20-year-old. He brings cohesion and clarity to the game, but the big thing is his calmness because he’s been there. When things start going pear-shaped, he says, “Give me the ball and I’ll show how to take it forward.” These…

Give us some background information about yourself. I was born in Vredenburg on the West Coast. I finished primary school there, but when I turned 13, my dad got a job in Pretoria and we moved there. I was enrolled at Hoërskool Waterkloof because it was close to where we lived and that’s where I started to take rugby seriously. I had played at primary school and the dream was there, but at that point I didn’t really consider it to be a viable career option. At Waterkloof, it became much more of a possibility for me. After school, I was contracted to the Bulls, but in my U19 year I joined the sevens set-up in Stellenbosch. I was supposed to go there only to complete some pre-season training, but…

The post-Covid Currie Cup was supposed to make for captivating viewing not only because the South African rugby public had been starved of live rugby, but also because for the first time in years the Springboks would be playing. Thanks to SA Rugby’s decision to avoid the mugging that would have been the Springboks’ Rugby Championship defence by withdrawing the team from the competition because it was palpably not ready for international rugby, sprinkling the Currie Cup – which was becoming an afterthought – with the gold dust of world champions was exactly what the oldest domestic tournament needed. But while the proposed stars of the show continue to shake off the lockdown rust a few weeks into the campaign, the players who seem to have hijacked the spotlight are…

‘It’s the most wonderful journey South Africa has ever embarked on,’ says Gareth Whittaker of T+W, co-executive producer and series director of Chasing the Sun. 'I spent many days In my office crying because it’s very emotional and it’s a very emotional story. ‘When the crew came back, they had terabytes and terabytes of footage and we then said ‘OK, cool, how can we help you tell this story?’ ‘I don’t think the original plan was a five-episode Springbok rugby story. It was that, This is a special team, it’s a team with a special culture, let’s go in and get exclusive access to this team.” That’s how it all began.’ ’It was tough to know what to leave out. Firstly, there’s this unbelievable behind-the-scenes access which is just remarkable.…

For too long, the Southern Kings have fallen foul of the self-serving - and in some instances, incompetent - villains within the Eastern Cape rugby administration. In the latest chapter of this sorry story, poor governance and financial mismanagement have led to the Kings and their feeder union Eastern Province shutting down for the remainder of the 2020 season. While this raises questions about the future of the franchise, the immediate concern is for the players and coaches who have been left without contracts, salaries and the means to support their families. SA Rugby confirmed the liquidation of the Kings on 19 September. When the official statement dropped, it was accompanied by a timeline that listed the franchise’s lowlights over a period of 10 years. The statement suggested that poor…

’Beauden Is the kind of player, whether at flyhalf or fullback, who has the X factor to change a game with one play,’ says legendary former All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter. ‘He has lightning speed and can do freakish things. In tight World Cup matches, your game management needs to be world class and there have been questions over Beauden. But he is a class player with a cool head, who reads the game well, and there are no worries there. ‘He will learn from his setbacks – like against the Lions when he missed some kicks. The closest thing to a World Cup is a Lions series in terms of being able to perform under pressure, so If he Is In a similar situation I am confident that he…

Tournament structures are changing. South Africa’s top franchises look set to appear in the Prol6 in 2021, the future of the Rugby Championship has been a matter of speculation, and the annual double-header involving the Boks and All Blacks appears to be a thing of the past. We’re unlikely to see these teams competing home and away and it is possible these fixtures will be packaged differently. The upshot is that the sport’s biggest rivalry will play out in South African stadiums on far fewer occasions. The Kiwis will endure a similar wait for what many in New Zealand regard as the game’s most meaningful match-up. South Africans and New Zealanders have a deep-rooted appreciation for this rivalry. I grew up emulating my Springbok heroes whenever I played rugby with…

How has the return to training been going amid the Covld-19 pandemic? There is no real, physical team training at the moment. The Major League Rugby season was cancelled in March, when we were only five games in. They announced the dates in September and we are allowed to start training as a team only in mid-February. As soon as the season was cancelled, most of the foreign guys tried to get out of the country before they closed the borders. There are a couple of us who have moved here permanently. A few of us have tried to play touch rugby once or twice a week and have been doing some of our own exercising. Despite the circumstances, was it frustrating to see the MLR season called off when…

1. Try to make at least one person happy Or, if you’re just a pretty face, flaunt those dimples to the girl in row DD... especially if you’ve just conceded seven tries on your home turf. You can’t change what happened and you’re probably poor at letting yourself off the hook. Or, perhaps, you’re more than happy to throw your mediocre midfielders under the bus. It’s much harder to say something unremarkable or detrimental when you’re trying to enrich someone else’s day, even when all you want to do is funnel a cup of cyanide. 2. Be tough on your judgements, not just your outcomes Suggesting you didn’t score enough points isn’t profound; rather, own the fact you kicked away 95% of your possession (unless you’re playing against Wales, in…

Without the versatility and ability of Frans Steyn, one of the Springboks’ most effective secret weapons at last year’s World Cup would have been neutralised. This is not hyperbole. It has been confirmed by the Springbok coaching staff that their decision to take a gamble on a six-two forwards-to-backs split on the bench was possible only because they had a player like Steyn in their ranks. Beyond his experience, Steyn’s ability to cover every position in the backline, bar scrumhalf, meant the Springboks could get away with the unusual selection. It was this strategy that allowed the Springboks to empower the starting forwards to go flat out from the first minute in a brutal display of power up front before being replaced by the ‘bomb squad’ early in the second…

If JD Schickerling makes his Springbok debut next year, it will mark the apex of a journey which has taken him to hell and back. The 25-year-old has had the attention of the national coaches for some time, but has seen his Test debut delayed by a combination of ill- timed injuries, a loss of form, South Africa’s outstanding depth at lock and perhaps even as a result of an absence of Springbok rugby in 2020 due to Covid-19. However, with Lood de Jager recovering from a third successive shoulder injury and RG Snyman having torn his anterior cruciate ligament, the Springbok door may now be open for him. The Stormers player would find it easy to sympathise with the two World Cup winners, as he has been through his…

The Prol4 ‘It’s a tough competition. Firstly, the weather up north is not what you are used to at home. You get a lot of wet, heavy pitches, it’s rainy and windy most of the time and it’s cold. And the teams play rugby differently: it’s more a tactical game, a more set-piece type of rugby. But it was great playing in the Prol4 season and I think South African teams can definitely do well in that competition.’ His love for athletics during his school days ‘In Grade 11 I had to make the decision to choose between rugby and athletics. I loved athletics, 400m, triple jump, long jump, high jump. I did it from a young age and even went to the SA Junior Championships. But it wasn’t that…

How did your upbringing shape your introduction to rugby? Back in the day it was a bit hard. Both my parents were hard-working but unfortunately, only my father had employment. I have an elder brother, a sister and two younger brothers. It was a bit tough in the sense that we weren’t able to afford everything. But fortunately, I was able to go through my schooling and I started playing rugby when I was about eight at Fauna Primary in Bloemfontein. In fact, my principal saw me running when we had an inter-school athletics day. He asked if I would like to join the U9s rugby team and it started from there. From Fauna Primary I got a scholarship to study at Jim Fouche High School. That’s where I realised…

A coach’s overall aptitude is the most critical determinant to a team’s success. Save your smoke. Allow me to explain. Of course the players at his disposal are important, but extracting their maximum potential requires a coach who has a broad range of elite skills, including having an extremely high level of emotional intelligence and being tactically astute at levels that trump the majority of his counterparts. They also build teams of assistant and specialist coaches that supplement areas in which they may lack. These men amplify the team’s potential for success. Finally, they harness the influence of leaders in the playing group to drive the culture they want to create and assist in implementing the efficient outworking of their tactical philosophy. Great coaches can make teams compromised by a…

Asked why Australia has a knack of finding players who are great at latching on to ball on the ground, James Horwill holds his hands up and says he doesn’t know. If he were to speculate, though, perhaps It Is because kids are being encouraged to play a free-flowing game, rather than stuff the ball up the jumper. Maybe that creates the opportunity for youngsters to identify isolated runners more often and get snaffling in the dirt from an earlier age. That brings us back to the idea of balance. It would feel like a betrayal were Australia to totally give over to pragmatism. It would also feel cruel to deny the strengths of this current crop. Now the director of Gain Line Analytics, Ben Darwin claimed 28 caps between…

CRAIG LEWS SAYS IT’S THEIR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL READINESS It seems unfathomable that the world champions will not play any Test rugby in 2020. After the triumphant highs of 2019, there will be an immense degree of frustration that the Springboks were denied the opportunity to ride the wave of World Cup momentum. Yet, for an array of very good rugby reasons, SA Rugby decided to withdraw the Springboks from Rugby Championship participation. The good news is that one of the byproducts that has come out of this pandemic-disrupted year has been the heightened communication and collaboration between SA Rugby and the franchises. There has also been some innovative thinking, with the introduction of a unique draft pick system before a ‘Springbok Showdown’ trials match. Then there was the formation…

After the first Bledisloe Cup Test of the year, which saw Australia and New Zealand play to a thrilling 16-16 draw in Wellington, former Wallabies wing David Campese made some bold proclamations. ‘NZ Rugby came out and has been so arrogant about Super Rugby, and I’m sitting there thinking, “You know guys, you’re going to fall on your sword very soon,” and it’s starting to happen now. That All Blacks aura is gone. The younger guys are not composed, they’re not the same.’ As if on cue, though, the All Blacks then produced a much improved performance to claim a comprehensive 27-7 win just a week later, with Campese taking to Instagram to post a video where he admitted to ‘eating humble pie’. I’d like to thank all those All…

‘Frans Steyn was already well known to French rugby fans when he joined Jake White at Montpellier in 2016 to become one of the club’s ‘LangueBoks’ - a reference to the historic Languedoc region of south-west France in which the city sits and the number of players of South African origin at the club,’ says France-based journalist James Harrington, who followed Steyn’s career closely. ‘He had played 57 times in a three-season stint with Racing between 2009 and 2012, before returning to the Sharks. The Jake White era at Montpellier was an uncomfortable mix of measurable success on the pitch and falling attendances as crowds, used to the ‘sexy rugby’ of his predecessor Fabien Galthie, struggled to come to terms with the more direct and uncompromising style of the South…

In a recent press conference, Stormers forwards coach Rlto Hlungwani made an Interesting comparison between Schickerling and his Stormers second-row partner Salmaan Moerat and legendary Springboks Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha. Dobson, however, explains that the Stormers duo’s partnership is not as ‘cut-and-dried’ as that of Matfield and Botha. ‘One isn’t just a jumper and one isn’t just a physical brute,’ the coach explains. They both like doing the physical, hard work. JD is becoming a lineout expert. But they both like moving bodies, carrying ball and cleaning breakdowns. ’I think if you have one who only thinks about the lineouts and only one guy left to clean, this partnership is actually more powerful because both of them are putting in the hard work too. JD is prepared to play…

One of the quirks of editing this publication is the selection of a cover star. As print deadline day approaches, it’s impossible to not quietly pray to the rugby gods that the selected player avoids any serious injury. It’s the nature of the game, but increasingly I have found myself cringing when we have chosen a player who loves to compete for turnovers at the breakdown. For example, earlier this year we’d chosen to celebrate the success of World Cup hero Bongi Mbonambi. The magazine had already gone off to print when the Stormers hooker went in to compete at the breakdown and was trapped by opposing players looking to remove him from the ruck, tearing his hamstring in the process. It was an awful injury. The risks associated with…

There was something about Beauden Barrett’s body language that told a bigger story when he played against the Chiefs at Eden Park in Super Rugby Aotearoa. He was moving that little bit quicker than he had been in previous weeks. He was almost skipping as the ball came his way, his hands were out, his brain flicking through the options as he assessed the shape of the rushing defence. There was an energy about him, a boldness in his decision-making that hadn’t been apparent, or actually had been missing in his previous five games for the Blues. Perhaps it was a sign that having not played rugby between November and June, he was finally feeling more like himself halfway through Super Rugby Aotearoa. Maybe. But really what had sparked him…

15. STEFAN TERBLANCHE The safest player in the air and on defence. He is also a great leader at the back. 14. BRYAN HANBANA The best finisher to play the game. He had a great work ethos and was very strong under the high ball and with the kick chase. 13. BRIAN O'DRISCOLL. A great rugby player who was excellent on attack and defence. One of the best to play the game. 12. FRANS STEYN Big, strong and always gets you over the advantage line. It’s like you have an extra flyhalf on the field with him and he poses a massive threat with his boot. 11. JP PIETERSEN He’s always an In-your- face type of player. He Is also a great finisher with that long stride of his. 10.…