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Joe van Niekerk names the moment he felt he belonged as a Springbok

The scrum cap-wearing Joe van Niekerk gets stuck into the 2002 All Blacks in Durban (Photo by Dave Rogers/Getty Images)

Former Springboks back-rower Joe van Niekerk has named the Test match where he first felt he belonged on the international rugby stage. The retired 44-year-old debuted for his country in 2001 but it wasn’t until the following year that he finally became comfortable in the South Africa jersey.

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Appearing on the Kick Offs and Kick Ons podcast with show regulars Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell and Adam Ashley-Cooper, van Niekerk was asked for his favourite rugby memory, the favourite game for him as a Test player where it made him feel like he finally belonged in the Test arena.

The 52-cap international quickly referenced the 2002 Rugby Championship match that became infamous for a drunken South African fan storming the Kings Park pitch and assaulting Irish referee David McHugh. Explaining his choice, van Niekerk said: “I would probably say when I first came onto the scene, 2001, 2002, I really started to just feel the flow and get into it. I remember a match down in Durban against All Blacks.

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“We lost that Test match very slightly, it was that Test match where the guy ran on and he connected the referee. Do you remember that one? That was like everything is going and even with that antics of what happened, that was just like I’m in the flow man. You know that is just the best.”

The South African, who retired from playing in 2014 following a successful stint at Toulon where Giteau and Mitchell were two of his trophy-winning teammates, spoke at length on the show about his ‘Jungle Joe’ adventures living in Costa Rica and his current life now back home as an holistic health mentor and bodywork practitioner.

 

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The three retired Wallabies were also asked the same question: what was the moment they felt they belonged in the Test-level arena. Giteau reckoned: “Mine was 2004 in Twickenham. Stephen Larkham got injured. Before that I just come on and play 20 minutes here, 10 minutes here, maybe start against an easier opposition so you never really felt like you could impose yourself in the Test arena. But 2004 at Twickenham, the end of our tour, Stephen Larkham got injured the week before but he hung around, he was like our backs coach to help. Elton Flatley was 10, I was 12.

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“Elton got injured early, I moved into 10 and we ended up winning and I had a hand in helping us, guide us around the field and I felt confident, I felt like I was actually could add the same way I do in Super Rugby. Super Rugby when you can make an impact there and you have make that same impact at the Test arena is when you start to feel like you belong. That was definitely my one.”

Mitchell followed: “The game where I felt like I could be in this arena and at this level was probably my first start for the Wallabies which was my third Test. I was starting at full-back against the All Blacks here in Sydney. Tana Umaga was captain of the All Blacks and he was naming me in the press saying they were going to pepper this young guy with high balls all night.

“I went out and it was the first time in a senior level game I faced the haka and the anthems and it was about 20 minutes in, we had a centrefield scrum, we ran to the left and I went through and palmed Dan Carter, stepped the full-back Mils (Muliaina) and then Jerry Collins tackled me from behind which actually helped me because we then both slid over and I scored a try.

“But then I went back to halfway and it was like almost all those anxieties and nerves just hit me at once and I just vomited on halfway and I just though now I can actually relax in this position.

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“I had just bottled up and surpressed all these nerves and anxieties around whether I could match it at that level and then I felt having a moment like that in that arena, I just went okay, now you can just calm into your position and be confident that you can do something at this level.”

Ashley-Cooper said: “Mine was 2007 against the All Blacks. Even though I debuted in ’05, played a series of Australia A games and I started a couple of games prior to this Test at the MCG in Melbourne in front of 80,000, 90,000. So it was the first start against the All Blacks and there was a bit of controversy around my selection.

“Drew was kind enough to forgo his starting position sit on the pine so I could have a bit of a crack. We ended going on to win that game. I scored a try but just the fact that it was in front of a huge audience, it was against one of the best teams in the world, I got some meat, I guess it was that moment when you go maybe I do belong here and once you start to believe it’s a very powerful tool and things started to progress for me.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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