New Lions’ anchor more than just a dreamer
● Carlu Sadie is living his dream.
It is a dream that has lingered with the Lions’ tighthead prop, one in which a gradually unfolding plot is bringing him inexorably closer to a long-envisaged climax.
This week he recalled the time he first articulated that dream.
“I saw Duane Vermeulen in a shop in Durbanville and I told my mom that I would love to play rugby with him,” revealed Sadie. “I also said so to him but I doubt he’d remember. I was in grade nine, I think. So far I’ve followed the path to that dream,” said Sadie, who is on loan from the Stormers.
Steeled with the belief “if you can dream it, you can do it”, Sadie has set about a path “to be the best rugby player and human being I can be”.
The Lions have provided him a fresh realm in which to pursue it and in return he appears to be the ballast to their scrum. He needed to move north. It was hard to get around the fact that the wide-bodied Frans Malherbe and the even more broadly dimensioned Wilco Louw were ahead of him in the tighthead queue at the Stormers.
“It’s odd. About three weeks before Swys de Bruin (Lions coach) called me I was reading up on the Lions. I read that they are one big family. When Swys called I realised it was now or never.”
His move was seamless but he admits, however, that leaving his family, friends and the opportunity to walk on the beach took some doing.
Plying a different trade
Sadie is close to his engineer dad and bookkeeper mom. “I don’t come from a rugby family. My granddad and dad played rugby at school. They enjoyed their rugby. My dad told me the day I stop enjoying it I should stop. They fully support me. There is no pressure on me,” said Sadie who adds he’d probably own a business as a plumber or electrician if he didn’t ply his trade as a rugby player.
Given his physical dimensions Sadie was always going to be noticed. “I was always a tighthead. From a young age they realised I was a bulletjie,” said the Lions’ anchor in the scrum and immovable object at the ruck.
“Size-wise I always stood out. By grade six the others caught up but then I had another burst in size, not in height, but width,” said the 21-year-old who is endowed with tree-trunk legs. “I weigh between 128kg and 130kg. I’m working with our conditioning team to get to my fighting weight of 125kg.”
He made it clear it was a big adjustment to pull a Lions jersey over his head. “From very young I’ve been a WP and Stormers supporter. To be honest, my heart has shifted to the Lions. All my focus is here. It is a big honour to wear that jersey. I will give everything for this union.
“The Lions are pushing me in the right direction. They help me in all aspects of the game. They are helping me realise my dream. I’m inexperienced but I’m hoping to grow.
“I don’t know if I’ll stay here. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”