Something special
28 Oct 2010
MIKE GREENAWAY, writing in SA Rugby magazine, says Patrick Lambie is the future of South African rugby.
In the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, the mink and manure belt of the Garden Province, the favourite sport of Hilton College old boys is to ask their bitter rivals from Michaelhouse how many Springbok rugby players they have produced.
The Balgowan school has spawned war heroes (the flag flown at World War I’s bloody battle of Delville Wood is proudly displayed in one of the eating establishments), politicians, prestigious authors, captains of industry, national cricketers, swimmers and athletes … even Spud Milton (of the John van der Ruit books) went to the stately school modelled so closely on the posh English public schools, but so far the eight rugby fields on the sprawling estate have yet to produce a rugby Springbok.
Perhaps the most genuine indication that the school might at last break its unfortunate duck came in Patrick Lambie’s Grade 11 year. The flyhalf had missed his U16 season because of a serious injury and when he pitched up for training the next year, the flyhalf berth was already secured by the older Guy Cronjé, who was partnered at scrumhalf by his twin brother, Ross (both of whom have gone on to play for the Sharks).
So the coaches asked Pat if he wanted to try fullback. How did he react to changing positions after not having played rugby for a year? By the end of the season he was picked at fullback for SA Schools.
The following year, his matric year, he was in the SA Schools No 15 jersey once more. In fact, he also played KZN Schools rugby and cricket two years in a row, and that elite club can’t have too many members …
As Sharks captain Stefan Terblanche puts it, rather amusingly: ‘The next Michaelhouse old boy who asks me if Pat is going to be their first Springbok, I might have to shoot! But having said that, if he’s not their first Bok, then they will have to wait another 100 years …’
Towards the end of his first year out of school, Lambie made his debut for the Sharks – a 20-minute stint off the bench in a Currie Cup match – and was then drafted into the Super 14 training squad. Midway through the Sharks’ troubled Super 14 tour earlier this year he made his run-on debut.
Lambie took time out from the Sharks to play fullback for the SA U21 team in Argentina and was one of the stand-out performers at the international tournament, finishing up as the second highest points scorer.
He has been a fixture in the Sharks team ever since the Super 14 tour and the only debate around his continued inclusion has been where best to utilise his talent – fullback, centre or flyhalf.
And this, of course, has brought up the old chestnut of whether the Sharks are going to do a ‘Brent Russell’ and produce another ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’, as has allegedly been the story with Frans Steyn and Ruan Pienaar (although this was more the case at Springbok level).
The good news for South African rugby is that young Lambie is being carefully managed by the ever-cautious John Plumtree.
‘There has been good communication between all relevant parties from the word go and that is very important because wherever Patrick plays, he must be positive about it,’ the Sharks coach says. ‘He is still at the stage of his career where he is enjoying the experience simply of playing at this level. Moving from 15, which he knows well, to 12 and then to 10 has been good for him because it has exposed a few minor weaknesses in his game that he otherwise might not have known about. When the novelty wears off and he wants to settle into a position, we will talk about it.’
Interestingly, Lambie says an inspiration for him at school was Steyn and the impact he made first with the Sharks and then with the Springboks at fullback, flyhalf and centre.
‘I looked up to Frans because he gave us schoolboys hope that we could get a break sooner rather than later and excel at the highest level,’ Lambie says.
The softly-spoken youngster conducts himself in interviews with unfailing politeness and good manners. He is as humble and charming a young man as you could possibly chance to meet. But what are his thoughts on the position he would most like to play?
‘I’ve enjoyed 15, 12 and 10 and I don’t yet know which one I’m best at or which one I enjoy the most. But with a bit more time and experience I’ll be able to decide on a position, put my mind to it and stay there,’ he says.‘At fullback I have always enjoyed taking the high ball – even though I’m not the tallest, I like that bit of pressure – and then also the space you have at the back to read the game.
‘At flyhalf, I like being close to the ball and getting my hands on it as much as possible, as well as being able to make decisions and link with the players around me. The same goes for 12, which also has the added attraction of being a major avenue of attack for the opposition, and I’m happy with that because I enjoy tackling.’
The impressive thing about Lambie’s progression from 15 to 12 and then to 10 is that he has got increasingly better the closer he has got to the ball. He was excellent at fullback and when he was moved to 12 questions were asked about the wisdom of the move, but he responded superbly there, and when he was moved to 10 he again met and then surpassed the challenge.
‘I have honestly enjoyed all three positions,’ he says, ‘and maybe it helped that I played 12 after fullback before moving to 10, but the most important thing is that I’ve played a sequence of games in each position. I haven’t played one game here, one game there, and then gone back to the previous position.’
An avid admirer of Lambie is former Springbok and Maritzburg College flyhalf Joel Stransky, and he feels that consultation with experts in the three positions Lambie has played will help make the decision on where he should ultimately settle.
‘First of all, I’d like to say that I’ve enjoyed watching Patrick play, and what has stood out for me is that old indication of how good a player is – the time he seems to have to make decisions that other players don’t,’ Stransky says. ‘He never gets flustered, he never panics. There’s no hint of alarm about his play. He has brilliant skills, a kicking game, tackles very well and, most importantly, he has a wonderful temperament.’
But Stransky suggests that Plumtree sits down with a fullback specialist such as André Joubert, a renowned centre like Dick Muir and a flyhalf of the calibre of Henry Honiball and ask them for an analysis of where Lambie’s skills set is best suited.
‘Sometimes where the player feels he should play and where he’s best suited are not the same,’ Stransky advises. ‘I’ve seen that with Frans Steyn. He wanted to play 10, then 15, but maybe 12 is his best position?’
But where does Stransky feel Lambie should play? ‘The more I think about it, the more I feel that a kid with his talent has to be as close to the ball as possible. I’d play him at flyhalf.’
And is Lambie ready to tour with the Springboks in November? Stransky certainly believes so but Plumtree would prefer the youngster’s Springbok debut to wait a while.
Stransky says: ‘Good enough is old enough. We have a major issue in this country at Springbok level right now and we need youngsters to come through fast and learn the ropes.’
Plumtree is not so sure: ‘Look, he’s unquestionably an international class player. He’s a natural, he’s a very calm young man with an old head on a young body. To be straightforward, he’s a bloody good kid, and is an absolute pleasure to have in your squad.
‘Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary for him to tour in November. A good Super Rugby campaign will grow his confidence, while this end-of-year tour might not be the happiest and I’d hate to see him take a knock. But if they decide to take half a dozen youngsters and he’s one of them, then good on him.’
The theme of Lambie being cool, calm and collected is a recurring one, going way back to his primary school days. His class teacher and sports coach at Clifton school in Durban, Barry Mezher, says he was a gifted sportsman and natural leader to whom his peers naturally gravitated.
‘It stood out for me that at such a young age here was a kid who always put the needs of his team-mates above his own, led by example and deflected attention and praise to others,’ Mezher says. ‘He was empathetic to his peers and could be innovative in finding ways to get the best out of them.’
Mezher adds that Lambie was also an exceptional cricketer: ‘He had the sweetest of timing as a batsman and as a bowler had the discipline and calmness to bowl line-and-length deliveries that irritated batsmen into submission with his accuracy.’
At Michaelhouse, his school masters soon picked up that the best asset of this brilliant sportsman – he was also a very good swimmer – was his temperament. He never got flustered and the bigger the occasion, the better he reacted to pressure.
Alan Redfern, Lambie’s housemaster, says that perhaps the best way to sum him up is to point out how his peers responded to him.
‘When he was announced as head boy he was the unanimous choice by pupils and staff and was given a spontaneous standing ovation, which is rare.’
At the conclusion of his matric year, Redfern says that Lambie had ‘set a new benchmark for the role of head prefect’.
He was involved positively in a number of cultural and social activities at the school. As well as being a chapel server and senior member of the school’s Christian Representative Council, he was the chairman of the Toastmasters Society and served on the school’s Student Representative Council.
Redfern says Lambie was always ‘quietly at the forefront’, avoiding the limelight where possible but when in it, conducting himself with humility.
The balance between sport and academics has continued after school. Lambie is currently in his second year of a BA degree through Unisa, specialising in environmental management. He says it involves his favourite subjects, geography and economics, and it could qualify him one day to be involved in a passion of his: animals and conservation.
In the meantime, Patrick Lambie is living his dream. It is not that long ago that he was one of the barefoot kids running around the Kings Park outer fields playing touch rugby while his parents braaied.
The Lambie family are true Sharks fans, always have been, going back to the early-80s when dad Ian was a stalwart for Berea Rovers and played a handful of games for Natal before a serious knee injury ended his career, while Pat’s grandfather, Nick Labuschagne (Caz Lambie’s dad) is a former president of the Natal Rugby Union and was intricately involved in the administration of the 1995 World Cup. He also played 50-odd games for Natal and five for England. So the game is very much in Pat’s genes.
‘The rugby background in our family helped me make the decision on whether to choose cricket or rugby as my career,’ he says. ‘It ended up being quite easy, really. I love cricket but rugby is my passion.’
– This article first appeared in the October issue of SA Rugby magazine. The November issue is on sale now.
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523 Comments
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29 Oct 2010, 09:54 am
@kaksioek(kaksioek) : If we aren’t meant to eat animals why are they made of meat?
I think chooping ht eback legs off a dog and leaving it for days, or cutting the fins off a shark and dumpin git back in the sea, or sawin gthe horn off a rhino an leaving it to die are a teeny bit different than a bolt pistol betweeen the eyes Skop. Not saying abbatoirs are warm fuzzy places full of flowers and fun. But there is some thought and effort to try to minimise the animals suffering as much as possible (although to be fair this only happened in the last few decades) and not torture them and cause unneccesary pain. Big difference. If he was starving to death and buthchered the dog to eat, that would be a very doifferent scenario.
29 Oct 2010, 10:38 am
So tell me what exactly do vegetarians feed off, if not living lifeforms?
And what of our ancient forbears and many of our modern cousins who rely on the most vrual methods of ensnaring and capturing their food? Those animals suffer far worse than any cow or sheep reared in a grazing herd whose last thought is a bolt thru the kop. So what is the point, it is ok to kill provided we do it ourselves even if it causes infinitely more suffering?
If you want to eat herbgrass and nuts because you consider them lower lifeforms that is your business, but don’t enforce your morality on others. There’s a world of difference between killing an animal quickly in an abbatoir for food as opposed to purposefully seeking to injure it to teach it a lesson.
You’re a bladdy idiot.
29 Oct 2010, 11:45 am
You have to wonder at a mind that can equate killing animals for food to dismembering one for no reason other than to cause suffering
29 Oct 2010, 19:00 pm
bunch of ignoramus f’ng morons these dumb deluded know-it-all, know nothing imbecile, moronic modern day science worshipping ignorance is bliss idiot scientists, the stupefication entrenched pair of them.
These dumb schmuck deluded imbecile creeps should try it sometime, bunch of arrogant pathetic inhuman fools. Try get herded onto a crammed fear riddled cattle truck in abject inhumane conditions knowing this is the end, impending fear heralded death staring you in the face as these dumb crass heathenous humans line you up on the stench filled fear riddled hell hole of a death row en masse with countless others, the impending death knell bolt between your fully conscious eyes or through the side of your brain awaiting. Try it you dumb f’ck deluded bunch of moronic arrogant inhuman @sshole ignoramus scientific fools.
And who the f’ck is making comparisons, only you are comparing one despicable cowardly heinous act of barbarity and pathetic gross inhumanity with another.
Who brought up this subject of gross despicable cowardly intolerable inhuman act of hell? Wtf for? To garner what type of heathenous human reaction to who or what? Anyone that can carry out such a despicable act of sick inhumanity as portrayed here is not human, their barbarity extends way beyond the most despicable act of incredulous cruelty worse than any animal. Barbarity to its cruelest absolute extreme.
And still you try justify your penchant for blood lust. Where the hell are you born, in the Arctic tundra where the only food you can find are four legged warm blooded mammals where its you or nature head to head?.
Who is the stupidity entrenched moronic fool who equates human gluttony for another mammals flesh and blood barbarity with the need for survival, which stupefied deluded ignoramus scientist continues to live in abject ignorance thinking his human genetic and digestive metabolism is designed for carnivorous blood and flesh intake? Which dumb science worshipping idiots still BELIEVE that they are entitled to deprive another warm blooded conscious air breathing mammal for the sake of their bloated barbarous belly? you dumb cretin ignoramus science toting idiot.
Trying to compare one intolerable act of barbarous inhuman cowardice with the need for survival in your urban jungle and then stuffing your justifying ignorant arrogant face with another rump steak cut from the @ss of an unsuspecting creature who’s only act of unsuspecting non intent towards you was to be born within your heathenous barbarous blood lusting proximity so you could act out you insensitive barbarous killing for the sake of your corpse filled bloated stomach, idiotic feeble intolerable ignoramus barbarian neanderthal.
29 Oct 2010, 20:01 pm
But if we all were veggies then how could we create such culinary delights as veau du tete?
Time for my steak, rare and bloody, hmmm.
29 Oct 2010, 20:31 pm
yeah you dumb f’ck carnivorous neanderthal shove it up your heathenous barbarous @ss
Not even a scientists @******* you dumb ignorant tool
29 Oct 2010, 20:46 pm
lol – u’ll be in groendakkies pretty soon.
29 Oct 2010, 21:43 pm
you’ll be laughing out the other end of your dumbfuck ignorance is bliss arrogant face before you know wtf is actually going down you pathetic dumbfuck garbage guzzling science worshipping heinous heartless deadmeat scoffing human hyena.. Pathetic twatass ignoramus f’ng Idiot..
29 Oct 2010, 21:47 pm
Sticks and stones dominee. Take your lucky packet indoctrinated religion and shove it straight back up your arsehole.
29 Oct 2010, 22:09 pm
get lost dumbfuck ignoramus schmuck, like I said you no scientists ignoramus delusional cr@pass death devouring fuckedup @sshole, pathetic imbecile stupefied ignorant deadend delusional schmuck.
Go crawl back up your black hole of delusional oblivion, you ain’t going nowhere anytime soon.
29 Oct 2010, 22:18 pm
That’s right and u need to spend more time on your religion then letting me invoke the bile that’s causing you to return as an angry mannerjies roux version of a dwarf mongoose.
29 Oct 2010, 22:52 pm
get lost schmuckarse
Crawl straight back up your dumb denial ridden hellhole of ignorance induced screwed up academically engrossed materialist delusions. You so far f’ng gone up your bewildered dumbfuck @sshole you still don’t know your delusional scientific @nus from your barbarous heathenous dead flesh scoffing elbow, dumbfuck ignorance deluded imbecilical d’ckhead.
You so far f’ng lost if it weren’t so f’ng tragic it could have been hilarious, pity it ain’t.
29 Oct 2010, 23:01 pm
Tsk tsk what’s wrong with poor bad tempered skoppie, nobody listening?
Told you already take your indoctrinated religious spiel and shove it straight up where the sun don’t shine.
29 Oct 2010, 23:17 pm
and I told you dumb f’ck schmuck to take a f’ng hike, go get f’ck’d ignoramus dumb fuckup, go take a f’ng leap you dumb f’ck schmuck. Go get f’ck’d ignorant delusional f’ckup @sshole.
29 Oct 2010, 23:31 pm
F’ck f’ck f’ck – toothless, hopeless, meaningless
30 Oct 2010, 00:08 am
no one asked you little piece of f’ckd up self aggrandized idiotic up your own self infatuated @nus garbage to come looking for universal answers from me you p’sswilly little piece of garbage snorting f’ckup @sshole self induced ignorant punk.
so I’m telling you one last time you p’sswilly little piece of f’ckdup science adulating materialist self-aggrandized piece of fatass trash to take you dumb f’ck idiotic heathenish arrogance infested f’ck’d up non knowing head and shove it all the way up your rancid f’ckd up cr@pass garbage collecting dead flesh cr@pping @ss
Get f’ckd you heinous heathen hellhole indoctrinated self hallucinating self righteous snotty nosed little schmuck p’sswilly ignorant punk
Piece of f’ng arrogant little snot nosed fatass f’ckwit science grovelling ignoramus punk, get f’ck’d snot nosed little f’ckup non knowing imbecilic rancid putrefied arrogant t_rd.
30 Oct 2010, 00:20 am
lol- universal answers – f’ck me just listen to your sheer deluded arrogance. U actually do think you god almighty. u are mad.
30 Oct 2010, 00:27 am
shove off little rancid f’ckwit piece of garbage ignorant self righteous f’ckd up non knowing p’sswilly punkeyed arrogance deluded t_rd… get f’ckd @sshole
30 Oct 2010, 00:34 am
shove it right back up your hole cocknose.
30 Oct 2010, 00:44 am
get f’ckd you little self righteous piece of f’ck knows nothing imbecilic f’ckwit oversized unintelligent self aggrandized academically deluded snotty nosed little f’ckup of a punkeyed little f’ckwit piece of trash c_nt, snotty nosed little p’sswilly little imbecile f’ckass nobody @sshole pr’ck.
30 Oct 2010, 00:53 am
so much for the big ego chafer hey.
That spirituality of yours is working a real treat.
Night night shit4brains
30 Oct 2010, 01:17 am
get f’ckd delusional little f’ckwit, that over aggrandized inconsequential self righteous punk eyed ignorant arrogance of yours get swatted like the puny inconsequential p’sswilly fly in the ointment it is.
30 Oct 2010, 03:56 am
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) : #449
I also read somewhere that you can get the virus if you don’t swallow fast enough.
You should go test yourself!!!
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