Hung out to die
16 Dec 2011
RYAN VREDE, writing in Business Day Sport Monthly, says the late Solly Tyibilika was always fighting a losing battle.
Solly Tyibilika’s career died long before his life ended. Indeed, a strong argument can be made that his life ended because his career died.
The why and how are important in equal measure when reflecting on his career and life. Why Tyibilika, who, by all accounts, had become mixed up with elicitors of trouble, was murdered in a hail of bullets in a Gugelethu shebeen on a Sunday afternoon, was still under investigation at the time of writing. How the 32-year-old went from crossing the tryline on debut for the Springboks in 2004 to lying in police chalk lines seven years later, is compelling. It is the rugby tragedy of our time.
I was lunching with a Springbok and former team-mate of Tyibilika’s at the time the news of his death broke. As details of its nature emerged – a calculated, gang-style hit that saw his body pumped with what an eye witness deemed ‘countless shots’ – his reaction struck me as strange. Tyibilika’s violent end was not unexpected. Through at least 20 text messages the player showed me it became apparent that this sentiment was shared by even those players who were closest to him. Certainly his death was lamented in these messages, but it was telling that most senders were not particularly surprised by its nature.
‘When Solly felt cared for he was invested in his career and determined to succeed,’ the player said. ‘When he felt hard done by he could be pretty self-destructive.’
There were to be increasing instances when his emotional immaturity manifested in this manner as his career progressed. But this wasn’t always so. Tyibilika caught the Sharks’ eye in 2003 off the back of impressive performances for Griquas. He would establish himself as a regular member of their Super Rugby squad – his pace, upper-body strength, work rate and robust approach placing him among the top openside flankers in the country at the time. He lacked the finesse, guile, vision and tactical appreciation that separated the good scavengers from the great ones, but attained a level of consistency that appealed to Springbok coach Jake White in late 2004.
There were muted grumbles of a political agenda when Tyibilika was named in White’s end-of-year tour squad. However, the overriding feeling was that Tyibilika had the potential to develop into a more than competent Test player.
He acquitted himself well on debut against Scotland at Murrayfield, becoming the first black African to score a try for the Springboks. He started against Argentina in Buenos Aires a week later and maintained a high enough standard domestically in 2005 to be a part of White’s squad for the Test season. There had been little evidence to support rhetoric about the wealth of world-class black talent in Tyibilika’s home province, the Eastern Cape. Tyibilika, it appeared, would be a groundbreaker in this regard, particularly since he was a forward, a rare commodity in a region renowned for producing backline players.
Then something happened that hinted at a delinquent demon that would surface with greater and lesser degrees of intensity as his career progressed. The Springboks staged a Test in East London against Uruguay. Tyibilika scored twice in the 134-3 rout and later invited friends who had travelled from his hometown, New Brighton, up to his hotel room to share a celebratory drink. He left three days later, having missed the team’s flight to Durban and depleting most of his not inconsiderable match fee.
Still, there were glimpses of brilliance that inspired. A month later Tyibilika would outplay Australian George Smith in a Tri-Nations Test at Ellis Park, before being injured and substituted at half-time by Schalk Burger.
The Springboks won 33-20 but Tyibilika only featured in the southern hemisphere showpiece again a year later, playing in losing sides in three Tests, although not looking an impostor in elevated company. This was particularly pertinent, given that in a post-match press conference a week before, White had intimated that Tyibilika was included because of the colour of his skin. There was a clamour for the in-form Luke Watson’s inclusion after the Springboks suffered a 49-0 defeat to Australia in Brisbane, but White explained his decision to go with Tyibilika, in light of Danie Rossouw’s tour-ending injury, saying: ‘We need to be honest about sensitivities of the make-up of the team and show that transformation is happening in our country. We have got a guy like Solly on tour. There is a relationship in a team structure and we need to be considerate to that dynamic between the players.’
In Burger’s injury-enforced absence White later called Tyibilika the best openside flank in the country prior to the Loftus Test against New Zealand. The 47 minutes Tyibilika played in that heavy defeat would be his last for the Springboks.
This had much to do with a move to the Lions in 2007, one, he said, necessitated by the lack of game time he was getting in Durban. Breaking into the World Cup squad was his top priority and White had offered assurances that he was in the planning for the tournament. Eager to make a good impression on his new employers, Tyibilika trained relentlessly in the off-season and was unrivalled in the conditioning stakes when tests were conducted in camps in preparation for the Super Rugby campaign. However, his contribution amounted to little more than hit-outs in a couple of pre-season friendlies. Deemed surplus to requirements, Tyibilika was relegated to the Vodacom Cup side, where, he claimed, the coach wasn’t aware of his demotion and not prepared to integrate him into his plans. Thus began Tyibilika’s descent, marked by regular absenteeism and an ever-declining appetite for the game and its demands. His hunger for hedonism grew in direct proportion. He was relegated to club rugby. This a year after playing the All Blacks. The Lions released him from his R700 000-a-year contract. His ambition of breaking into the World Cup squad lay in tatters. He would end up watching the final in an East London shebeen.
The South African Rugby Union (Saru) made weak attempts at rehabilitating a man it once claimed to have great faith in. The Lions are even more culpable. Certainly Tyibilika must not be mitigated for his self-destructive behaviour, but he was failed by those who professed to have his interests at heart.
He is not alone in this regard. There have been varying levels of incompetence and irresponsibility in Saru’s dealings with black players specifically. Top South African coach Heyneke Meyer relayed the story of Chiliboy Ralepelle and Hilton Lobberts’ selection to tour Europe with the Springboks in 2006 to me. Ralepelle and Lobberts were among the best in their positions in the world at U19 level. Prior to their announcement in the squad Meyer pleaded with Saru not to take them, citing their emotional and physical immaturity and stressing that they would be better equipped two years from then.
Lobberts is said to have blown the R400 000 he made on two Volkswagen GTIs, supporting Meyer’s former assertion. He hasn’t played for South Africa in five years and hasn’t looked close to doing so. Ralepelle struggled with recurring injuries thereafter, lending support to the latter offering. He also suffered at the hands of national coaches who told the world he was rugby royalty, but treated him like a leper.
There are others who exhibited a capacity to overcome setbacks, former Springbok wing Ashwin Willemse being the prime example. Despite being plagued by injuries, Willemse refused to allow his spirit to be killed. He regained fitness and was included in the 2007 World Cup squad. He now has a burgeoning career as an analyst on SuperSport that is far removed from the path his life could have followed had he opted to surrender to Hope’s assassin and return to the drug and gang culture that was a feature of his childhood. Tyibilika didn’t possess Willemse’s immense resolve. His tendency for self-sabotage demanded that he had a strong mentor, even a team of them, who could constantly reinforce his value, celebrate his talent and be prepared to talk hard when needed. In addition, he also needed brutal honesty and a clearly defined goal from his coaches. Instead he found the validation and emotional investment he sought from men who fuelled the beast within.
There is no question that Tyibilika was a fundamentally good man whose life course diverted from a route that promised a rich legacy to one that led to a premature and deeply saddening end. But that alone doesn’t warrant bringing his story into the national consciousness.
There are lessons in Tyibilika’s life and his violent death that must be heeded by the game’s administrators. History reflects that professional black athletes, specifically those from low socio-economic backgrounds, are more prone to delinquency than their white counterparts. A range of explanations has been offered for this, the primary one being the former’s generally underdeveloped emotional intelligence and life skills which compromises their capacity to adequately deal with their ascent from paupers to princes. This rings true for South African rugby players, where that division between privileged and poor is even more pronounced.
This is the stark education that Tyibilika’s story must provide. It is utterly unacceptable that 16 years into the professional era the game’s administrators still haven’t established a world-class programme that focuses on equipping young black players with the skills needed to negotiate challenges they will encounter in their careers. This must be an issue that commands immediate attention.
Tyibilika possessed some measure of fight even in the last moments, dragging his bullet-riddled body across the ground for a couple of metres in search of help. His physical wounds ultimately proved to be mortal, but the mental wounds he incurred in the latter part of his professional career had long since killed his spirit. How different it could all have been had someone cared for him enough to make his mind bulletproof.
– This article appears in the January issue of Business Day Sport Monthly, on sale now at selected outlets
454 Comments
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24 Dec 2011, 09:20 am
@cab-299:
Ironic that the foul mouthed cretin calls every other blogger on keo pompous. He truly is a moron of note.
24 Dec 2011, 12:16 pm
This is not frivolous it’s of great importance, if your short-arse can’t see above the dash you are a danger on the roads. The runtcnt cnty cnty police need to be alerted.
24 Dec 2011, 17:27 pm
you need to get a wide awake realization as to how dumb fck idiotic stupid you actually are you immorality confused fckup of a two faced piece of garbage dumbfck insincere piece of trash cn’t
24 Dec 2011, 17:29 pm
Skop can we make your new year’s resolution to chill out a bit more in 2012?
24 Dec 2011, 18:00 pm
yeah but can u see over the dash?
24 Dec 2011, 18:05 pm
do u wear like proper-sized clothes and all or go shopping in the kiddies section?
geezzus christus i’m picturing rumpelstiltzkin here, u must be ready to bust a poep-valve everytime i inflame that garguantuan-sized ego of yours. you need to do more introspection cos the non-ego shite you preach aint working.
24 Dec 2011, 18:30 pm
World War 3 has erupted.
24 Dec 2011, 19:00 pm
you inflame what you frivolous miserable little half witted insincere piece of garbage trash?. .. you seriously do believe you are way more intelligent than your fucked up self righteous idiocy portrays … you still of some screw’d up opinion that your credibility or your closed minded sense of blind pseudo scientific idiocy is worth anything .. you better catch an almighty wake up you miserable little jaundiced piece of frivolous insincere unscrupulous cn’t…
what you think you know from what you actually know is light years and universes apart.. bottom line is you know absolutely zero fck’all – and that – you imbecilic little garbage twisted untrustworthy rat..- is an absolute and undeniable fact…
24 Dec 2011, 19:14 pm
ivory tower high priest fuckups who ‘think’ they got any type handle on intellectualized thinking are precisely the ones fucked in their grandiose holier than thou fucked up heads… they are so f’ng far gone down the f’ng tubes of their own grandiosity arrogance and pseudo emaciated grandeur they are precisely the unscrupulous grandiose punks who need their jaundiced judgmental piece of trash opinions stuffed straight down their jaundiced fucked up holier than thou pseudo scientific ivory tower high priest stiff upper lip insincere arrogant necks…
24 Dec 2011, 23:16 pm
Thank u ou doosie for those kind words. You are a poet and siener van renaberg or whatever most I cunties bang on about.
See u on boxing day where I’ll inflame that muthafkr even more.
Se net dankie, I maybe the messiah..dankie.
25 Dec 2011, 00:15 am
so have all the heathens gathered for their pagan festivity feast, slagged the fatted calf, tortured the poor unsuspecting beast. Busy marinating the juices from its blood, tenderizing its forlorn quivering flesh. All in the name of some desperate despicable barbarous human debauchery they call Xmas
25 Dec 2011, 00:26 am
the mega mesmerized pseudo scientist moron still wanna play battle of the witless wits, little does the moegoe morose moron realize he’s on a hiding to nothing, he might think he’s taunting or torturing a thief but only idiot he’s taunting is himself. So please make it brief, the sun’s not yellow, its chicken.
25 Dec 2011, 00:45 am
LOL, u got no idea, i run rings around u in me arrogant sleep, but i will do the usual jewish reverence to the old ****. out.
25 Dec 2011, 00:52 am
even the frivolous insincere pseudo atheist scientist is off to partake of the heathenous f.ng barbarous debauchery in the name of some fak’d up man made religious tradition which has confused reality with illusion.
So what the fak is the pseudo scientists excuse? He supposedly is too intelligent to follow blind tradition though he has no qualms about following his blinded bloated gut most proliferarily
25 Dec 2011, 00:53 am
someone ones got your eye on you, now dont you know..,i dont want to be the one to let u know, can u hear me, i dont think so.
25 Dec 2011, 00:54 am
yep ou doosie u the best of a brainwashed bunch, but u still too fkn ou saffas, u dont get it.
25 Dec 2011, 01:05 am
you the one with zero idea you pathetic imbecilic moron, its you gaining insight at my benevolent behest you dumb fak fool, and not the other way around. You the dumb idiot with the unfulfilled questions pretending to know it all, while you still have the belief that you in any way have the ability to rationalize your conditioned thoughts which you don’t
25 Dec 2011, 01:09 am
if u say so, i wouldve had u complaining about victimization in about 5 posts and then resorting to your default guttertrash lout in about 8 posts and so the cycke continues, but who knows ou doos maybe u a big giver afterall, personally my money is still on you being a royak kont,
25 Dec 2011, 01:13 am
i think u are a fascist not a hippie, sorry if that pisses u off but i dont care.
imo, u are a facist, thru and thru and those konts deserve to get their ego and everything else stripped right offa them.
25 Dec 2011, 01:20 am
you still under your deluded belief that this is some type titfortat game of witty one upmanship, you stupid motherless idiotic fool . You have absolutely fak.all idea what you unsuspectingly stumbled upon and in your highfaluting haughty arrogance you think its a f.ng game of intellectual gymnastics. How absolutely little do you actually know you poor unsuspecting ignorant schmuck?
25 Dec 2011, 01:23 am
my honest opinion is that it is you who are false, always have been, i believe u are a bulllshitter, but then again i am judgemental and wtf do i know. still i think u a kont, and i think u got a massive ego, and i think you a bullshitter to yourlseld and those around u especially with your bombaste and u probably need to get fkd up good and proper, but like u i reckon the universe will do that to you sure enough over time…
night night.
25 Dec 2011, 01:27 am
I’m far closer to a fascist than a hippie, except you wouldn’t know the difference between them, and you also don’t know the beginning nor the end of ego because you are absolutely riddled with it. You dumb fak blind as a bat ignorant arrogant pseudo conditioned closed minded schmuck
25 Dec 2011, 01:39 am
ya you know absolutely fak all, thats about all you do know fak all, and you don’t know the beginning of what a lucky little cn’t you actually are you miserable piece of ungrateful judgmental closed minded conditioned frivolous self righteous pseudo arsed rubbish
25 Dec 2011, 01:54 am
life will give to everybody exactly that which they absolutely deserve no more and no less. Even in spite of your dumb fak arrogant closed minded bigoted lack of clarity judgmental bullshit materialist pseudo insincere seeking even you might get given a clue as to how f’ng fortunate you have become to unwittingly and inadvertently stumbled upon the truth, in spite of your dumb fak closed minded self
25 Dec 2011, 02:22 am
Oh dear SkoppieJoel. You know, for a veggie you sure do bay for a lot of blood…
25 Dec 2011, 06:38 am
@ashampoopaloo-324:
Happy Christmas skop.
Tis the season of goodwill. And time to pull out the peace pipe.
26 Dec 2011, 00:04 am
season of goodwill is all good and well, what happens when the fictitious excuse for all this song and dance good will has past-? What then?
Its ironic that the greatest warmongers in the world are also supposedly devout champions of religion.
26 Dec 2011, 00:12 am
greatest warlords in the world are either champions of Christian or Muslim religions. Yet they’ll profess their undying love for their respective messiahs while preparing for their next massive onslaught on humanity.
Most ironic aspect of their great peace and goodwill is if they had to meet their prophet or their son of God they would not recognize him
26 Dec 2011, 00:23 am
they definitely crucify him again while singing glory halleluljah
Peace and good will to all mankind is a noble concept now try keep it us for next 365 days and not only on this fictitious Romanticized pagan holiday which they went and conveniently confused with a saviours birthday who they could not recognize from Adam
26 Dec 2011, 00:33 am
beauty of the entire fiasco is at least the pagans knew wtf they were actually celebrating on 25 Dec which was turning of the sun from winter to summer, when the Christians hijacked it and confused it with the messiahs birthday they lost all clarity of wtf they were actually celebrating about and out came all the bells and whistles and stuffed turkeys and Xmas trees and the rest
26 Dec 2011, 00:50 am
tis the season to be jolly, tra la la la … la la la.
what a meal, stuffed turkey, brannewyn cream, cranberries peeking out of the turkey ***, champagne, little piggy rolls or whatever they called, lovely.
26 Dec 2011, 00:59 am
ou doos had braised carrot and turnip chased down with elderflower juice and for dessert some cammomile leaves.
26 Dec 2011, 01:08 am
the true frivolous pseudo scientist trying to be stupefied frivolous again, you think its a joke living on this planet the jokes on you you stupid frivolous dumb fak imbecilic pseudo scientific moron
26 Dec 2011, 01:13 am
of course its a joke, the whole things a catastrophic joke, catch a wake up twatface.
26 Dec 2011, 01:23 am
time you fak up schmuck catch a wake up go stuff some more of that stuffed turkey down your pseudo fak’d up frivolous throat you immoral emaciated pseudo frivolous two faced bum
26 Dec 2011, 01:28 am
that turkey was not emaciated at all, it was plump and juicy.
26 Dec 2011, 01:45 am
yeah you clever little frivolous two faced heathen think you so faking entitled to stuff yourself with the entrails of another conscious sentient being, you little imbecilic little ant still gotta get the absolute lesson of what living on this planet is about you moron arrogant two faced frivolous insincere pathetic piffle arsed pseudo creep
26 Dec 2011, 01:53 am
still that turkey was finger-licking good, hm hm hmmm.
there was also a roasted leg of ham joint, however i did do my bit for humanity and insisted on some brussel sprouts (wrapped in piggy bacon).
26 Dec 2011, 01:55 am
there was fkall conscious about that turkey, got him straightfromsupermarket, a beast of a bird, looked more like an ostrich.
26 Dec 2011, 02:12 am
pure imbecilic ignorant dumbfk pseudo scientist barbarian f?ng heathen cn’t still wanna bullshit himself the insidious cn’t is entitled while at same time bullshitting himself that he is in any way an open minded scientist you pathetic moron cn’t don’t have the vaguest foggiest clue about what your life is actually about you dumbfk moron
26 Dec 2011, 02:13 am
so are you saying life is not about eating turkey, no matter how juicy?
26 Dec 2011, 02:15 am
also i would ask that you behave yourself, there are children that read this blog.
you should be ashamed of yourself ashampoopaloo.
no more xmas turkey for you.
26 Dec 2011, 02:35 am
the great fakup moralist at his pseudo fakup moralizing again. Get your fake morals straight before you come preach your pseudo fak’d up frivolous dubious two faced entitled insincere morals here dumbfl
26 Dec 2011, 11:30 am
So god what do you consider worse on the morals front:
a carnivorous heathen piece of meat-eating trash
or
a two-faced disloyal adulterous cheating piece of trash?
26 Dec 2011, 11:34 am
Which causes more pain and suffering to conscious sentient beings and all?
Who is the real two-faced guttersnipe trash rat? The turkey lover or the punani lover?
26 Dec 2011, 11:56 am
Is the adulterous scum sincere or insincere, serious or frivolous, honest or two-faced, a giver or taker, full of integrity or a mere gobshite?
These morals are strange bladdy things, just as well u around to enlighten us with your raised humanity and all.
26 Dec 2011, 16:53 pm
work it out for yourself fakface you imbecilic little runtcunt wouldn’t have a clue you two faced holier than thou piece of garbage cunteyed super materialist indoctrinated judgmental trash
26 Dec 2011, 17:06 pm
now why u hopping mad, i merely trying to decipher universe;s moral laws to find out whether the punani or the turkey is more sacred.
26 Dec 2011, 17:22 pm
work it out for yourself keep stuffing your glorified humane mug with more turkey and piggy flesh while your try work out your fake fak’d up morality standards just like all the other universal laws your fak’d up morally corrupt pseudo scientific bullshit artists bullshit you about, keep mesmerizing your fak’d up pseudo arsed brain with more of the same
26 Dec 2011, 17:30 pm
but listen if the punani is more sacred than the turkey, and u been indulging and causing uncessary sufferering to sentiest beings, then i figure i can eat turkeys three times a day for the next 2000 years and not be as fkd as you…you must be shitting yourself for the universe’s backlash.
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