Lisle Clark - Queen's College Captain
Player Profile
Queen's College 1st XV Captain and head boy Lisle Clark like his school, has serious pedigree.
Being a born and bred Eastern Cape boy, in his third year in the Queen's 1st XV, Lisle is acutely aware of the magnitude of this fixture. He will be leading his school and his team into battle against bitter rivals Dale College on Saturday in a FNB Classic Clash.
Lisle was born on a farm in Dordrecht (about 30kms from Queenstown) on 18 July 1988. He has attended Queen's since Grade 1 and spent his junior years in the hostel, before his father opened a business in town. Even more of an honour than captaining the 1st XV is leading the entire College, a role that Lisle is relishing. Being head boy is a job Lisle wanted and apart from battling a few time-management issues it is everything he hoped it would be.
Lisle played flank his whole life until he moved to hooker in Grade 10 (Standard 8). It was clearly a prosperous move as he immediately made the 1st XV as an Under-16. Lisle's has already played for Border Under-16 and Craven Week sides, and he was selected for the Nike Green Squad after the Grant Khomo Week. Lisle hopes to go one better and captain Border Schools this season. He is looking for a big Craven Week with a view to hopefully making the SA Schools team. He has already been approached by the Sharks Academy but being a very strong academic he is hoping to go to UCT next year. With one eye on eventually getting involved in his dad's business he feels it better to further his rugby and studies there.
Lisle is a big boy, measuring 1.84 metres and weighing in at 95kgs. Being an ex-loose forward he excels in the loose but prides himself on his strong defence and scrumming. With a powerful pack who scrum particularly well and what Lisle termed "scary backs on turnover ball" he actively tries to win tight-heads at scrum-time. Lisle's all-time rugby hero is legendary Bok fullback Andre Joubert, but in testament to his hard-nosed approach to hooking, Lisle models his play on two New Zealand hard-men, Andrew Hore of the Hurricanes and Anton Oliver of the Highlanders.
Coach Dave McEwan has been the 1st XV coach for the last three seasons and rates his skipper very highly. Coach McEwan reckons he has a well-balanced team who are potent on their day but who are prone to "off days". Fortunately there has only been one this season but unfortunately it happened against one of the best teams in the country, Grey College. Queen's have notable win this year already though over Grey High and Maritzburg College.
Queen's must be favourites for this weekend having won both games last season and having the better track record so far in 2006. Derby games are always fiercely contested though and it is Dale's Reunion Weekend, and so they well have vociferous hometown support behind them as well.
Lisle Clark is not only a very good rugby player but also a very intelligent one. He knows all to well the perils of derbies and the pitfalls of over-confidence. Make no mistake he will lead out a well-prepared and focussed Queen's team come Saturday afternoon.
For a preview of the match, click here.
