Fleckie's sombre return

Former Bok centre Robbie Fleck reports back from his SA Legends trip to Scotland, as well as paying tribute to a talented UCT rugby player who lost his life over the weekend.

It’s great being back in Cape Town after spending a week in Scotland playing golf and playing some rugby…

Yes, yes, poor Fleckie you must be thinking – but it was quite tough. Well, sort of…

It really was a great week away, spent with some like-minded rugby souls – ‘training’, doing some sight-seeing, playing some great golf courses (even with my ‘swing’) and getting the boots dirty once again on the pitch.

The South African Legends played two matches in all, winning them both and it was great catching up with old teammates of mine like Joost van der Westhuizen, Joel Stransky, Wayne Fyvie and Japie Mulder.

A guy by the name of Jake White – some of you might remember him?! – was our player/coach on the trip and he even got a few minutes against the Scottish Legends, playing at openside… You see, he does believe in the value of a fetcher after all!

It would be fair to say that Japie and I were not the best of mates when in Cats and Stormers colours, but it was great catching up with him again, having not seen him in ages. We had a great bar session together one night and we’ve both committed to training for the next Legends event in Bermuda. Japie has also promised that he will be supporting the Cape Town Tens next year, along with Joel, Joost and Fyvs.

John Allan, the man who heads up this fantastic Legends initiative has also thrown his considerable weight behind the Cape Town Tens (you know what I mean Johnny!). In fact, he confirmed that the SA Legends would be sending two teams to the Tens “to make sure one of our teams wins the bloody thing!”. Time will tell Mr Allan, time will tell…

But seriously though, John and his SA Legends manne, are very keen on the whole Tens idea and even though Ian Mac might need some convincing, the guys from SA Legends, and their sponsors Elan, are big supporters of the CT Tens. We look forward to seeing you all here next year, guys!

I wasn’t able to catch the Australia-New Zealand Tri-Nations match live this past weekend, due to my SA Legends commitments, but thanks to my PVR at home I eventually watched the game on Monday evening.

It was a fantastic match, an excellent game of rugby and even though the Wallabies pushed hard at the end of the first half, and the start of the second half, it always seemed likely that the All Blacks would have too much in the tank for them.

The All Blacks have certainly grown in stature during the Tri-Nations. As I have said on countless occasions on these very pages, this is not the world-class All Blacks team of old, but they certainly improved as the tournament progressed. Whether that improvement is down to Graham Henry remains to be seen, but they certainly got better when Richie McCaw returned to the side; so draw your own conclusions.

Surprisingly, New Zealand won the Tri-Nations playing conservative rugby. In fact, they were the most conservative of the sides on offer – poles apart from Peter de Villiers’s Springboks who were keen to run the ball from everywhere.

As well as the Aussies played throughout the Tri-Nations – that game against the Boks at Ellis Park aside! – it would have been a huge call for them to win a trophy this season. They are, however, a team on the up and they will still go places under Robbie Deans.

The Boks were something of an enigma during the Tri-Nations… On paper, and based on their World Cup win, they should really have won this tournament – especially after winning in Dunedin.

I wrote two weeks ago that I couldn’t quite put my finger on South Africa’s Tri-Nations campaign and, to be honest, I still can’t and I’m going to sit on the fence here.

There is talk once again of the Boks extending their end-of-season tour into a Grand Slam trip – matches against all four home unions – and I hope they do so, as that will force De Villiers, and his co-coaches Dick Muir and Gary Gold, into taking a full-strength squad to Europe.

Speaking to the likes of Scott and Gavin Hastings in Edinburgh last week, Scotland are quietly . Also, England – under the management of Martin Johnson – have huge expectations this season, Ireland have a new coach (and Gert Smal in their coaching staff) and Six Nations champions Wales owe us after their heavy losses in June.

The big thing, however, will be De Villiers’s approach in November. His expansive game won’t work at a wet Twickenham or a wet Murrayfield, and they will be playing under different ELVs, so the entire tour will produce an even bigger challenge than the 2008 Tri-Nations…

It is with much sadness that I end this week’s column in paying tribute to the passing of Monte Taljaard – a young UCT flanker who passed away in a car accident over the weekend.

Monte was a special guy, something of a character at the club and a very special player. He will be missed; as a friend, first and foremost, and also as a player and a leader. It was a huge shock to me when I heard of his passing on Sunday, as it was for everyone else at UCT.

Monte, who captained the UCT Under-20s under Dobbo last year, played some first-team rugby towards the end of last season too. He was the smallest guy in the team, but he had the biggest heart and he showed incredible leadership skills when he came into the team at a difficult time; results were not good and we were desperate for a ball-winning openside.

He played three or four games, winning the Man of the Match Award in all but one – much he like he did in this year’s FNB Varsity Cup, a tournament that he was set to take by storm next season.

Monte was so desperate to make a name for himself that he was even considering moving to scrumhalf in order to realise his dream of ‘making it’ in rugby, but it was never a clear-cut decision for him.

Some said he was a born openside, some felt scrumhalf would be his best position. At UCT, we always felt his future lay at openside and he was once again enjoying his rugby over the past few weeks, having finally decided to settle at openside.

In many ways Monte reminded me of Neil Back – small and skilful, yet very determined to prove to everybody that size – or lack thereof – would not stop him. He had a bright future and could easily have become our version of Neil Back.

Monte was set to play a big part in our Intervarsity clash against Stellenbosch next weekend and I have no doubt that the guys will put that something extra into the match to honour their teammate.

Of course, the Ikeys never need any extra motivation when they’re up against their ‘mates’ from Stellies, but it will be an emotional day out and I know that Monte would not have wanted the guys to give anything less than 100% regardless.

Until next week,
Robbie

* Email Fleckie at rugby365@365digital.co.za with any comments.

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