Bok Dilyn Leyds up for top honour
IT REALLY has been a special year for Dillyn Leyds.
He’s been in scintillating form for the Stormers in Super Rugby and Western Province in the Currie Cup, and his Springbok call-up for the three-Test series against France in June was the perfect reward for his top Super Rugby performances.
But against the French, Leyds’ enjoyed very little game time, and not much changed in the first four rounds of the Rugby Championship. The talented utility back finally got his starting chance against the Wallabies in Bloemfontein. Against the All Blacks, he got that chance again. And he did not disappoint. Not at all.
And now, after he had a stint with the Western Force in 2014 – one that Leyds believes made him “really work” for what he wanted – Bok number 885 is keen to keep enjoying the game… just like he did as a “seven-year-old kid in Strand”.
“With my injury I had a lot of time away from the game to think about where I can improve and where I can get better, and the one thing I said to myself was that it doesn’t matter if I’m playing or not, I just want to enjoy what I’m doing,” Leyds said.
“I think a lot of times before that I put a lot of pressure on myself to play the perfect game every weekend, but obviously, in this industry, that’s never going happen. So I went back to enjoying myself. I always want to feel like I’m that seven-year-old kid who started playing rugby in Strand, and I think that was important for me, just to get that enjoyment back.
“Those couple of months (in Perth) hanging around senior Wallabies and a couple of All Blacks as well… it just helped me so much to see how they go about things and in Perth it was all about the enjoyment of rugby. I definitely think the stint in Perth helped and it took me out of my comfort zone and made me really work for what I wanted.”
Leyds started against the All Blacks this past weekend, when the Kiwis walked away with a narrow 25-24 win, and it was obviously a massive improvement from the 57-0 Albany catastrophe. And although the Boks missed out on the win, Leyds reckons that their performance restored a lot of pride in the green and gold outfit.
“Obviously the result didn’t go our way at the weekend. No matter what the result was, we just wanted people to believe in the Springboks again. We showed a lot of character and put a lot of pride back into the jersey, and I think that was the end goal,” he said.
Just like the notion that Leyds fully deserves those three awards, I don’t think anybody can argue with the man himself when he says the Boks showed a lot of character against the All Blacks. They certainly did. But let’s get to Leyds’ individual moments.
That freakishly amazing offload against the Chiefs at Newlands might have set his year off to a great start, but that certainly wasn’t where it ended for the new Bok. In fact, it was only the first of many great moments for him.
Okay, so Leyds’ pass that put SP Marais away for the try (hereinafter referred to as that pass, after all, I don’t think further explanation of how great it was is needed), wasn’t the 25-year-old’s first memorable moment this year. I’m sure his first Super Rugby game after his lengthy 2016 injury – a game in which they beat their old foes (the Bulls) at Newlands – was also up there when it comes to his 2017 highlights.
But just as that pass deserves a bit more credit due it being a piece of individual brilliance by him, so do the rest of his individual moments.
And him scooping three gongs at the annual Western Province Rugby Football Union awards ceremony on Tuesday night is one of those top individual moments.
But Leyds doesn’t seem to think so, he doesn’t seem to think that those awards were a reward for “individual” success. Actually, the skillful back believes that in a team full of deserving candidates, he’s “just the lucky one who walked away with the awards.”
At the event, Leyds bagged the Most Valuable Player, Senior Bounce Player of the Year, and the Composure and Capability awards. And after being asked to pose for more pictures and selfies after the night’s proceedings than what he can probably remember, Leyds said: “I think this whole year has been pretty special, especially after the setback I had last year.
“It’s never easy to come back from that sort of thing, it’s sort of a nice way of acknowledging the hard work that I’ve put in. But in saying that, none of this would have been possible without the team.
“The team have put in a lot of hard work, and I guess I’m just the lucky one who walked away with the awards.”