Springboks to feel the green, green grass of home

SOUTH Africa are going to extraordinary lengths to make their players feel at home at the Rugby World Cup in England, including putting grass grown at home in the dressing room before matches.

The Springboks have a theme for their participation in the September 18 to October 31 tournament, which they have dubbed “Home Ground Advantage”, suggesting the entire country will be behind them even if they are 16 000km away.

Many South Africans have questioned if the team has been transformed enough to reflect South Africa’s demographics, leaving them feeling alienated from the side.

Against this backdrop, the South African Rugby Union, in an attempt to foster unity, has brought a tangible aspect to the campaign.

A special piece of turf is being grown in soil drawn from all 14 South African rugby regions.

The seed will be taken to England where it will be planted and placed in special trays in the Springbok dressing room.

The South African turf will be the last thing the players’ boots touch before they run on to the field during the tournament.

“We wanted some way to make our Home Ground Advantage campaign tangible for the players,” SARU chief executive Jurie Roux said yesterday.

“They know that back home and in the stands there will be passionate South Africans cheering them on. But this will be a visible and physical reminder of what they are playing for and from where they come. The soil has been sent to us from the provinces all over South Africa; it couldn’t get more South African.

“The Rugby World Cup comes round only every four years and we know how much sporting success has meant to our country. Now is the time to show the players that we are with them every step of the way.”

South Africa have been drawn in Pool B against Japan, Samoa, Scotland and the US. – Reuters

RESILIENCE and fighting spirit are surely at the heart of any Rugby World Cup-winning effort, and it is perhaps an omen that this year’s Boks have these ingredients in abundance in the form of a host of players who are defying medical reason.

Four of the players have come within millimetres of breaking their necks; captain Jean de Villiers is a marvel of recovery from “career-ending” injuries, and even youngster Pieter-Steph du Toit is a miracle inclusion after two catastrophic knee injuries in two seasons. In another era, the first would have ended his career. And then lightning struck twice and again he made it back on to the playing field.

The players who have had neck surgery are Duane Vermeulen, Patrick Lambie, Schalk Burger and Coenie Oosthuizen. All suffered neck vertebrae injuries that could have put them in wheelchairs had fortune smiled the other way.

But they are back on the field playing. It says as much about modern science as it does about the human spirit.

And the resilience and fighting spirit of those players can only resonate about the squad, even on a subconscious level. The never-say-die attitude of players who should be at home rocking their children’s prams contributes enormously to the squad’s resolve.

All around are examples of players who put their bodies on the line for their country or province, recovered against the odds, and are willing to do it again.

There truly are living legends in the Bok squad. Victor Matfield and Fourie du Preez have glittering careers that speak for themselves, but the heartbeat of the squad is Burger and De Villiers, the ultimate Springbok warriors.

Both of them could have retired long ago with their names safely stored in Springbok Valhalla, but they have shrugged off illness and injury to defy the measured steps of Father Time.

Burger was so close to death from bacterial meningitis that his family were called to say their last goodbyes. Schalk managed to smile at them, and in his fuzzy brain he was saying: “No folks, it ain’t gonna end like this.”

Those Laureate folk in Switzerland got it right. Comeback of the year by a country mile.

So who are they going to give it to next year? How about Jean de Villiers, who leads the Boks at the World Cup after defying reason and medical opinion to recover from a total knee reconstruction, and then a broken jaw in his comeback at Test level.

There have been several occasions in his career when doctors have advised him to stop.

I clearly recall him sitting on a bar stool at the Leederville Hotel in Perth in 2003, arm in a sling, listening patiently to adoring travelling fans at the 2003 World Cup, and he smiled at a few of us reporters and said: “No, this is not how it is going to end.”

Four years later, half an hour into the opening match against Samoa, he was in the first aid room in agony, holding a torn bicep. At half-time John Smit went to see him and he said: “No ways, it does not end like this!”

Burger and De Villiers have been good friends and comradessince they were infants. They were Paarl Gimnasium boys, although Jean was two years older.

In fact, when Schalk was at death’s door, he was already, unwittingly playing a part in the recovery of an injury that De Villiers had yet to suffer.

Jean has said that he looked at the fight in Schalk, and took great faith from what the mind and body can achieve.

And then came De Villiers’s watershed moment at Cardiff.

He recalls looking up into the Cardiff night and initially thinking it was all over. When he was lifted on to the cart, he reportedly then looked up at Bok assistant coach Johan van Graan and said defiantly: “Not like this. I don’t want it to end like this…”