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
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13 Feb 2013, 07:21 am
@the curse-99:
Stop being vague
To the point concise answers,steps we can implement each day.
13 Feb 2013, 07:22 am
Botha a Christian oh dear now I’ve heard it all, what tin pot church would that be.
13 Feb 2013, 07:22 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-96:
Man Bakkies, skop does not know the difference between a skaap tjop en ‘n hoenderdy, let along between different red meats.
13 Feb 2013, 07:23 am
@Fern-100: never professed to be the better man, though many of you seem to think you are..
strange you dont like me saying bad things about your country, yet you expect us kiwis to sit in silence when you mouth off about ours..
13 Feb 2013, 07:23 am
@the curse-95:
honestly Pops, i think you should tread carefully here.
who knows what could come out of any possible investigation into Kiwi sports doping?
—————
Kiwis in spotlight as drugs probe continues:
The New Zealand Rugby League have become interested bystanders to the Australian Crime Commission’s investigation into drugs in sport as they try to plan the Kiwis’ World Cup defence.
The six NRL clubs – Manly, Cronulla, Newcastle, Canberra, North Queensland and Penrith – mentioned in the ACC report were all contacted by the NRL on Monday night but given no further information, leaving them unaware what they were being investigated for. The Warriors have not been contacted and are confident they operate cleanly.
There is still little detail about what the commission has found and what sanctions, if any, might be brought down on clubs or individuals.
There are a number of New Zealand players who are at the six clubs or have played there recently, including Kieran Foran, Jeremy Smith, Sam McKendry, Dean Whare, Lewis Brown, Sika Manu, Jason Taumalolo and Antonio Winterstein, and the NZRL are keen to find out what it might mean with the Kiwis due to defend the World Cup later this year in the UK and France.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10864994
13 Feb 2013, 07:23 am
Kiwis or Kiwi-eligible/declared players at the clubs involved in the Australian Crime Commission investigation:
Newcastle
David Fa’alogo
Jeremy Smith
Paterika Vaivai
Marvin Filipo
Tonga Likiliki
Toka Likiliki
Zane Tetevano
Junior Sa’u (left for Melbourne)
Evarn Tuimavave (left for Kull KR)
Penrith
Sam McKendry
Dean Whare (from Manly)
Lewis Brown (from Warriors)
Sika Manu (from Melbourne)
Canberra
Scott Jones
Bronson Harrison (has left for St George-Illawarra)
North Queensland
Jason Taumalolo
Antonio Winterstein
Kalifa Faifai Loa
Wayne Ulugia
Felise Kaufusi
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10864836
13 Feb 2013, 07:25 am
@NZINCHINA-102:
The exact could be said of Nasser and his army of Muslims like SBW, Mundine et al… they all show up their religions…
13 Feb 2013, 07:26 am
@the curse-104:
You have freedom of speech,but you are sidetracking yourself now.
Answer my question re how to make RSA a better place and what was your sacrifices and struggle credentials.
I am not fighting,please engage us.
13 Feb 2013, 07:27 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-105: why? SA have been doing it for years, as highlighted by the shocking numbers reported in SA schools..
again, make sure your back yard is clean first bakkies before pointing fingers..
Im not naieve enough to think it doesnt happen in NZ, but the way you go on its like SA is clean and there is no drug usage at all..
just look at your man Botha (the boxer), hes a known drug cheat yet you act like hes some sort of role model..
13 Feb 2013, 07:27 am
@Slartibartfast-103:
Nor GM corn, indigestible legumes and grains…
13 Feb 2013, 07:29 am
@the curse-109:
Ignore bakkies for a while and answer my questions.
you made a statement now back it upwith advice.
13 Feb 2013, 07:29 am
@bryce_in_oz-107:
Botha said he was a Christian so he couldn’t take a dive lol I’m just wondering what sect of Christianity he’s from that allows him to be on the juice, hit after the bell etc and even after all the accusations he’s made he still wants a rematch, don’t you find that a little odd the a man of god would do all this?
13 Feb 2013, 07:30 am
@Fern-111: I made that statement to bakkies, which concerned bakkies..
as I said, Education is a start… teach people how to better their own lives, rather than pay lip service by working in the townships twice a week..
Id hazard you only do that for the profit you can make anyways..
13 Feb 2013, 07:30 am
@the curse-104:
now, i’m not saying doping is rife within NZ sport proper or that there is a similar level of abuse within rugby union in NZ BUT… what i am saying is just go a little easier on these doping insults in consideration of this.
is there a conspiracy? i dont know, maybe… maybe not… i dont really care that its NZ or not.
i certainly believe it should be investigated and punished in all the territories involved in super rugby, SA included.
i never believed there was a conspiracy or out of control doping in SA and to an extent i still dont, but if its happening then i condemn it in the strongest possible terms and hope it will be dealt with strongly.
i do take heart from the fact we seem to make every effort to do so.
13 Feb 2013, 07:32 am
@Slartibartfast-103:
yes, good point and i hadn’t thought of that, Slarti.
how would he know the difference anyway?
13 Feb 2013, 07:32 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-114:
“i dont really care that its NZ or not.”
strange then that you only list the kiwis under investigation? why not all the players? doesnt fit with your agenda does it?
13 Feb 2013, 07:33 am
@NZINCHINA-112:
‘The same sect that Nasser a notorious spiv belongs too… shows up religion for what it is…
13 Feb 2013, 07:33 am
@the curse-113:
Educate people to bettter their own lives…
You are stuck in a shack with no job,no electricty and one tap shared by 100 people.
How do they better their own lives?
Lots of children are raisning up to 3 brothers and sisters due to their parents passing away from aids.
How do okes like bakkies improve RSA?
13 Feb 2013, 07:37 am
@Fern-118: what do you do in the townships Fern, except make a profit?
so no one anywhere teaches people that condoms prevent Aids?
13 Feb 2013, 07:37 am
@bryce_in_oz-117:
Correct if I’m wrong but Nassar didn’t mention his, they supposedly tried to bribe him, falsified his drug sample, chopped of rounds etc and he still wants a rematch don’t you find that odd?
13 Feb 2013, 07:37 am
@the curse-109:
so we can agree that both NZ and SA needs to police doping more stringently.
i do feel that we make efforts to expose it, as can be seen by the information you quote back to me. this comes from our own investigations and sharing in the media.
for NZ i feel not enough is being done to out illicit activities.
13 Feb 2013, 07:40 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-121: the whole world needs to police doping more stringently, but when a known drug cheat can still participate in a sport then it defeats the purpose dont you think?
until they give people life bans doping will continue, the rewards are too great to discourage people from trying to get away with it imo..
13 Feb 2013, 07:41 am
@the curse-109:
no one said Botha’s a role model?
besides, he failed a drug test once in his life (and this was 18 years ago) and was punished appropriately by having his title stripped.
to insinuate he is a drug taker now is disingenius and a little shameful of you.
13 Feb 2013, 07:42 am
Claims of bribes of $150,000, mystery men lurking ringside, an apparently failed drugs test before the fight, a controversial unanimous points decision – is this really what Sonny Bill Williams wants?
His desire to be one of the world’s best athletes is a lofty, even laudable, one, but this farce – hard on the heels of a dreadful week in Australian sport amidst claims of match-fixing and performance-enhancing drugs – could cause irrepairable damage to the 27-year-old’s image.
13 Feb 2013, 07:42 am
@the curse-119:
Stop asking me questions,give us practical suggestions.
Lots of aids cases are mother to child cases
The gov once gave out flyers about aids prevention and each had a condom stapled on…
I am a link in a chain that gives people water,housing and services.
We atleast do the work unlike some anc connected people who run away with the money.
There is unfortuantly a scholl of thought that you cannot eat a sweet with a wrapper on when it comes to condom usage.
Lots of girls get pregnat because then they can get a child grant and that is their only source of income.
But of course you know all of this.
13 Feb 2013, 07:42 am
After the chaos inside and outside the ring at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Williams sat exhausted and relieved in his dressing room between two of his greatest allies – trainer Mick Akkaway and Quade Cooper.
His other, manager Khoder Nasser, was keeping a close watch on the half dozen or so journalists allowed to interview Williams (one, an ABC reporter, was not allowed entrance as Nasser didn’t like his attitude in the aftermath of the WBA International heavyweight fight).
13 Feb 2013, 07:42 am
Williams appeared humbled by what he had experienced. The realities of the fight game appeared to be catching up with him and he was thankful he had received a unanimous points decision despite having received the beating of his life at the hands of a 44-year-old.
13 Feb 2013, 07:43 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-121: and you know not enough is done in NZ how?
are you linked to NZs anti doping agency? do you know the processes NZ has in place for catching drug cheats? I dont personally, or do you think we dont have any protocols or procedures in place to try and catch drug cheats?
again, your agenda is showing..
13 Feb 2013, 07:45 am
@Fern-125: not going to get into this with you Fern, my comment was directed at the amount of times Bakkies spends denigrating NZ, if he put half that time into helping those within SA society he could accomplish great things..
tell us again about kiwi woman, you seem to delight in that huh?
now run away Lazarus
13 Feb 2013, 07:45 am
@Fern-125:
You could start a circumcism program in the townships apparently that is doing wonders in other African countries.
13 Feb 2013, 07:47 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-123: to suggest he hasnt used them since is also naive, surely he lives near one of your schools?
13 Feb 2013, 07:47 am
@Fern-118:
“How do okes like bakkies improve RSA?”
By leaving?
13 Feb 2013, 07:48 am
@the curse-131:
Bothas a christian he wouldn’t do that.
13 Feb 2013, 07:49 am
@the curse-129:
No let us go on.
There is also a cultural belief in some circles that raping a young girl cures aids.
You said bakkies must spend his time bettering RSA,so give us all pointers please.
13 Feb 2013, 07:49 am
@the curse-122:
i agree with the idea of life bans, in principle, as a ‘shock & awe’ approach might be more effective.
its not lost on anyone that Armstrong at the end of all this is still considerably well off and besides the titles that have been taken from him has never been made to suffer a punishment fitting to his crimes.
13 Feb 2013, 07:49 am
@NZINCHINA-130: That’s a cultural practice among most SA tribes anyway. Not quite the same further north.
And a good few die at these initiation schools every year due to an incompetent/drunk dude giving them the snip.
13 Feb 2013, 07:52 am
@Dilligafrican-136:
Oops that’s no good but I read it reduces transmission rates by up to 50% so surely that would be a good start where it isn’t done.
13 Feb 2013, 07:52 am
@NZINCHINA-130:
There is a huge advertising campaign for circumcision.
The initiaton schools are sadly still popular and it is also seen as a rite of passage and entry into manhood.
13 Feb 2013, 07:53 am
@NZINCHINA-120:
I find nothing odd when the Nasser circus comes to town… particularly in QLD the WBA officials and boxing legends have said all anyone needs to hear about the ‘sham’ non-title fight, the length of the bout and the non-drug test… all else is a mere continuation of that…
13 Feb 2013, 07:53 am
@NZINCHINA-137:
They do it with a dirty blade and the youngsters die from infection,coupled with living in harsh conditions out in the veldt does not help.
13 Feb 2013, 07:54 am
@the curse-128:
its just the absence of any reports, however isolated, which makes me suspicious.
especially in rugby union there seems to be almost zero know or reported instances of illicit drug use.
does this not strike you as odd?
it moves me to question whether the NZ doping people are doing enough, or anything at all, and if not then question of cover ups comes into it.
13 Feb 2013, 07:54 am
@Dilligafrican-132:
Hehehe he can move to NZ and improve both countries…
13 Feb 2013, 07:54 am
@Fern-134: now whose diverting?
my comment was in relation to the amount of time bakkies spends looking for dirt on NZ, he could use that time more constructively in his own community..
13 Feb 2013, 07:55 am
@Fern-138:
Good to hear, a cheap but very painful way to help stop the spread.
13 Feb 2013, 07:55 am
Apologies! forgot the
after my previous post, no harm intended.
13 Feb 2013, 07:58 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-141:
a simple google and you would find this website
http://www.drugfreesport.org.nz/Testing.html
so because there have been no widespread reports of drug use in NZ sport that means we are guilty? seriously bakkies, you seem to be able to research so many things about NZ yet you havent researched NZs testing procedures?
strange..
13 Feb 2013, 07:58 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-98:
Howzit Houston…Those Kiwi players you posted are employees of whatever particular club, some have been there for 3-4 months, some a year…seems a bit harsh to suddenly say they’re under suspicion for things that may have happened 8 years ago….
As for Sbw….you were the one who was saying that the White Buffalo would teach him a lesson…didn’t happen…so lets not talk about credibility.
Anyways I’m over the boxing, gets more ridiculous by the day…..March the 10th at Eden Park…that’s when your credibility really goes out the window….hehe
13 Feb 2013, 08:02 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-141:
Nz Rugby is obviously clean….naturally gifted..hehe
13 Feb 2013, 08:02 am
The standard of Rugby overseas is kak ,there basics are horrific and based on this its my view that a player should be playing super rugby in order to be selected for the Bokke.
@Te Rangatira-147: He taught SBW how to sleep ,best thing anyone could of done , because its when SBW is least annoying.
13 Feb 2013, 08:04 am
Luke Watson wants to play for the Springboks again.
Watson made his Test debut in controversial circumstances against Samoa after Saru president Oregan Hoskins added the flanker to Jake White’s Springbok squad without consulting the coach. Watson was injured against Samoa at Ellis Park and didn’t go to the World Cup later that year, but earned another nine Test caps under Peter de Villiers in 2008, before falling out of favour.
In Foschini’s SportsClub magazine, the 29-year-old Kings captain told Ryan Vrede that he is determined to play for the Springboks again, and hopes the selectors will look his way if he’s good enough.
‘I have a passion for this country and that includes its national rugby team,’ said Watson. ‘But I want to earn my place there, I don’t want any of the politics that marked my initial selection. I was young and naive then and I regret how I allowed certain things to happen. I want form to be the only criteria for selection. If I’m not good enough, don’t even look my way.’
Watson, though, is firmly focused on the challenge of captaining the Kings in their debut Super Rugby season.
‘There is excitement from the guys in the squad but also from people who have been involved behind the scenes in making the Kings work, as well as from fans and sponsors,’ he said. ‘We’ve been through a gruelling pre-season and physically, tactically and mentally we’ve prepared well. Now we’ve shifted our focus to the tournament. We know it is going to be a challenge, but we’re up for it.
‘We’re determined to retain our Super Rugby status and there’s a strong belief that we will. That would play a big part in attracting more players of higher calibre to the franchise in 2014, the benefits of which are self-evident.’
Watson will make his return from a long injury lay-off in the Kings’ final pre-season match against Griquas in PE on Wednesday night.
The Kings, who lost a pre-season friendly to the Lions at Ellis Park last Saturday, will field their best team for this match.
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