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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28 Oct 2010, 16:14 pm
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) :
Sometimes I think we really do need another world war. A nice, big, bloody one.
Otherwise we’ll need to start looking at colonising other planets, our Earth simply can’t cope.
28 Oct 2010, 16:15 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever) :
skopskiet will serve up some
fuckadillytwatsteak…
with a side order of
punkassedfries…
and for dessert some
schmuckpie….
washed down with lashings of
bullybrekerdumbasseddelusionaljuice…
28 Oct 2010, 16:15 pm
@the peanut gallery(peanut) : 350
Unless they start eating other people.
28 Oct 2010, 16:19 pm
@gunther(gunther) :
What flavour milkshake you gonna make me
28 Oct 2010, 16:19 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever) :
hehehe, as if….”Ooooh well, Earths doomed, let’s start working on our terraforming tech”.
I don’t think it will EVER happen. ever. We haven’t identified any planets suitable for terraforming, and then a candidate will be so far, that you would run out of food before you got there. Nevermind putting subjects into suspended animation, or hyperspace bloody so-called travel, it simply isn’t possible. I’m banking on Heaven.
28 Oct 2010, 16:20 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever) :
Nothing wrong with a good ‘ol fashion plague.
Seems Asia is trying different avenues of creating one.
28 Oct 2010, 16:20 pm
yup. families with 2 kid or less should be rewarded.
i guess that won’t work either – you’ll get people killing their off-spring to cash in.
28 Oct 2010, 16:21 pm
Damn
You guys are a bunch of fun
28 Oct 2010, 16:22 pm
@Transformation(Transformation) : LLL senior bloggers… I have a feeling i’ve been here longer than most. I must say that I do go through periods of inactivity, usually when I get freaked out about the disconnect that we experience in this world yadayada and then I disapear for a while…But the last year or so I’ve been more regular on the site….
28 Oct 2010, 16:22 pm
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) : and i’m going with alice to wonderland.
28 Oct 2010, 16:22 pm
@Dawn(Dawn) :
Gunther flavour
28 Oct 2010, 16:22 pm
@Dawn(Dawn) : beef
28 Oct 2010, 16:23 pm
@OCO(OCO) :
Any jesuits among the Keolites?
28 Oct 2010, 16:23 pm
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) : I’m personally waiting until the zombies make their move, then I can break out my remington 12 guage, and really open a can of whoopass……after a suitable amount of ‘culling” has taken place of course….
28 Oct 2010, 16:24 pm
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) :
Probably a few. Skoppie springs to mind
28 Oct 2010, 16:25 pm
can we expect to see a famous skopskiet meltdown if WP lose this weekend?
28 Oct 2010, 16:25 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) :
Zombies only exist in the American psych. After all they breed them.
28 Oct 2010, 16:25 pm
@the peanut gallery(peanut) :
Alice followed the yellow brick road and is now in charge of the IMF. And they threw the rabbit in a casserole, so you’re screwed.
28 Oct 2010, 16:26 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) :
I fully agree, I already have my own version of “The Winchester” staked out as my central meeting point and defensive position – the Kimberley Hotel on the corner of Roeland and Buitenkant Streets!
28 Oct 2010, 16:26 pm
@fantasticbarnsmell(fantasticbarnsmell) :
You mean he hasn’t ‘puddled’ already?
28 Oct 2010, 16:27 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) :
The only problem is, how on earth do you compensate for the accuracy you lose due to laughing too much while gunning down the zombies?
28 Oct 2010, 16:27 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) :
If we can sterilize zombie meat, does it consitute a form of cannibalism if we applied this to world hunger?
(In the aftermath of said zombie pandemic)
28 Oct 2010, 16:28 pm
@OCO(OCO) : Really? You mean I’ve been hoarding tins of beans and shotgun shells for nothing???
28 Oct 2010, 16:28 pm
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) :
It’s a french plot then?
28 Oct 2010, 16:28 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) :
‘Fraid so. Just make sure you know the difference next time you make beans on toast!
28 Oct 2010, 16:29 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever) :
Shoot yourself once in the foot. That usually has a sobering effect. I did see this principle in action once at the back of a gun shop….
28 Oct 2010, 16:30 pm
@OCO(OCO) :
Which number?
28 Oct 2010, 16:30 pm
stem
pop growth
in sa
remove
all child
grants
only grants
for women
with no
children
problem 80%
solved
28 Oct 2010, 16:30 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever) : Cool I’ll meet you there in case of emergency….
28 Oct 2010, 16:31 pm
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) :
666 is always a good number.
28 Oct 2010, 16:31 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever) : Floating barrel. Helps with recoil too in semi auto mode.
28 Oct 2010, 16:33 pm
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) : I believe that eating zombie meat is verboten….But there should be plenty of healthy humans to go around….
You seen “the road”?
28 Oct 2010, 16:34 pm
We’re not going to have any of those ‘Boipatong’ jokes are we?
28 Oct 2010, 16:34 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) :
recoil.
gunther laughs in the face of recoil.
hardenthefuckup.
28 Oct 2010, 16:35 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) :
That’s great, I have one mean mother-of-all-ketties catapult made from a tyre rubber and thousands of molten lead ballshot. Deadly if your aim’s good plus they’re reusable (unlike shotgun shells!).
28 Oct 2010, 16:36 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) :
I thought Viggo Mortensen was excellent. But a very harrowing film to watch.
28 Oct 2010, 16:37 pm
Does anybody know if zombies are particularly fire-resistent?
28 Oct 2010, 16:37 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever) :
Using burglar guards for cattie handles is always a good plan. Problem is mobility.
28 Oct 2010, 16:37 pm
@gunther(gunther) : lol actually my Remington is a semi auto, so it gets pretty lively sometimes. The problem is the SAP don’t seem too keen to renew my license for it so we’ll have to have the apocolypse fairly soon………
28 Oct 2010, 16:38 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever) :
Very much so as they only exist on nitrocellulose film
28 Oct 2010, 16:39 pm
@OCO(OCO) :
That should read they are not fire-resistant.
28 Oct 2010, 16:39 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever) : Yeah, it was pretty intense.!!
28 Oct 2010, 16:40 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) : 382
Sry was away.
No I didn’t why? Is it any good? Strange the amont of post apocalyptic films there are these days as 2012 draws near.
people, you have nothing to fear. About MDD prohpecies anyway. There won’t be anything abnormally catastrophic happening that year (unless the ABs manage to gain Mr Webb Ellis in 2011)
28 Oct 2010, 16:41 pm
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) :
28 Oct 2010, 16:41 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) :
they gonna get Waco on yo ***.
you be sitting there surrounded by young teenage girls who all look suspiciously alike.
bad boy bad boy
watchya gonna do
watchya gonna do when dey come for you.
28 Oct 2010, 16:43 pm
@OCO(OCO) :
That’s the convenience of the Kimberley Hotel, nice big open balcony sufficiently high off the ground level with lots of conveniently spaced support columns.
We’ll just need to ensure the lower levels are properly barricaded. I’m told zombies don’t climb very well, is that true? Because if it’s not my plan is more flawed than a piano performance of Chopin’s Nocturne No. 9 by Julius Malema…
28 Oct 2010, 16:44 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy) :
the recoil on a semi auto can be a *****.
especially when you are shooting small game and children.
I find I have to make a conscious effort to ride it and aim lower.
same with an AK.
28 Oct 2010, 16:45 pm
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever) :
Hehe!
If Zombies are like Darlicks they’re going to hae a tough time
28 Oct 2010, 16:46 pm
@gunther(gunther) : he he he as lawng as de’yr purdy…I’ll chain ‘em in my basement…..
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) : It’s based on a book by Cormack MaCarthy, the same guy who did No Country for old men, and all the pretty horses. So you know it’s not going to be filled with a whole lot of “sunny” images. It’s going to be pretty grim. But as WP says, a good movie.
28 Oct 2010, 16:46 pm
@gunther(gunther) :
Dunno which is worse, rabbits or children.
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