VIDEO: 'I am at a point now in my career where a move is needed'

WATCH as Curwin Bosch chats to the Behind the Ruck crew – Springboks Juan de Jongh and Rudy Paige.

In a raw and honest interview, Bosch speaks about growing up in Alexandria in the Eastern Cape with an old-school grandfather, and how he almost left rugby and got back into it through athletics.

He explains the build-up week to the Challenge Cup Final and how special the whole experience was.

He also spoke about his upcoming move to Brive, the reasons behind it, and whether he still has Springbok ambitions.

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When asked about the experience of being part of a European Final by Paige, he said: “They really made it a special week for us, not only the day of the final, but that whole week, you could just sense that it was a bigger occasion, a bigger game and I think the boys enjoyed it.”

He further added: “Our chat the week was just to embrace everything that comes our way, and just to stay in the moment, because big games like that you tend to look forward to it so much, you end up forgetting to take it day by day and enjoying the whole week of it ”

He also stated that most of the final pressure was internal.

“The only pressure we had was from inside the camp.

“I think that was partly because of the URC season that we had. We knew we weren’t going to make the Champions Cup by qualifying through the URC.

“We decided a couple of months ago before the EPCR started that we want to go on and win this competition, so we sort of just focussed on that, and used the URC games that we had in between for that.

“The only pressure we had from the coaches was that they wanted work ethic from us and just for the guys to invest time into analysis, into training, into sharpening skills, that sort of thing.”

Bosch didn’t hold back when asked about his move to Brive and how his nine years at the Sharks were.

“I’m so grateful for my time at the Sharks, you know they’ve done a lot for me, not just in terms of rugby. I’ve got a very good relationship with our CEO Ed [Eduard] Coetzee, he’s been instrumental in my time here at the Sharks.

“I feel like I’m at a point now in my career where a move is needed for me, just the idea of a new team, sort of like your first day of going to school.

“There’s nervousness, there’s excitement…I’ve been here for nine years and it’s all I’ve known.”

On his reasons for joining Brive, Bosch added:  “They’ve got ambition, they want to win trophies and I want to be part of that journey. To be honest I always wanted to experience France and I’ll still be playing in black and white”.

He still recalls the week leading up to his Springbok debut in his home town of Gqeberha and the dream is still very much alive for him.

“I’ve stayed in South Africa up to now because of the Springboks.

“I haven’t given up on that dream yet.

“The last couple of seasons I haven’t been operating at my A-game so I can’t expect to be picked if I’m not operating there.

“This new challenge might just ignite something in me again but that dream is still alive in me until the day I hang up my boots. I want to wear green and gold again.”

Source: @behindtheruck_