Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
An unbelievable fairytale for hard worker Van Winkel
MIRROR, mirror on the wall who’s the greatest writer of them all?
Even if False Bay flank Justin van Winkel got the answer he desired, he doesn’t believe his fairytale season could have been scripted better.
While one of his dreams was in reach at the start of the season – that of playing in his 200th match for his beloved club, the other was a long shot.
With Maties dominating the club scene for a number of decades already, non-university clubs rarely get to lift WP’s Grand Challenge Cup – the Super League A trophy.
The last non-varsity team to do so was Hamiltons back in 2009, with UCT winning the trophy in 2011.
In fact, since the turn of the decade those were the only times Maties didn’t get to keep the trophy at the Danie Craven Stadium.
So when Van Winkel lifted the silverware after the final whistle was blown in his 200th outing for False Bay against Sir Lowrians last weekend, he knew the rugby gods were finally smiling down at him.
At 33, Van Winkel is one of the hardest workers and a player that leaves nothing out on the field.
His hard work was finally rewarded with the trophy that he has been searching for since starting at the club 11 seasons ago and he admits that that he couldn’t have asked for more.
“It’s unbelievable, I couldn’t have scripted it like this. If I had to write a story at the beginning of the season it would be to win the league and get my 200th game, but to make sure that it ended up on the same day is just unbelievable. I can’t even begin to try and describe it,” said Van Winkel.
Having represented Western Province at junior level and having been a stalwart at False Bay since 2006 when he moved from UCT’s Ikeys, last Saturday’s golden moment at the Philip Herbstein Stadium was the definitive one in Van Winkel’s career.
With the Bay having last won the Grand Challenge Cup back in 1972 when Van Winkel wasn’t even born yet, it was indeed a momentous occasion.
“This is it. This is the ultimate – that (having represented Western Province before) doesn’t even touch base with this (winning the Super League A). Before this, the biggest achievement (of my career) was probably winning the Super League B league in 2009 and obviously this trumps that.”
With the Bay’s final match of the SLA being against Kuilsriver today, Van Winkel says there is no time to rest on their laurels.
And while they are preparing for the national Gold Cup next month, he has not even thought of retirement as yet.
“I’m taking it season for season. We’ve got the Gold Cup coming up and we want to finish the season properly,” concluded Van Winkel.