Schalk head-butted a lion, so opponents were no problem
THERE has always been a sniff of the rugged about Namibia with the Namib Desert and Skeleton coast to the West and the Kalahari Desert to the East and that has been reflected by some of the larger than life, close to the edge characters in their rugby teams, all amateurs with another life to lead outside of rugby.
Pride of place must go to their former centre and openside flanker – he alternated seamlessly between both – Schalk van der Merve who was dubbed ‘Lion man’ and Tarzan during the 2003 World Cup when it emerged he was a real life lion tamer who was also known to grapple with crocodiles and wilderbeast
Van der Merwe certainly looked the part with his long mane of tassled blonde hair and penchant for walking everywhere barefoot but I was sceptical until I dropped in on the Namibian team hotel one afternoon and he and his brother-in-law Rudi Van Vuuren called up some footage on Youtube.
Of course the description ‘lion tamer’ was only a convenient handle for a much bigger job and vocation. He was – and still is – the big cat specialist at the Harnas Animal Sanctuary 200 miles outside Windhoek, the capital, on the edge of the Kalahari desert. The huge 10,000 hectare sanctuary caters for 24 varieties of wounded and injured wild beasts and though van der Merwe is responsible mainly for lions and cheetahs he also works with elephants, antelope and baboons.
It was during that World Cup that reports emerged that he had once head butted a lion. Surely not? I asked him.
“One of the lions started eating one of our baboons so I started trying to pull it out of the lion’s mouth,” recalled Van der Merwe. “That didn’t work. So I hit the lion in the face with my fist, but it just closed its eyes. So I butted it. After a while I hit the lion over the head with a rock and I got the baboon out, but it died. I just wasn’t thinking. Even a tame lion can be very dangerous when it’s eating.”
To play and train with club and country – he played 24 Tests and appeared in two World Cups – Van der Merwve would make the 400-mile round trip to Windhoek two or three times a week although in Namibia those distances are nothing special. Playing rugby in Namibia usually involves some sort of sacrifice, or at least an unusual degree of dedication.
Take Van Vuuren who wrote his own small chapter of sporting history in 2003 by becoming the first and thus far only sportsman to play in both the cricket and rugby World Cups.
That would be remarkable enough if, while combining that twin sporting career, he wasn’t already one of the busiest doctors on the continent running an AIDS clinic. Oh, and for a while he was one of only two obstetricians working in Windhoek and was up all hours delivering babies.
In March 2003 he played in the Cricket World Cup and Sachin Tendulkar was one of this victims when Namibia played India while in the October, although hampered badly by an untimely hamstring strain, he got on in Namibia’s last RWC pool game against Romania in Launceston.
“How did I fit it all in? Heaven knows. I’ve never really thought about it. I suppose if I have one outstanding quality as a person it is time management. I can always hear the clock ticking.
“I got up at 5 every morning to fit in training – cricket or rugby depending on the season – before surgery starts. And then, unless there was an emergency, I hit the playing fields or gym again after surgery ended.
“Everything dovetailed nicely. When I was working the prospect of a game of rugby that evening kept me fresh and sharp and, when I’m doing my sport, I can relax away from the medical side of things and return to them with new energy. Only by being an amateur could I have achieved that twin honour.”