Blitzbokke captain on squad success
The Blitzbokke are headed for a second world series crown. Their captain shares the secrets of their success
IT’S difficult to keep himself from smiling these days – he’s one of the golden boys of South African rugby and captain of a team that has the country all fired up as it sweeps its way to world domination. Add the fact that he’ll be a dad in a few months and it’s easy to see why Philip Snyman is one happy guy. Not that the new arrival will be a Blitzbok in the making, though – the 30-year-old star player and his wife, medical doctor Esteé (29), are having a little girl.
“She’s arriving in July,” Esteé says. “We’re so excited.”
The couple are chatting to YOU at their home on an estate near Stellenbosch in the Western Cape as they enjoy rare time together. The Blitzbokke are often on the move as they blast their way through the best of the bunch on rugby fields around the world.
With just two tournaments left at the time of going to print the team are on track to win the World Series, adding to the title they scooped in 2009.
“People want to know what the Blitzbokke did differently this season,” Philip says. “But we’ve been working for the past four years to put together the ideal season, and all that hard work has just started paying off.”
Rugby has always been a major part of his life. His dad, Flip, coached the first team at the local high school in the family’s hometown of Philippolis in the Free State, and young Philip would go along to all the practices. Watching from the sidelines as the bigger boys played, he developed a passion for the game.
“When I was five Philippolis’ under9A team didn’t have enough players, so I started playing scrummy for them.”
Captaining that under-9s team was Adriaan Strauss, who’d go on to become Bok captain.
Philip continued to hone his talent throughout primary school and went on to play for Grey College in Bloemfontain, one of SA’s top incubators for young sports talent.
After matric he studied for a B Com degree in financial management at the University of the Free State, while playing 15-man rugby for the Free State’s U-19 team.
Philip then played for the Cheetahs for a number of years before switching to Sevens. “I can’t think of even one unhappy day after I decided to go for a full-time Sevens contract.”
It meant moving to the Western Cape because the Blitzbokke’s training centre is based at the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport.
SEVENS rugby is steadily gaining the recognition it deserves, Philip says. “The numbers in the stadiums and the people who follow the teams around the world show what a popular and growing game it is, especially since becoming an Olympic sport.
“Brotherhood and camaraderie contribute a lot to our success. The players are close. We’re like family and quite often we do things together in our free time.”
Coach Neil Powell isn’t shy to bring in outside expertise wherever possible and he’s open-minded about borrowing from other sports’ techniques, Philip says.
Without enough ball possession, for example, the Blitzbokke wouldn’t be able to treat spectators worldwide to so many plum tries.
In order to achieve this possession at the breakdown, “wrestling has become an important part of our preparation”, Philip says. “Neil wrestled as a youngster and it benefited his Sevens career later. It’s not necessarily about strength but about technique and focus. We might not have the biggest players but these small details can make a big difference.”
Philip is one of the more strapping guys in the squad and was a sturdy centre and wing in the 15-player format of the game. This season he’s already scored 13 tries, some at critical scoreboard moments, bringing to 49 his total number of tries in his World Series career.
However, as captain Philip gets as big a kick from his teammates’ achievements as from his own.
“To me there’s nothing nicer than seeing speedsters such as Seabelo Senatla or Rosko Specman – we call them the jockeys – setting off for the try-line after I’ve won the ball at the breakdown.”
Regarding captaincy, Philip says he’s learnt an enormous amount from his predecessor and close friend, Kyle Brown, who’s been injured since the start of the season.
“It’s a lot of responsibility but I don’t have to carry the load on my own.”
Experienced teammates such as Cecil Afrika help him a lot. “I don’t think there’s anybody around with a Sevens brain like Cecil’s. He’s certainly among the top five legends of the game. I depend on him a lot.”
MOVING to the Western Cape for his Sevens career wasn’t a decision Philip took lightly. He needed to show Esteé, the love of his life, how serious he was about everything. So he and a few friends conspired to have a romantic table laid in a wheatfield on the outskirts of Bloemfontein, and he took Esteé there at sunset to pop the question.
She had to stay behind in Bloemfontein to do her internship year and he wanted no misunderstandings about his feelings towards her.
A year later the couple said their vows looking out over the “crimson plains” of the Free State – and four years on they’re preparing for parenthood. In his free time Philip is quite the coffee connoisseur. He also collects wine and he and Esteé enjoy having friends around for a braai.
Last year’s Olympic Games in Rio, where the Blitsbokke won bronze, will always be a career highlight for him, he says. “To walk into the dining room and see guys such as Novak Djokovic or Usain Bolt sitting down to dinner makes you realise just how special this occasion really was – the one thing every sportsman and woman works for.”
When the current World Series ends Philip’s sights will shift to next year’s Commonwealth Games. He’s also looking forward to next year’s World Cup tournament in San Francisco – the Americans have promised to pull out all the stops to make it a memorable event.
He’s contracted to the Blitzbokke until the end of 2018, “and then we’ll see what happens”.
But whatever he decides to do, he can rest assured that he’s helped to create a formidable foundation for the Blitzbokke to become one of SA’s proudest sports exports.
‘Brotherhood and camaraderie contribute to our success’