Mathew Turner - FNB Player of the Week
Player Profile
Against SACS on Saturday Mathew Turner, the Bishops left wing, scored six tries. He is the FNB Player of the Week.
The old man, wrapped against the cold, sat on the stoep of the Heatlie Pavilion at Bishops watching players enjoying a session of skill and communication training. They really were enjoying it as they went in threes, under pressure, communicating fast as they weaved in support of each other.
And the old man smiled and nodded his approval. That is why Bishops can – more than any other school in South Africa, weave the magic patterns that it does from time to time.
The Heatlie Pavilion behind him, there Piley Rees Field in front of him – one of the most historic places in South African rugby, a place of pilgrimage almost. And the old man knew that Barry Heatlie and Piley Rees and a host of others – Tuppy Owen-Smith, Geoff Gray, Stephen and Dennis Fry, Peter Whipp, Robbie Fleck – they would all nod their approval at the way Bishops go about their rugby, playing and training.
And the cries came from the past. "To your wings, Bishops, to your wings." To Mauritz van Buuren, to Theo Samuels and Percy Jones, to DO Williams and Dendy Lawton, to Hillary Squires and Boetie Versfeld, to Stuart Symington and Pieter Loubscher….
Training over, the slender young wing came over to the paunchy old man and they shook hands and went to sit on the stoep, the old man filled with admiration for the young man and sorely tempted as he sat on this historic spot to bore the young man with tales and names of the greats whose spirits were all over the place. Sometimes the old man succumbed to temptation and still the young man sat in patient ease.
Like Syd Ashley and Robbie Fleck, the young wing had started at Wynberg Junior School, started school and at the age of eight started rugby, playing hooker. From there, like Peter Whipp, he had gone on to Wet Pups. And then in Grade 8 (Std 6 to the old man) the young man had come to Bishops, no longer a hooker but a centre or a fullback or, as latterly, a left wing
Like Robbie Fleck he had not always played in A teams. But by the time he got to Under-16 he was in the A team. This year he is in the Bishops 1st XV and so far this season, in 18 matches, he has scored 25 tries. Saturday's match against SACS put six tries into that total. He had scored hat-tricks against Brackenfell and Tygerberg but here was a double hat-trick against SACS, a good side, Bishops's oldest rivals, going back to the 1860s. No Bishops boy had scored six tries in a match before.
Great feat? the old man asked. "Not really. It's so easy because of the way Bishops play their rugby. We are always running with the ball and there is always support."
Bishops do not wear numbers on their back because the game is about the team, not the individual – and that is the way that they play, 14 players looking to make a try for the 15th.
You don't kick much, the old man said. "No. I kicked just once on Saturday."
That once produced the best individual try of the match. SACS chipped into the Bishops 22 on the Bishops right. Right wing Michael Nel got the ball and passed to his right to eighthman Nic Köster. Köster passed to flank Michael Morris. Morris passed to left wing Mathew Turner who was inside his 22. The ball had travelled almost the whole width of the field. The young man ran down the touch-line on his left and then he kicked his only kick of the match, a chip over an opponent's head. The young man raced after it, caught the benignly bouncing ball and raced away for a spectacular try. And it all looked so easy.
Enjoy rugby? the old man asked, knowing that only somebody who enjoyed rugby could score such a try. "It's why I come to school," the young man said with a grin. (His academic work is all right, by the way.)
Next year? the old man asked? "I'm going off to the new Western Province Academy at Stellenbosch with Jacques Hanekom," the young man says eagerly.
Want to play good rugby? the old man asked. "Oh yes," the young man said. "As far as I can go with it."
But he is a wing. That is a difficult position for players not ethnic enough, which meant that Craven Week was not an option for him. "I'd like to wear the green of South Africa," he says with a dreamy look. "If that's not on I would try for the white of England."
He has had a taste of England when he went on an exchange to posh Millfield down in Somerset, a school which makes much of its rugby. He thought the school "amazing" though the rugby was "not free, very structured". A long, long way from the freedom of Bishops rugby.
But watch the young man play and you see freedom of rugby expression in action. He counterattacks with the certainty of a skilled player who has the vision to see the opposition in depth – see where the gaps are and run at them – fast off the mark, swerving on the run, like a skater on a bend. He may start with the stutter of a sidestep but once on the run swerve and acceleration are his weapons. No kicking – but the off-load before the tackle and back again in support, ready for more. It is heady stuff.
Eventually the conversation ran out. The young man skipped across the Piley Rees to his house. The old man shuffled off to his car, knowing that the world was a good place, rugby a great game.
And as he shuffled along, the cries came, past and present mingled. "To your wings, Bishops, To your wings." to Mauritz van Buuren, to Theo Samuels and Percy Jones, to DO Williams and Dendy Lawton, to Hillary Squires and Boetie Versfeld, to Stuart Symington and Pieter Loubscher, to Mathew Turner..
Mathew Drew Turner was born in Cape Town on 18 January 1988. His family lives in Hout Bay but he enjoys boarding in White House, one of the three boarding houses at Bishops. "I've got the biggest study in the house," he says with satisfaction.
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For more information about the Bishops team, click here.
