Being captain of the Springboks is a high-profile job and one that brings with it a heavy dose of pressure, but Jean de Villiers almost always carries a ready smile on his face.

Maybe it’s because he still plays sport for fun, just as he did as a laaitie in Paarl when he would spend all day during the weekends and holidays out on the fields with a rugby ball and a tennis racquet.

But that’s not to say De Villiers does not take his rugby seriously. He knows full well how the Springboks carry the hopes of the nation and also how important the success of the Stormers is to their passionate supporters.

And while the 33-year-old is a progressive thinker, he still stands by the importance of traditions, of  which there are many in rugby, such as the back seats on the Springbok bus being reserved for  senior players.

“My upbringing, the impact of my parents and family, and also my schooling have all helped to shape me into the person that I am today,” De Villiers says. “My parents, Louise and Andre, have helped incredibly with my upbringing off the field, but also on the field.

“My dad played provincial rugby [lock for Western Province] and my mother was in the provincial netball team, so I basically grew up in a house where rugby was part of our day-to-day routine and, also, grew up on a netball field and next to a swimming pool as my mom used to play and coach those sports.

“And then Paarl Gimnasium taught me something that I am still using today, which is respect, definitely. The importance that an individual has within a team situation – if you have that respect for yourself and your fellow players then it creates a good culture,” De Villiers says.

De Villiers’ exalted station in life means he also has to put up with the vicissitudes of sporting fortune, in particular the harsh treatment meted out to the Springboks by referees around the world, but he exemplifies Rudyard Kipling’s advice to treat those twin imposters of triumph and disaster just the same.

He always appears unflappable on the field, but De Villiers says that is not the real him.
“Definitely not!,” he laughs. “I try and have a clear mind on the field because I feel when you do have a clear mind you can make good decisions. There’s no use trying to argue with a referee once a decision has been made and that’s something that comes with experience and I’ve learnt over a couple of years of playing at the highest level.”

Dealing with defeat and being able to pick his team up again are two other skills De Villiers has had to develop.

“I always see defeat as a good reality check to sort of reassess your situation and to try and improve after that.

“If the culture of the team is good and everyone knows what they’re striving towards, then usually it’s not difficult to get over the disappointment of defeat,” he says.

And leadership is also something which De Villiers sees as a function of focusing on the team good.

“Leadership varies from team to team and person to person. For me, being involved in the teams that I am involved with is getting a feel for what the team’s striving towards and what the individuals are striving for and then putting all of that together and making sure that you, as captain, drive that journey forward and make it happen.”

Since De Villiers took over the captaincy after John Smit’s retirement, he has led the Springboks to 17 wins in 24 Tests and returned them to the number two world ranking.

It means there is plenty of optimism in the build-up to next year’s World Cup.

“Yes, we do have high hopes for the Rugby World Cup, but that’s still a long way off in September 2015. For us now it’s about building on that success we’ve enjoyed and getting to number one in the world,” De Villiers says.

The Springboks hammered Australia twice last year and completed an unbeaten European tour in November, but the one team they haven’t managed to beat since De Villiers and new coach Heyneke Meyer took the reins has been New Zealand.

“I think we’re very close to beating them, but the reality is that we’ve not beaten them in the last two years. In order to do so, we need to rectify one or two small little things, and I have no doubt that this year we will get there,” De Villiers says.

The former Stellenbosch University student describes himself as a “family man” and there is no doubt wife Marlie and daughters Layli (2) and Lana (9 months) are the centre of his universe.

“I think we’re very blessed to be able to tour as much as we do and it’s a great part of being a professional rugby player as you get to see the world, but it’s quite demanding with two young daughters and it does put a lot of strain on my wife Marlie, but luckily I picked a fantastic woman to share my life with,” he says, before adding that they keep him centred in his beliefs.

“Being a Christian I try and live by those sort of standards from a day-to-day basis. Also, I try to live up to the expectations of my two daughters and a lovely wife, so I would never want to disappoint those women in my life.”

Which seems highly unlikely given De Villiers’ astute world view and his insight into the society around him.

“Having a wife and two daughters of my own, it really hits home when you hear about Crimes against women – it’s really sickening. I think a real man respects women and children and doesn’t try and abuse and pick fights with easy targets.

“As rugby players we have a responsibility as role-models to lead by example both on and off the field – even though we’re involved in a physical contact sport like rugby, we go home and show love and respect to our loved ones and those close to us. I think abusing a woman or child – or any form of bullying – is the act of a coward,” the Springbok captain firmly states.

 

Despite his workload in one of the busiest channels on the rugby field, South Africa’s most capped centre (96 Tests) is confident he can keep going until the World Cup.

“I’m really feeling good, the body is holding up considering the amount of game time I’ve had, and I feel I’m playing decent rugby.

“If I’m still the best inside centre in the country then there’s no reason why I can’t make the World Cup and, in an ideal world, I’d love that.

“But it’s up to the coach and he has to plan the group he wants to take and have all the scenarios in place. If I’m still the number one centre then I could captain the side at the World Cup, but I’m very aware of the situation,” De Villiers told French rugby publication Midi Olympique late last year.

Coach Meyer has been unstinting in his praise of his captain and has reportedly already decided De Villiers will continue in that role this year.

“Jean has been awesome, he’s a brilliant captain. He’s started every game in the last two years and he’s also been a great ambassador for the country. He has also been our main ball-carrier and he gains good ground for us,” Meyer said.

De Villiers is indeed a tremendous ambassador and role-model and well-aware of his off-field responsibilities.

“I don’t have a specific charity that I support individually but I love helping out with the Springbok charity, Boks for Books, and also the Players’ Fund is very close to my heart.

“At the DHL Stormers we’re heavily involved with Reach for a Dream and, of course, at national level too. As rugby players, we all try to contribute to the development of rugby through coaching clinics.

“I have no doubts about rugby unifying people in South Africa. We could just see it by the numbers of people that rock up every weekend to watch the Springboks play. When we’re winning, you can see it by the crowd sizes – it’s all different ethnic groups and religions; all people of South Africa who take pride in the performances of the national sides and that puts a lot of responsibility on us as players.

“The 1995 Rugby World Cup was a great example of what rugby did for our nation and we’re all aware of our responsibilities moving forward in our country,” De Villiers says.

 

 

 

Q&A

 

Who do you most admire in the world?
After listening to Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela’s memorial – I was fortunate enough to be there – I must say I was impressed with him and the aura that surrounds him and he’s quite an impressive person.

How would you describe yourself?
Fun-loving, easy-going, motivated and a family man.

When last did you cry?
When I have to leave home on tour.

What is your favourite virtue?
Humility.

Your main fault?
Patience.

Your favourite qualities in others?
Love.

Your idea of happiness?
My family – being with them or just thinking about them when I am away from home.

When did you last laugh till you cried?
Watching Pat Cilliers do a cricket pitch report.

Your idea of misery?
Not having a close support structure – be it family or friends – when times are tough.

Your favourite author?
John Dobson (he wrote The Year of the Gherkin).

 

Timing is everything in birding and so much of that is just down to sheer luck. A second or two can mean the difference between making that great sighting as a rare bird flies into a tree or missing it entirely as you move on to the next bush.

I was reminded of this in quite forceful fashion on my trip to Mlawula Nature Reserve, a dramatic venue in the foothills of the Lebombo Mountains, nestled in the north-eastern corner of Swaziland, right on the Mozambique border.

There’s a large, rustic campsite on the Simunye side of the reserve and, with a spacious lawn and plenty of trees, it’s a productive place to walk around in terms of birding.

And so it was that on a typically steamy Lowveld afternoon I was walking around the campsite and enjoying the shade of the trees. When my wife phoned!

Obviously I am always delighted to hear from the very special person who agreed to marry me, but some times are better than others.

Anyway, I’m not one of those people who tend to walk around while talking on the phone, so I stood still and took the call.

And I’m glad I did because the call ended and I was just putting my cellphone back in my pocket when I noticed something large fly into the Milkwood tree in front of me.

It was unmistakably raptorish, but fairly short and squat and lots of white was visible.

Closer inspection revealed a pale form Wahlberg’s Eagle – the one with the lovely white head and brown wings. It was only after a few seconds that I noticed the handsome bird was holding something in its powerful yellow claws – an unfortunate young  Rock Monitor was going to be supper.

 

 

The eagle hung around for quite some time, producing a memorable highlight of the second day in Mlawula.

I had awoken that day – my first morning there – to the liquid purity of the Blackheaded Oriole regaling the dawn with it’s perfectly pure notes. Along with the Gorgeous Bush Shrike whistling away and the Yellowspotted Nicator chuckling in the dense bush, and the Greyheaded Bush Shrike providing a mournful contrast, it was impossible not to feel excited about being in this exotic wilderness.

Everything was very skittish though, suggesting there was hunting there in the past and that poaching may still be a problem.

The moist savanna between the entrance gate and the camp featured typical lowveld birds: there were lots of Redbacked Shrike, swooping on their insect prey like little masked superheroes, plenty of African Hoopoe and other interesting sightings such as Crowned Hornbill, Paradise Flycatcher, Woodland Kingfisher, Plumcoloured Starling and Purplecrested Lourie.

Feeling adventurous (and hoping for Black Coucal which has been seen in the area before), I tackled the track along the Mbuluzi River towards the Mozambique border. Now you really felt as if you were in the tropics, with stifling heat and thick bush hemming you in, and eventually I could proceed no further as the road had been washed away, leaving a pile of unpassable boulders.

The third day brought a contrast as I travelled south and up into the hills where Magadzavane Lodge nestles with a commanding view; a place of great potential. From the valleys which are just over 150m above sea-level, you climb to an altitude of over 550m.

Along the way, Bearded Woodpecker was spotted along with the more common Goldentailed, while Whitebacked Vulture added to the raptor list.

As another example of fortuitous timing, as I stopped to take a photograph of the magnificent view of hills and valleys stretched out below me, what should fly almost directly beneath me but a beautiful Crowned Eagle. It was soon joined in its majestic drifting by a Brown Snake Eagle.

A European Marsh Warbler – one of the few non-aquatic Acrocephalus species – was foraging in the clumps of bush in the grassland on the other side of the road.

But just to prove that intuition also plays a role in birding success, once back at camp I was aware of several birds making a helluva racket close to the ablution block. Going to investigate paid off as there was a young Southern African Python trying to stealthily make its way across the lawn.

A drive to the Mbuzi Picnic Site and the Mlawula River in the late afternoon brought the wonderful Longtailed Paradise Whydah, Black Widowfinch and Blackchested Snake Eagle, as well as a Fierynecked Nightjar on the way back as evening fell on the African wilderness.

The moist bushveld, with lovely tall Fever Trees along the Siphiso River, close to camp looked a good spot for birding and spending a couple of hours on the final morning there brought Yellowthroated Sparrow, White Helmetshrike, African Fish Eagle and Pied Kingfisher.

The camping facilities at Mlawula are rustic and, this deep in the African bush, things do go wrong. Baboons dug up the water pipes early on the second morning, leaving me without any water to shower or wash up. Fortunately I had a two-litre bottle of water with me for cooking and drinking, but I had to resort to bush-toilets.

Of course the bushveld also provides and dirty plates were sorted out by putting them on the ground and, 30 seconds later, a swarm of ants would be busy picking them clean.

Going with the flow can also be a wonderful experience!

 

Sightings list

Blackeyed Bulbul

African Hoopoe

Nyala

Impala

Emeraldspotted Wood Dove

Crowned Hornbill

Redbacked Shrike

European Swallow

European Bee-Eater

Spotted Flycatcher

Wahlberg’s Epauletted Fruit Bat

Blackheaded Oriole

Paradise Flycatcher

Greyheaded Bush Shrike

Hamerkop

Blue Waxbill

Glossy Starling

Rattling Cisticola

African Pied Wagtail

Common Sandpiper

Warthog

Southern Black Flycatcher

Speckled Mousebird

Woodland Kingfisher

Plumcoloured Starling

Chacma Baboon

Purplecrested Lourie

Whitebellied Sunbird

Lesser Striped Swallow

Wiretailed Swallow

Yellowfronted Canary

Cape White-Eye

Blackcollared Barbet

Goldenbreasted Bunting

Forktailed Drongo

Little Swift

Wahlberg’s Eagle

Rock Monitor

Chinspot Batis

Redeyed Dove

Southern Boubou

Wahlberg’s Velvet Gecko

Brownhooded Kingfisher

Jameson’s Firefinch

Goldentailed Woodpecker

Bearded Woodpecker

Leopard Tortoise

Whitebacked Vulture

Burchell’s Coucal

Longbilled Crombec

Sombre Bulbul

Blackbacked Puffback

Striped Skink

Five-Lined Skink

European Marsh Warbler

Crowned Eagle

Brown Snake Eagle

Common Waxbill

Greater Kudu

Southern African Python

Longtailed Paradise Whydah

Black Widowfinch

Southern Greyheaded Sparrow

Arrowmarked Babbler

Greenbacked Camaroptera

Terrestrial Bulbul

Natal Francolin

Blackchested Snake Eagle

Plains Zebra

Fierynecked Nightjar

Yellowthroated Sparrow

White Helmetshrike

African Fish Eagle

Pied Kingfisher

 

 

 

Dawie van der Walt held off the challenge of the in-form Darren Fichardt to win the inaugural Tshwane Open and claim the first major tour title of his career at the Els Club Copperleaf on Sunday.

The 6’5” Van der Walt shot a 67 in the final round to finish the co-sanctioned European/Sunshine tour event on 21-under-par, two strokes ahead of Fichardt, the new Order of Merit leader who won the Africa Open two weeks ago and finished in the top-10 last week at the Dimension Data Pro-Am.

Van der Walt began the final round in a four-way tie for the lead with compatriots Fichardt and Charl Coetzee and Chilean Mark Tullo. And the 30-year-old was under some early pressure as both Fichardt and Coetzee birdied the second and third holes.

But the Paarl product made his move on the par-five fourth hole, which began the tournament as the longest in European Tour history at 626m. With the tees moved forward on Sunday, a player of Van der Walt’s length was able to reach the green in two and he nailed the 15-foot putt for eagle.

Birdies followed on the sixth and seventh holes and, although there was a bit of a wobble around the turn, Van der Walt sealed the biggest victory of his career with further birdies at the par-four 12^th and par-five 15^th holes.

There is no secrecy when it comes to what made Van der Walt successful around Copperleaf. Hitting the ball long is always useful at the Centurion course, but the U.S.-based golfer was impressively precise off the tee and especially with his irons.

“Lately I haven’t been hitting the ball so good, I’ve been playing terribly, but I found something in my swing at the Dimension Data and I felt something in my game coming here. I hit the ball really well and I missed just two fairways today and one green. It meant I hardly had to chip at all and that’s not my strength.

“It’s unbelievable to play well and win. Golf is a game where you don’t get many chances to win, some people never do, and often you play well and don’t win,” Van der Walt said.

The genial giant said his victory was all about goal-setting and not getting distracted by the bigger picture.

“I just wanted to play solid, I was aiming for five-under today and 10-under for the weekend, which worked out well. I’ve been in these situations a couple of times and if you think ahead you lose it. I just set a goal of being 10-under for the weekend and that would ensure I make a whole lot of money. I didn’t think it would be enough to win the tournament, but I would have taken second. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself,” Van der Walt admitted after shooting a pair of five-under-par 67s to finish the tournament on top.

It certainly did earn the six-year pro a whole lot of money – R2,781,675 to be precise, which translates into €237,750, considerably more than the €148,974 he had won in total on the European Tour before Sunday.

Van der Walt campaigns on the Web.com Tour in America, the level below the PGA Tour and formerly known as the Nationwide or Challenge Tour, and it presents the Kingwood, Texas resident with a conundrum in terms of where to play now that he has a two-year exemption on the lucrative European Tour.

“It definitely helps that the purses are a lot bigger in Europe! But I live in America now and I have full status on the Web.com Tour. My ultimate goal is to get on the PGA Tour but I can make my own schedule now and maybe I can go through the European Tour, that might be a lot easier,” Van der Walt said.

Van der Walt has four victories on satellite tours in the U.S., but a regular tour triumph had eluded him until Sunday. He admitted that there were times when he sat eating his cornflakes and wondering when the breakthrough would come.

“I’ve been a pro for six years and this is the first time I’ve won a big event. You see your friends doing it, you see other people winning, and you wonder when it will happen for you, whether it will ever happen for you, you wonder if you’re good enough.”

Fichardt finished at 19-under 269 and his third birdie, at the par-three fifth hole, gave him the lead on his own. But at that stage the putter went cold and 13 successive pars meant Van der Walt remained at arm’s length.

Louis de Jager shot a 69 on Sunday to finish third on 18-under, with former world number one amateur Peter Uihlein fourth on 17-under, the American also notching a three-under-par final round.

Sweden’s Bjorn Akesson, with a 65 on Sunday, Englishman Danny Willett (66) and Coetzee, who picked up a one-shot penalty for slow play at the 15^th, were tied for fifth at 16-under.

Tullo, the other overnight leader, fell away badly with a 77 which included a double-bogey 6 at the 13^th, where he twice hit into the water left of the green.

Van der Walt, meanwhile, tempered his attacking instincts with the sort of composure that turns the contenders into the champions. He showed this on the final hole when he took less club for his second shot to cater “for the adrenaline”.

The horrors of recent weeks – he said his father suggested he visit a sports psychologist, to which he replied “he’s not going to be able to tell me I’m hitting the ball straight when it’s going sideways” – are now a distant memory.

What is still fresh in Van der Walt’s mind though is the long, hard road he had to take to the podium at the Els Club Copperleaf.

“Playing on the mini-tours, where you have to pay your own fees, makes you hard. I have the instinct to win, every time I play, I’m trying to win,” the newest South African European Tour winner said.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-03-04-tshwane-open-dawie-van-der-walt-wins-by-sticking-to-his-guns/#.UpnR4NIW29B

 

It’s been the proverbial season horribilis for the Nashua Titans with the Ram Slam T20 Challenge providing the last chance for the dominant franchise of 2011/12 to get something out of the summer.

The four-day Sunfoil Series was particularly galling for the Titans, who went into the competition as the defending champions, but lost eight of their 10 matches and failed to win any. To make it even more traumatic, their defeats were by huge margins – one by an innings and 247 runs, three by 10 wickets, one by nine wickets and others by 161 runs and 393 runs. Six of their matches were all over in three days.

The root of their travails would appear to be that the reserve talent in the squad responded poorly to the challenge of stepping up and replacing the likes of Faf du Plessis, Jacques Rudolph, Albie Morkel, Farhaan Behardien, Marchant de Lange, Paul Harris and Morne Morkel, who for various reasons only played 15 Sunfoil Series matches between them.

“The four-day campaign was dreadful and there were a combination of reasons. But it’s fair to say that the youth didn’t come through, they just didn’t execute their skills, either batting or bowling.

“Sometimes youngsters come in and take to it straight away, for others it takes them a while. We were playing three or four youngsters at once, whereas in an ideal world you’d like to knit one or two at a time into the team. We’ve got to work really hard,” coach Matthew Maynard admitted.

The Titans were, of course, rocked by twin tragedies at the start of the summer, with Maynard losing his son, Tom, a Surrey cricketer who was considered one of the most promising in England, and long-time and much-loved CEO Elise Lombard then passing away in August.

But their followers were heartened by their start to the season, making the semi-finals of the Champions League and then reaching the Momentum One-Day Cup playoff.

It is fair to say that the franchise are baffled by how the season just totally unravelled from that point.

Jacques Faul is the new CEO of the Titans and he admits that a franchise will always be judged by the performance of the team.

“The team is the showcase of the franchise and the play on the field is what we sell, if you like. I’ve been impressed with Matt Maynard as a coach, but even he doesn’t seem to really know where it all went wrong. He has worked out what we need though, going forward, and this has been such a successful franchise so I don’t think it will be difficult to return to winning ways,” Faul said.

A late resurgence in the T20 Challenge could, of course, turn around the whole season, especially in terms of the financial rewards it provides a franchise.

And the increased financial resources means Maynard could be in the market for some new players, while yesterday’s men slip from the scene.

“We still need to strengthen the squad and we’ll look to do that,” Maynard said.

Faul, drawing from his experience of helping to build the high-flying bizhub Highveld Lions team, is frustrated that the Titans allowed players like Hardus Viljoen, Imran Tahir and Gulam Bodi to slip away.

“You need to hang on to your talent, we were losing matches to teams with guys who used to play for the Titans, and you need a good mix of old and young players. It took the Highveld Lions a while to build their team. We know our national players are not going to play, it would be naïve to rely on them. We have to win without them and we have to create more stars to win,” Faul said.

The Titans management would seem to want a top-order batsman, a paceman and perhaps an experienced spinner, Harris having retired, who specialises in four-day cricket.

Of course, the Titans will look a different team when the likes of Rudolph, Albie Morkel, Behardien and De Lange play regularly.

“What the senior players bring to the table is match-winning performances. But the positive from the season is that guys like Graeme van Buuren, Francois le Clus and JP de Villiers look to have the potential to succeed at that level. The talent is there,” Maynard said.

The pressure will now be on the team and coaching staff to ensure that talent makes the Titans way more competitive next season.