How France shaped Frans
13 Feb 2013
Frans Steyn’s benefit from an overseas rugby playing experience is further evidence of the changing landscape of South African rugby.
Francois Louw is a better player now than when he left Western Province for Bath. Percy Montgomery returned to South Africa a more accomplished player than the 50 Test veteran who left for Wales and who many accepted was past his best and would never again play Test rugby. Montgomery added 52 Tests to his CV, won the Tri Nations and was integral to South Africa winning the World Cup in 2007.
He never turned his back on South Africa. Montgomery was drained from the routine of Super Rugby, Test Rugby, Currie Cup Rugby and Test Rugby. He wanted to experience something else and he just needed a bit of time away from the public glare. Montgomery has often told me what his time in Wales taught him was to be a rugby professional and to assume the responsibility of the overseas professional. He said he grew up as a person but more so his rugby matured because he was taken out of his comfort zone.
Ditto Louw and ditto so many other South Africans who are currently playing in Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and even in Japan.
It is the way of the modern game the our best players can command the highest salaries in European club rugby and it is not a crime for any young player to want to reap the financial rewards, experience a change of pace in life, grow as a person and by circumstance of experiencing new responsibility become a better rugby player.
The vitriol from within the South African rugby support base is a common package directed at any player who wants to experience an overseas stint. Immediately he is cast as the villain and immediately the local based player is put on a pedestal of loyalty to the national jersey and the national flag. It is absurd in the context of the evolution of the sport as a profession, and it betrays the incredible value to those players who at an early age experience the overseas influence and return to South Africa in their mid 20s so much wiser and adding so much more value to rugby teams in South Africa and to the national cause.
I’ve constantly been amazed at the ‘out of sight out of mind’ attitude, especially when so much of the English Premiership, French Top 14 and Heineken Cup is shown on SuperSport, and that so many of the South African players are consistently the best performers.
Somewhere a misguided principle of patriotism has painted these South Africans as sinners to the cause of the South African game because their talent allows for interest and lucrative financial reward from Europe’s wealthiest clubs.
Ronaldo did not sell out to Portugal soccer because he earns his monthly salary at the club prepared to pay him his market value and more. The same applies to every South African soccer talent that is overseas based. I don’t want this misinterpreted as saying being based overseas makes a player automatically better than what is based in this country but why choose one or the other when the option should be to choose both or make an informed national selection based on player pedigree and form and not where the player is based.
Steyn won a World Cup at the age of 20. He had won a Tri Nations and a British and Irish Lions series at the age of 22. He needed something to rekindle the enthusiasm of the schoolboy who won his first Test cap a year after finishing his schooling. He went to Paris very much a young man with a sheltered view of the world and return a mature young man with a very different view of the world, of his own country and of his responsibility to his chosen profession.
Steyn, had he stayed in South Africa, may at 26 years old have been considering giving it all up and playing out the final four years of his career in a less demanding Japanese club environment for huge financial gain. He may have given up on the ideal of Bok rugby and contributing to rugby within South Africa because seven successive years of scrutiny and intensity within the South African rugby landscape had drained him and left him exhausted, fatigued and flat.
His move to France turned a boy into the man who John Plumtree has now entrusted with the captaincy at the Sharks.
Plumtree said Steyn was a leader of men, a player with vast experience, in South Africa and abroad, and a winner. He also knew what it meant to be a professional.
It is a fantastic endorsement from Plumtree but also reward for a player who never betrayed South African rugby and also never betrayed his love for the game. Instead he recognised what he needed to reinvent his enthusiasm and to challenge his comfort zone.
Steyn is just one example of how leaving South Africa for a short term gave him an appetite for a longer contribution to the game in South Africa.
Steyn’s story is one that hopefully continues to challenge the outdated and simply outrageous belief that a player who leaves South Africa to play abroad sells out on South African rugby and should be treated as a traitor. Judge a South African player on what he offers this country’s national rugby and not on the country in which he decides to get reward for his rugby talent.
Supporter mindsets must change because the professional status of the player has ensured that their mindsets also had to change.
By Mark Keohane
312 Comments
Pages: « 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 » Show All
12 Feb 2013, 21:13 pm
@ufo-47:
Will keep a look-out for it
@ufo-47:
Will keep a look-out for it. As I will for the latest Bowie release – just because we haven’t heard from him for a while.
12 Feb 2013, 21:16 pm
absolutely stormer…
me too…
12 Feb 2013, 21:16 pm
RT @keocoza: How France shaped Frans: Frans Steyn’s benefit from an overseas rugby playing experience is further evidence … http://t.c …
12 Feb 2013, 21:20 pm
@ufo-49:
Will be interesting to see the AC decides on. He has stated that he will only start with those that have participated in at least one of the 2 warm-up games. So to me, Coleman will get the nod – but given Elton’s proven pedigree things could change.
And Schalk needs time off the bench – contact sessions don’t replace game time. He needs the confidence in his kop that he is over his injury – AC must ease him back into the big time.
12 Feb 2013, 21:25 pm
@ufo-48:
We will probably never know whether it is rejected stuff or not. As a huge fan of hendrix I won’t be happy if they release stuff that Jimmi himself might have thought is not good enough to be released at the time. I reckon if he had recorded material for upcoming albums that he was very happy with then somebody would have known about it and they would have released it long ago.
But let’s see how it goes- I have listened to a short clip of one song on you tube and it sounded quite good..
12 Feb 2013, 21:26 pm
yeah i would’ve started schalk from the bench even if he did play… but he’s only starting to train ‘later in the week’… so let’s see if he gets through that first…
but elton is a definite step up from kurt… so i fully expect him to get the nod…
12 Feb 2013, 21:29 pm
@I am a stormer-52:
AC has said he might make an exception in the case of Jantjes and is even prepared to arrange a practice match (a few chukkas as he called it) between 2 Stormer teams in order to give Jantjes some “gametime” before te game against the Bulls.
12 Feb 2013, 21:31 pm
yeah rob… i know you are…
agree we most probably never will know… though the quality may give us an indication… don’t think any fan wants a hash job done just for the big payday… and don’t either wanna see them tarnish his legacy…
but i can’t see rolling stone just doing a pr number for the record company… if they think it’s okay it should be pretty interesting…
hopefully…??
12 Feb 2013, 21:38 pm
“We’re thrilled to be able to release People, Hell & Angels, during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of my brother’s birth. The brilliance of the album serves to underscore what we’ve known all along: that there has never been and never will be a musical force equal to his and that we cherish and take inspiration of what he left us both now and for many generations to come…simply eternity.”
Janie L. Hendrix
but i guess she would hardly say it’s rubbish hey…?
will have to wait and hear for ourselves…
12 Feb 2013, 21:40 pm
@ufo-58:
It will be interesting to hear Skopskiet’s views on this- he is the greatest Hendrix fan in history… Jimmi and Joe C ocker and nobody else
Justkiddingskoppy.
12 Feb 2013, 21:43 pm
hehehe
it will be interesting to hear skop’s take on this…
in round about…
3
2
1…
???
12 Feb 2013, 22:10 pm
Pleased to see my sharkies so far in front of the poll for “who will win the SA conference?”
The majority of Keo members do have some sense after all.
Except us sharkies don’t place too much value on just winning a silly lil’ conference, like fans of some other team, do we?
12 Feb 2013, 22:12 pm
Why has there been no thread on the Kings ignoring SARU’s rules? Will SARU disqualify the Kings or dock them table points for each match they continue to have 5 foreigners in their squad?
12 Feb 2013, 22:13 pm
Cheeky is being incredibly, well, cheeky, isn’t he? I can see why most have no time for this troublemaker.
12 Feb 2013, 22:26 pm
@ShaunB-63:
They should be disqualified, rules are rules
13 Feb 2013, 05:01 am
‘Times is few…’, remember first game is just after sunrise on Friday SA time.
Come join my Super Rugby prediction game on SuperBru! It’s free and loads of fun. Just click here:
http://www.superbru.com/superrugby/pool.php?p=11047241
Pool name: Hore set for hefty ban…
Pool code: busycoon
13 Feb 2013, 05:04 am
PS we up to 113 players, two short of the most we had in the ‘keo league’.
13 Feb 2013, 05:05 am
@victoriabok-65:
VB rules set by saru mind you, I say let them have the players, it is not going to change anything.
13 Feb 2013, 05:13 am
Hahahahaha! Nooit!
Khodder Nasser has labelled Francois Botha “a sore loser” after the South African claimed he was offered $150,000 to throw his fight against Sonny Bill Williams.
Botha alleges Nasser, Williams’s manager, had offered him the sum in a Brisbane park on Tuesday last week, three days before the supposed World Boxing Association (WBA) title fight which Williams won on points.
These clowns have reached rock bottom and decided to start and dig…
13 Feb 2013, 05:43 am
@Slartibartfast-69:
They’re both as bad as the other… Nasser and Botha… as for SBW… the guy is just too stupid to know either way…
Even the WBA have distanced themselves from the ‘fake’ title…
13 Feb 2013, 05:45 am
@Slartibartfast-66:
If you have the time for both comps… ruggaworld’s comp (RatRace) is easy to participate and has excellent prizes…
13 Feb 2013, 05:53 am
As for Frans… he needs an entire season uninjured… I cannot remember one from him for quite some time…
13 Feb 2013, 06:07 am
I love the fact that the Sharkies are being touted as local favourites. Personally I do believe the Stormers have a stronger squad with more depth but we’ll let the results speak at the end of the comp. Frans has been average so far – let’s see what happens this season.
13 Feb 2013, 06:09 am
@bryce_in_oz-71:
Will check it out Bryce
13 Feb 2013, 06:20 am
Yeah Sharkishits are already full of themselves without a ball kicked in anger yet. Bulls are actually the dark horses if they play their youngsters like Pollard Serfontein Venter Engelbrecht Mastriet Botha Willemse Kirsten
and leave their dead beats Spies Olivier
13 Feb 2013, 06:23 am
@W.P-73:
It is called grandstanding, everyone is a winner before a ball is passed in anger…
You would think the Stormers are a stronger combination than last year and as such should be top of the pops come end of the season. Sharks will have to improve substantially to overtake them.
Anyway, long season and a few key injuries early on and the picture changes quickly, happens every year.
13 Feb 2013, 06:25 am
skop is confusing his animals again but what else can you expect from a vegan…
Should they not be the dark cows?
13 Feb 2013, 06:25 am
Stormers have a stronger squad than last year. Sharks have Frans added. Can’t wait for the games to begin
13 Feb 2013, 06:29 am
@W.P-78:
Sad, I am even looking forward to the dire OZ derbies on the weekend…
13 Feb 2013, 06:29 am
@Slartibartfast-77: cows, horses. Same difference. Well, in the UK at least.
13 Feb 2013, 06:30 am
Stormers also stand to implode if they’re pinning their hope of success on the advent of Burger and his captaincy credentials or Jantjes and his playing ability these could be the very two high hopes that sink them.
13 Feb 2013, 06:38 am
Yeah what is the difference between a horse or a cow when you flesh eating carnivores can’t taste the difference which consciously murdered beast you devoured in your burger king or BIg Mac hamburger
13 Feb 2013, 06:46 am
Flesh eating carnivores…you get other types?
skop doing his normal ‘cover all bases’ pre-season predictions. By kick-off on Friday he would have backed and shot down just about all of the 15 teams. So come the final he will tell us ‘see, told you’.
Senile old fool
13 Feb 2013, 06:52 am
Nasser: Botha’s suggestion of bribe a ‘fantastic tale’:
Khoder Nasser has hit back at claims from Francois Botha that the South African was offered a $150,000 bribe to throw the fight against Sonny Bill Williams, saying it was a “fantastic tale” and the boxer must by “flying high”.
Speaking from Durban, Botha told LiveSport radio this morning he was picked up from his hotel on the Tuesday night before the fight and taken to a “very nice park” where he was asked to lose on purpose.
13 Feb 2013, 06:53 am
“My cellphone was confiscated and given to the guy in the car,” Botha said. “I was being walked and during this walk I was made an offer of $150,000 to throw the fight.
“I just said, `no, I can’t do this’.”
However, Nasser, Williams’ controversial manager, has given the latest claim, which came after suggestions the fight was cut from 12 rounds to 10 and an apparent failing of a pre-fight drugs test by Botha, short shrift.
13 Feb 2013, 06:54 am
“It’s pretty blatant that he’s got form in trying to come up with anything to discredit the show,” Nasser said.
“First it was that he thought it was 12 rounds and then that he knew it was 10 rounds and then that my brother took the drugs test and then okay, someone else took the drugs test and then it was tampered with and … now this is the latest fantastic tale.”
13 Feb 2013, 06:54 am
Nasser added of the drugs test claims: “He voluntarily gave his urine, nobody asked him for his urine. He must have been flying high when he did that as well.”
Botha said he told a close friend about the alleged offer of a bribe on his return to the hotel.
“As I came into the hotel, he could clearly see that I am very upset. I tell him I need to see him and talk about this.
13 Feb 2013, 06:55 am
“He said, `Fran, if you ever think about doing this I’m going to get on a plane and go back to South Africa because I don’t want to be part of this’. I told him straight, `Listen, I’m not doing this. I’m a Christian and I cannot do this’.”
The allegation is the latest in an extraordinary series of events around the WBA International heavyweight title fight, won on points by Williams. The fight was originally scheduled for 12 rounds but controversially cut down to 10.
13 Feb 2013, 06:56 am
so now youre going to litter every thread with this banality?
let it go man..
its a shame you dont spend half the time you do denigrating NZ to actually trying to better your own society..
13 Feb 2013, 06:57 am
Now, however, Botha wants a rematch and is meeting with a WBA representative tomorrow to discuss his case.
“I want this fight to be declared a no contest. If this little Sonny Bill, this little fighter that he believes he can be, wants to prove something, stay away from David Tua in the first place because David Tua will knock him out. Fight the White Buffalo and prove yourself as a fighter.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10865124
13 Feb 2013, 07:03 am
Which beast you chop up and chow on your bbq or sluk down your throat unsuspectingly in your hamburger even you don’t have a clue long as its filled with blood and burned flesh and sinew wtf do you care could even be a donkey or a cat or dog and you wouldn’t know the difference. I wonder if you’d tell the difference between human and pork.??
That’s how senility is measured when you can’t tell the difference which living entity you stuffing down your unconscious palate
So which franchise your rooting for your tie me kangaroo down syndicate or die ou tyd herinderinge
13 Feb 2013, 07:06 am
@the curse-89:
Hi Pops…e pehea ana koe? I see Houston posted each individual Kiwi Player at those NRL clubs under investigation, even those who have just joined. We might smoke da ganja in ol Nz to feel irie…but the roids are for wannabees…hehe
As for the Boxing….Sbw is the winner…hehe….as we predicted.
13 Feb 2013, 07:07 am
@the curse-89:
Pal you’re the head honcho when it comes to littering threads… from rape-stats to pathetic EMO confessions… and ne’er the Twain an iota of rugby!
13 Feb 2013, 07:13 am
Why the human and pork comparison skoppelos? Just because you act like a pig on keo most of the time does not mean the human race is closely related to pigs you know.
You worry about the variety of beans you eating and I will worry about my meat. Well worry is probably not the right word to use, more a choice of rare or medium rare than a worry for me.
13 Feb 2013, 07:14 am
@bryce_in_oz-93: and who asked for your worthless opinion? Im only returning serve, the constant posting of articles denigrating NZ deserve a response… dont like it, good, then fck off..
@Te Rangatira-92: aye, all good here bro.. hope you and yours are well.. mate, roids are rife in SA schools, parents encourage their young uns to use them, but do we hear anything about this? of course not, bakkies turns a blind eye to it all, like he does SA indiscretions on the rugby field..
13 Feb 2013, 07:17 am
@skopdiekan-82:
i agree with you to an extent, Skop.
i’ve eaten horsemeat and for the most thought it was beef.
very hard to tell the difference.
13 Feb 2013, 07:18 am
@the curse-89:
So what should bakkies or all of us South Africans be doing to better our own society instead of being on keo?
Please explain point by point.
13 Feb 2013, 07:20 am
@Te Rangatira-92:
hello TR, how are you?
yes, those stats are probably a small indication of possible Kiwi involvement in the Ozzie doping scandal going on at present. i gather its people under possible suspicion? the list is from the NZ Herald.
TR, don’t ruin your crediblity by sticking up for SBW just to get back at me.
it’s not worth it, boet.
13 Feb 2013, 07:20 am
@Fern-97:
education is a good place to start..
13 Feb 2013, 07:20 am
@the curse-95:
Returning serve is also getting lame,it does not make you better than us on here who you dispise,it drags you down to our level.
Can you not be the better man?
Sorry interupt,so what should we be doing to make Mzansi a better place in your opinion?
Enlighten us also please about your struggle credentials and how you went to extraordinary measures with personal cost to oppose this.
Listening to “Weeping” by Bright Blue does not count.
Pages: « 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 » Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.