Clement had nothing to lose
•The Cheetahs will be pleased they got the Sunwolves out of the way with the points in the bag, writes
Jacques van der Westhuyzen.
Up against the weakest side in the Super Rugby competition, they were made to fight till the very end to secure a 38-31 win after a gutsy and much-improved showing by the Sunwolves of Japan.
The visitors were on the board as early as the first minute when fullback Shota Emi slipped past two Cheetahs defenders to score the opening try. It was a lead the Sunwolves would hold onto for 15 minutes.
It took a piece of individual excellence to get the home team going and it was none other than captain Torsten van Jaarsveld who scored his team’s opening try.
BILTONG, beach and braai. Those are the three words that Clement Poitrenaud uses to sum up his lifestyle experience in Durban, where he is the latest export to Sharks rugby from France, continuing a tradition that started in 1995 and 1996 with French internationals Olivier Roumat and Thierry Lacroix, and was revived three years ago by Frederic Michalak.
Here is an interesting fact. Michalak and Poitrenaud are natives of Toulouse. They met when they were six years old at “mini rugby” in the southern French city, they went to school together, won their first title with Toulouse at the age of 18, debuted together for France in the Test match against the Springboks in Paris in 2001 (won 20-10 by France), and now 34-year-old Poitrenaud is in Durban at the behest of Michalak, following in the footsteps of his best mate in the cafes of Umhlanga Rocks, north of Durban.
Poitrenaud, the most personable, laid-back Frenchman you could hope to meet, says that last year his time was up with Toulouse (they did not want to offer him an extension on his contract at 33), and he was happy to retire when he received a call from the Sharks’ Chief Financial Officer, Eduard Coetzee (a former Sharks prop and Toulouse player) about a renaissance in Durban.
“I called Freddie for advice, and he said: ‘Go! Pack your bags and go. You will have an awesome time in South Africa. It is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to experience a very different country and you will play rugby at a new level. Super Rugby is special.”
And so he took up residence in Umhlanga Rocks late last year, along with his partner and his young son, Marcus.
“I have never slept so well in my life,” Poitneaud smiles when asked about the pre-season in the heat and humidity of Durban in November, December and January.
“I have never experienced anything close to that. The heat was just too much and then the fitness training was on a level I never experienced even when with the French team preparing for World Cups.”
He says that nevermind the stifling heat, the three months pre-season training was double what he experienced in 16 years as a senior at Toulouse.
“It is a different ball game, if you will pardon the expression. In France we have six weeks maximum pre-season before playing 30 games, nonstop.
“Super Rugby is three months of training and then 15 or so games before a good break before the Currie Cup,” he reflects.
In what could well be a world record for first class rugby, Poitrenaud was capped 337 times for Toulouse between 2000 and 2016. In that time he earned 47 Test caps for France and played in two World Cups.
“Fred said: ‘My advice to you is go an enjoy good rugby, good times, good food and good people. South Africans will look after you, it is in their nature to be hospitable and you will return to France very pleased that you took a chance on experiencing something very different.”
Poitrenaud added: “When I was picked to start against the Brumbies, Freddie sent me a whatsapp, saying he was proud of me and that I must do France proud.”
Toulouse, in the south of France, is 45km from the closest beach. In Umhlanga Rocks, the Poitneraud clan is only a few hundred metres from the Indian Ocean.
“We enjoy our walks on the beach when I have my time off from training. It is amazing to be a Frenchman with his family in South Africa. I never forgot Gurthro Steenkamp giving me a taste of biltong in Toulouse and saying I must get stuck into it in South Africa if I ever got there. I have fallen in love with it.”
He is not so sure about the boerewors, though.
“That sausage Gurthro spoke about, I am not too keen on that but we are loving ‘the braai’. In the south of France we also like meat, and here we are in heaven with the braais.”
Poitreneaud’s English is surprisingly good. Better than that of Michalak, his buddy since infancy.
“Twenty years ago, we could not speak English in France but thing have changed so much in rugby. About 50 percent of the French clubs have players from Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand, so there has been a need for us to learn English and for them to learn French,” he says.
“Here at the Sharks, Eduard Coetzee is fluent in French and so are players that spent a long time in France, such as Michael Claassens and Philip van der Walt.
“So if I have a need to have something better explained to me, I can look to them.”