AT THE TOP OF HIS GAME

As the UK’s richest muso under 30, Ed Sheeran is in a league of his own

AS A boy he’d play touch rugby with his friends in the dusty streets of Missionvale in Port Elizabeth. Sometimes there wouldn’t even be a ball and they’d make do with an empty plastic cooldrink bottle. And when they did get their hands on a ball, it was often so smooth and slippery with age they’d battle to get a handle on it. But they kept right on playing, making do with what they had.

“We had our own leagues,”32-year-old veteran Blitzbok Cecil Afrika tells YOU. “It would be the one street against the other. We had a weekly touchies game – there wasn’t much else to do where I grew up. Those games are what ignited my love for rugby.”

And those days of honing his skills on the streets turned into something Afrika didn’t dare dream of when he was a rugby-mad kid – game after game in the green and gold, skilfully dodging his way through his opponents on his way to the try line to become SA’s highest-scoring Blitzbok.

Afrika is now retiring with 1 462 Sevens points to his name, the seventh

RIGHT and FAR RIGHT: Blitzbok Cecil Afrika’s dream of bringing back the Olympic gold this year was shattered by Covid-19. He’ll retire this month with a tally that includes 179 tries and 282 conversions.

BY JACQUES MYBURGH highest on the all-time points-scorers list and the most ever by a South African. His tally includes 179 tries, 282 conversions and a single penalty.

He was a member of the two World Rugby Sevens Series-winning Blitzbok squads in 2017 and 2018, as well as the South African team that won a gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and Olympic bronze in 2016.

“I think every player wants to play at the highest level of the game and it’s a great privilege and a blessing that I could,” he tells us in a video chat from his home in Port Elizabeth. But now, 12 seasons and 345 World Rug

ABOVE: With niece Nikkitah, mom Rachel and sister Nicolette. ABOVE LEFT: At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. by Sevens Series matches later, Afrika’s career is ending.

He was told last year that his contract wouldn’t be renewed after this year’s World Series.

Afrika had harboured one more dream – a dream that’s now been shattered by the coronavirus pandemic. He’d wanted to compete in this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo and had hoped to bring the gold medal home.

But the games have been postponed to next year and his contract with the Blitzboks expires at the end of this month.

“I’m sad I couldn’t end my career on a high note as I’d hoped. But unfortunately it’s due to circumstances beyond

my control.”

AFRIKA’S journey to becoming a world-class rugby player really took off when Jan Oberholzer, a former Blue Bulls captain, spotted his talent at a school rugby tournament in Port Elizabeth. “Jan suggested I move to Welkom in the Free State to join the Virginia Sports Academy. He said he saw lots of potential in me. I didn’t believe him then, but I joined the academy anyway.”

In 2004 Afrika made the under-16 team of the Griffons for the Grant Khomo schools tournament week.

Oberholzer’s eagle eye for talent had clearly been spot-on as Afrika was then chosen for the SA schools team.

In the same year, he joined sevens rugby in the SA Under-20 squad.

“Jan fuelled my passion for rugby and opened many doors for me,” Afrika says of his mentor.

Although the Under-20 SA squad gave him his first taste of sevens rugby, he also played for the Griffons in the first league of the Currie Cup Series in 2007.

Then came his big opportunity in 2009 when he signed a contract with the Blitzboks, the SA national sevens team.

“I’m deeply grateful to the Virginia rugby academy and Jan for being where I am today,” says Afrika, who was also the sevens rugby player of the year in 2011.

He looks back in wonder at his time as a Blitzbok.

“It was challenging but exciting. In sevens rugby you strive for the perfect game – one mistake can cost you the match. Sevens rugby with its shorter playtime became my great love. No other game requires you to play so perfectly.

“After each game, I’d watch the recording to see where I’d made mistakes and what I could improve on.”

Of all the teams he’s faced, Afrika believes the Kenyans are the toughest to beat.

“When you play them, you know it’s war. They’re big, strong and fast, and there’s always a competition to see who’s the mightiest on the African continent.”

The match that stands out for him from all the many games he’s played is the one in 2013 shortly after Nelson Mandela passed away.

“We played the final against New Zealand in Port Elizabeth and beat them 1714. It was absolutely wonderful.

“It was a win our country needed in a time of mourning. It felt as if we won it for Madiba – almost like a final send-off.”

But as sevens rugby is a contact sport, it’s challenging on the body and injuries are common.

“I think for me the injuries are the worst, especially my knee injury.”

After a tournament in Hong Kong in 2012 a damaged knee benched him for nine months. Doctors warned that even after he recovered he’d have no more than a year of professional playing in him.

“But the Lord had mercy on me,” Afrika says, “and I played for another eight years.”

HSE’S now looking forward to the next chapter in his life – and it revolves around coffee.

Afrika and Blitzbok teammates Kyle Brown and Philip Snyman have started a coffee company, Eighteen Coffee.

“Philip is jersey number 2, Kyle is 6 and I’m 10 – that’s how we decided on Eighteen Coffee,” he explains.

They have a coffee shop in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape and are planning on expanding and supplying their coffee beans to other coffee shops too.

“Our business is just as challenging [as rugby] but it’s exciting to grow it. Just like with sevens rugby, I’m learning from my mistakes in the business.”

He’s also not closing the door on SA rugby, he says. “If the opportunity arises and the Blitzboks need a player due to injury, I’ll gladly pull the jersey over my head again.”

There’ve been rumours he’s thinking of joining the 15-man version of rugby.

“I don’t want to say too much about that yet, but the opportunities are there. We’ll see what the future holds.”

Cecil is now pursuing a new venture with his former teammates Philip Snyman (left) and Kyle Brown. They’ve established a coffee company called Eighteen Coffee.

He may be on a music hiatus but Ed has hardly been idle. He’s spent most of lockdown on his sprawling estate in Suffolk where he’s been focusing on his favourite hobby: brewing booze.

“Ed loves his beer, especially his real ales and craft beers,” a friend says. “He’s had a few kits delivered and has been having fun making his own drinks. They aren’t too bad, but he doesn’t think any of the major breweries have got anything to worry about just yet.”

As he’s also the owner of the Bertie Blossoms pub in Notting Hill, London, his brews will no doubt have a home and plenty of guinea pigs to test them out on. He's also taken to gardening and beekeeping during the lockdown, the pal says.

“He put a wooden beehive at the edge of his estate. He’s already got other produce growing and some animals,” the insider says. “He keeps goats and chickens, as well as fruit trees in his orchard and [has] greenhouses.”

COMPILED BY LINDSAY DE FREITAS

Ed’s pub, Bertie Blossoms, reopened for business earlier this month, after shutting down during lockdown.