Young and old Boks in the spotlight
The significance of this rugby week in South Africa is the celebration of the first Junior Springboks squad playing in the inaugural Under-20 Rugby Championship in Australia.
Equally, this week was the stage for two of South Africa’s toughest senior statesmen in the United Rugby Championship (URC).
The Junior Boks play the traditional foe New Zealand on Thursday (May 2) in the first of three matches, but this past weekend South African rugby saluted the grizzlies in Brok Harris and Willem Alberts for the most remarkable longevity.
Harris, a product of Bastion Hoërskool in Roodepoort, played his 150th match for the Stormers. It was his 413th professional game, with the 39-year-old prop forward having also played 120 matches for Western Province and 143 for Welsh club the Dragons.
Stormers coach John Dobson led the plaudits for Harris, whom he described as the ultimate warrior and team player.
Harris, who made his Western Province debut in 2006 and played his first match for the Stormers in 2007, spent eight seasons abroad at the Dragons before returning to Cape Town in 2021 for what was supposed to be a low-key return and a quiet departure into retirement.
The opposite has been true. When Harris returned, he had played 93 matches for the Stormers and his immediate goal was to get to 100. On Saturday, against Leinster at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town, he got to 150.
It is a remarkable achievement for a player who is already coaching in the professional structures, assisting with the Western Province under-21s as a scrum coach.
Dobson spoke about Harris’ longevity but also the youthfulness of his spirit. His is an engine that never seems to run empty, which has been epitomised by his efforts in the past months. Before the Leinster match on Saturday, Harris started in four successive matches and averaged 63 minutes a match. This, at 39 years old!
The Junior Boks play traditional foe New Zealand on Thursday but this past weekend South African rugby saluted the grizzlies in Brok Harris and Willem Alberts
Lions hard man Willem Alberts went one better than Harris in last weekend’s 44-12 win against Leinster. Dubbed
“BoneCrusher” throughout his career, Alberts played the full 80 minutes. He did this a few weeks shy of his 40th birthday, which is on May 11.
Alberts has announced his retirement at the end of the season but there will still be plenty of tackles made and carries up the middle of the field for the second rower, who played 43 Tests for the Springboks and was a favourite during his playing stints at the Sharks in Durban and Stade Francais in Paris.
Home is the Lions, and it is only fitting that Alberts will bid farewell to the game playing for the team he represented as a schoolboy and in the jersey he played his first professional game.
Alberts is from Monument Hoërskool in Krugersdorp, and the team goes by the name of Wit Bulle (White Bulls) because of the colour of their jersey and their rampaging style of play.
All.rugby lists 540 active South Africanborn professional players and Harris (39), Alberts (40) and Ruan Pienaar (40) are the exceptions to an average age in the late 20s.
Pienaar, who retires this year, has played 383 matches, including 88 Tests, and he will continue in rugby as the attack and backs coach of the Cheetahs under-21.
In a week when these three veterans rightly get a standing ovation for services to the game, the focus will shift to a group of players who weren’t even born when those three musketeers made their professional debuts.
Five members of last year’s Junior Springboks will be part of this historymaking squad, who will play the Junior All Blacks on Thursday, Australia on May 7 and complete their tournament against Argentina on May 12.