When it was brought to my attention, this one sort of reminded me of the late Gerbrand Grobler who in the latter part of his sports career would charge into the crease to deliver a ball for the Northern Transvaal cricket team during the summer months and then cross the Jukskei and turn out at fullback for the Transvaal rugby team during winter.
How’s this – Garsies 1st XV teammates Jan-Henning Campher (hooker) and Le Roux Roets (lock) who had enjoyed many successes during the course of this past school rugby season had the distinguished honour of playing against each other over the weekend. Campher was selected on the bench for the Bulls under-19 while Roets was included as a reserve in the Golden Lions under-19 team for the provincial clash which the Bulls went on to 37-30. At a point during the second half both youngsters were on the field taking each other on. It’s hard to check if this sort of thing has ever happened before but it does seem like a unique situation.
Although Garsfontein is in Pretoria aka Bulls country, they have provided the Lions junior structures with a few useful players already. Roets is however the first Garsies schoolboy to be called on to play for the Lions. It’s not uncommon for the Lions to use school players these days and for Roets it’s vital to gain the exposure as he is already an under-19.
Campher’s case is different. Each year the Bulls contract many quality players for their under-19 training squad. As a result depth is seldom an issue at Loftus. If anything the Bulls’ biggest challenge is giving contracted players enough game time to prove themselves. So the need to plug a hole using an existing school player just hasn’t been a consideration for the Bulls in recent seasons. The decision to use Campher, more than anything underlines just how highly rated the SA Schools hooker is.
@JohanP: Lawless sort of succeeded Gavin Johnson, who moved to wing for a while. So probably would have been better if I had said Johnson instead of Lawless.
The succession must have been Potgieter-Grobler-Truter-Johnson-Lawless.
Hempis Rademeyer might have been the fullback before that but he was maybe a wing.
@JohanP: Sorry his name might have been Jannie Pretorius. He was the fullback for Transvaal in the late 80’s. I’m sure he had a beard. Schalk Naude was mostly a flyhalf. Also a Jukskei River crosser.
@beet – the bearded jannie potgieter? you mean schalk naude…and lawless played for tvl post 95 world cup, in fact I played with him at wanderers in 96 together with the now coach neil calife, when he came up to jhb from the cape. but all I wanted was an idea of your age boet, anyways, suppose it doesn’t matter anyway
@scrummie: Ek verstaan nie mooi die vraag nie. Wil jy weet van die Beeld trofee, Tuks reeks of ‘n bepaalde skool se bepalings?
@ Kosie , Het jy miskien n idee wanneer die Liga fixtures vir volgende jr beskikbaar sal wees ?
@beet: Berea Park was the home of the NTVL cricket union until January 1987.
@kosie:
No problem Kosie
@JohanP: I’m so old I could not remember the name of the cricket ground that NT played at before they moved to Centurion Park. I remember a lot of the players but now struggle with the time frame in terms of who played alongside who. Noel Day was the keeper, Lee Barnard the captain, they had a young bowler named Weidemann, I think Rodney Ontong was the spinner, Fanie de Villiers, Mike Rindel. Mandy Yachad played for Tvl but I think he had a spell with NT as well. Memory bank is too sketchy. I remember Natal and Transvaal far better.
For Tvl rugby Grobler was slotted in somewhere between the bearded Jannie Potgieter, Hendrik Truter, Gavin Lawless. Liaan Kirkham before all these guys was one of my first rugby heroes. GG would have played alongside the likes of Robert du Preez, Naas, Giepie Nel, Christo Spannenberg, (maybe Pieter Nel), Hendrik Kruger, Johan Heunis. Jan Lock, Uli Schmidt, Adolf Malan, Adri Geldenhuys, Pote Fourie, maybe Staeuli before he moved to Tvl as well.
@kosie – I doubt that very much Kosie(that beet was 21 when gerbrand passed away)
@JohanP: I am no visionary but having followed the blog for some time and picked up some information along the way; I would say the answer to your question is 0 when Gerbrand started to play and 21 when he passed away.
@Beet sorry if I touched the sensitivity of age.
beet – just as a matter of interest, how old were you when Gerbrand Grobbler played rugby and cricket? He passed away in 1994 if memory serves