The Grand Debut
When we were at school together, Shimmie [Hanyani Shimange] and I often talked about how we wanted to be professional rugby players. As it turned out, when we made our respective provincial debuts, we were playing against each other. He was on the bench for the Sharks, and I was on the bench for the Lions. Even more coincidentally, our numbers got called out at the same time. So we were standing right next to each other about to make our debut. Before we ran on, I turned to him and said, “We going pro, bro,” and he was like, “Yeah, so we are.”
Shimmie and I also got called up to the Springboks at the same time, but I was the one who got the first opportunity to play Test-match rugby. I was selected to the bench for the first Test against Scotland, in Durban. It was a very dour game, one of the first where a Bok team was booed by a South African crowd. It left a sour taste in my mouth, and maybe it was a good thing that I didn’t mark that match as the occasion of my first cap.
However, it was also one of my proudest moments, because my dad and I had been estranged, and he and I met up and had a chat for the first time in ages. I remember giving him the jersey that I never played in, the No 22, and he was so proud and also pleased that, despite all my stubbornness and all the crap I had given him, at least here was something for which I was willing to make sacrifices. He was pretty proud of me.
The next week we played Scotland at Ellis Park, and this time the debut was dinkum. The Lions had given me an opportunity to play rugby professionally, so it was poetic that I got to play my first Test match at Ellis Park. I remember when my number was called, there was just a cacophony of sound. In fact, the whole day was just craziness. That’s what makes Ellis Park such a special venue for the Boks. It starts with the bus trip to the stadium, and continues through the walk around the ground before the game, and then the singing of the national anthem. When you stand in front of a packed Ellis Park singing the anthem, you know this is the real deal.
Not long after running on I sniped my way through a gap, and 70,000 people went berserk. There was this sudden roar that went right through my entire body. It was like, “Aaaah …”
You can’t actually do justice to it with words.
I sniped my way through a gap, and 70,000 people went berserk