Ken Borland

Racing 92’s new fullback signing Warrick Gelant plays with a joie de vivre that comes from a great love for the game of rugby, but he first began playing the sport so he could join his friends in getting out of sitting in class.

Gelant, who is currently in South Africa’s squad for the Rugby Championship, was born in Knysna, the holiday destination on the stretch of beautiful coastline a four-hour drive west of Cape Town known as The Garden Route. He attended the community primary school in Hornlee and was an active participant in several sports.

“Growing up in Knysna, I played a lot of different sports and we would always be having games in the street,” Gelant says. “I really wanted to represent my province, South-Western Districts, in one of them.

“I was especially keen on football and cricket, and rugby was actually almost the last sport I tried, starting when I was nine years old.

“For the boys who did play rugby, Wednesday was their match day and, because they were allowed to leave school early to get to their games, I would be the only one left in the classroom!

“Being the last one in the classroom was not something I enjoyed, so about three weeks into the season I decided to join my friends and do the whole rugby thing.

“But because I was joining late, I did not want it to look like I didn’t know what I was doing, so I made a point of studying all the laws and the skills.

“Fortunately I could kick with both my feet because of football and my handling was good because of cricket,” Gelant said.

His tremendous ball-sense meant he did earn his South-Western Districts colours, being chosen for the U13 Craven Week in 2008.

His primary school coaches, Frank Borchards and Neil Weber, recognised that he had special talent, and through their efforts Gelant received a bursary to do his high schooling at Hoërskool Outeniqua in nearby George. This school is well-known as a rugby hotspot, consistently ranking in the top-10 junior teams in South Africa and it has produced some brilliant talent through the years. This year they had five players in the South African Schools team.

“Everything started happening at Outeniqua,” Gelant says of a journey that saw him make the SA Schools team in 2013 and the Junior Springboks the following year.

Having signed for the Bulls in faraway Pretoria in 2014, Gelant returned to the Cape in 2020 to play for the Stormers. By then he was a World Cup winner with the Springboks and acknowledged as one of the most exciting talents in the country.

But his move to Cape Town coincided with the shutting down of rugby due to the Covid-19 pandemic and he also then suffered an ACL knee injury when the action resumed.

But this year was a triumph for the man known as “Boogie” – probably for both his threat as the boogie-man for defences and also his fast feet.

Gelant dazzled in counter-attack for the Stormers and was arguably the best fullback in the United Rugby Championship as the team that started the competition in disarray due to off-field problems ended up winning the trophy.

Gelant loved the season, not only because of the success, but also because of the style of rugby the Stormers played under coach John Dobson.

“We had to get accustomed to a new style of rugby and rules are blown differently in the UK. So we struggled initially, but at least we were together all the time overseas and we could sort things out,” Gelant says.

“Belief started to creep in when we saved the game against Edinburgh and then we beat the Dragons. Things started to work for us and we really started to believe we were getting somewhere.

“There was buy-in from everyone in terms of how we wanted to play and we really played for each other. So we ended up winning our last 11 games on the trot.

“The Irish and Welsh teams really stick to their systems, they are very tight and very driven by that, they rarely go out of their system. And that can really break you down.

“So we needed to disrupt their structure and we did that by not making our play too structured. We needed to find a way to handle chaos better than they did.

“We needed to understand what sort of game we wanted to play and if we wanted to kick. It was about how to handle territory and space and understand the opportunities that are there when play gets loose and making sure you can capitalise. It’s about the way everyone reacts and plays off each other,” Gelant said.

So given that he enjoyed the previous season so much, why is Gelant moving to France?

It is simply to take his game to the next level and he believes France is the best place to do that. He has only played 10 Tests for South Africa and you fancy that is a number Gelant is eager to grow.

“Anytime you go to a top club it is an opportunity and I believe the Top 14 is the best competition in the world. It’s really tough because there are 14 different teams in it, compared to just four franchises in South Africa,” Gelant says.

“You also play in such different conditions: You play indoors in a closed stadium at Racing, but then you’ll be in the rain and maybe even snow in your away matches.

“Every part of my game will be tested. I certainly don’t know it all yet, and it will be a great test to measure myself. And Racing have amazing management and they are a great club,” Gelant says.

This determination to get the most out of his talent should benefit Racing 92 in the coming season. Only the most naïve of babes in the woods would expect to never get injured during a rugby career, but the way Gelant has fought back from double knee surgery at the end of 2020 speaks volumes for his motivation and professionalism.

In order to ensure he would return to being the player he was, Gelant sacrificed playing against the British and Irish Lions last year in order to have both knees sorted out at the same time.

“I already had a hole in my one cartilage when I tore my ACL and I had been playing in severe pain. I had the opportunity to get the other knee fixed too, but that meant turning my back on the Lions tour,” Gelant explains.

“But I made a really mature decision to sacrifice in the short-term and fix both knees at the same time. It was not easy, but I believe I have a lot of rugby still in me.

“There were tough times in rehab, but I imagined myself coming back as a better player, moving better and being more mature.

“When I did come back for the Stormers, it felt amazing and I know I made the right decisions. I quickly refound my old form.

“I was so grateful just to be playing again after double knee surgery. It can be taken away from you so easily.

“I feel I can still take my game up a notch, I can still get better now that my body has no issues.

And I haven’t given up on the Springboks either. Being exposed to quality, world-class players in France every week will give me the best chance of getting back into the Springbok starting XV. If they do select me, they will be getting a better player than I was,” Gelant states.

In the meantime, Racing 92 are getting a gem of a player, a special talent who is in the right head space.

Fresh off his career-best T20 score for South Africa, Rilee Rossouw said he wants to net trophies for the Proteas and he will have an opportunity as early as Sunday to do that in the deciding game of the three-match series against England in Southampton.

Winning their first white-ball series in England since 1998 is the short-term goal of the South Africans, but this trio of matches had a more significant personal importance for Rossouw, who last played for the Proteas in 2016. It was very much a World Cup trial for the left-handed batsman and he has surely booked his ticket to Australia in two months time with his blazing 96 not out off 55 balls in the series-levelling 58-run victory in Cardiff on Thursday night.

“Representing your country is the proudest thing you can do and I just want to help the Proteas win trophies,” Rossouw said afterwards.

“The Proteas have had some great results over the last year-and-a-half, the team is building momentum to the World Cup and there have been good team and individual performances. The sky’s the limit.

“Unfortunately things did not go my way in the first game, I was probably a bit over-confident with the amount of runs I have scored in England this season. So I really wanted to do well today.

“I wanted three figures really badly, but credit to Chris Jordan for an exceptional last over with him bowling those yorkers so well. But for me to put up a performance like that was really special, it’s been a very emotional day,” Rossouw said.

After Sunday’s decider on a good batting wicket at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, South Africa have two games against Ireland and a series versus India left before the T20 World Cup. Coach Mark Boucher will be satisfied that he has spread the net wide and searched every nook and cranny for explosive, aggressive players, and it will be interesting to see if regulars like Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Anrich Nortje and Dwaine Pretorius are still rested for the last match against England.

With opening batsman Reeza Hendricks scoring fluent back-to-back half-centuries and Rossouw coming good at No.3, the Proteas top-order has done well.

The hosts will be hoping their experienced opener Jason Roy will finally fire. The 32-year-old has scored just 67 runs off 85 balls in his last six innings and he really batted like a granny in his previous match in Southampton, scoring just four off 16 balls against India three weeks ago.

Sunday’s game is a day fixture starting at 3.30pm SA time.

New CSA director of cricket Enoch Nkwe has expressed a desire to keep his predecessor Graeme Smith involved in South African cricket, saying “you can’t take it away from him, he is one of the legends of the game”.

Smith’s tenure as director of cricket came to an end on March 31 and, given the often-strained relationship between him and the CSA Board, which unsuccessfully charged him with racism, he decided not to pursue a renewal of his contract.

Nkwe, the former assistant coach of the national team, was announced as Smith’s successor on June 30 and held his first press conference on July 8. Having already revealed he has a good relationship with Proteas head coach Mark Boucher, and the pair had held a fruitful meeting before the team’s departure to England, Nkwe then stated his willingness to also work with Smith.

“For the betterment of South African cricket, it will always be good to have some level of contact with Graeme, to ensure continuity,” Nkwe said.

“You can’t take it away from him, he is one of the legends of the game and our most successful captain. You want to tap into that cricket brain, see how he sees things from the outside.

“He’s been involved in the IPL, he’s still based in South Africa and he’s only a call away. Why not use him? You don’t want to lose him to the wilderness.

“So I will look to use him in whatever capacity I can. It’s the same with all of our ex-players, we want to get them closer to us,” Nkwe said.

The former Central Gauteng Lions player and coach said the Proteas team were supportive of the positive brand of cricket he wants to introduce to all CSA teams.

“It’s a very positive brand. As South Africans we are so diverse and I would like us to show the world that we can lead the cricketing space,” Nkwe said.

“Whenever we have thrown the first punch then we have been very dominant. I’d like to see that attitude spread down the pipeline, I want us to become trendsetters.

“Every time we have been positive, taken risks, not been afraid, then we’ve been a strong force. Other countries have spoken highly about our talent, we want to be in a position to win a lot more often.

“Most of the players understand my philosophy, although there are quite a few things from a strategic point of view which we still need to unpack,” Nkwe said.

The last month in England has produced never-seen-before scenes in Test cricket as the team representing the home of the stiff upper lip and historically often dominated by dour Yorkshiremen and Lancastrians, have pulled off four successive fourth-innings run-chases with all the dash and aggression of a limited-overs game.

England have chased down four targets in excess of 250, the first team in the history of Test cricket to do so in a calendar year, and they have done so extraordinarily quickly. Traditional Test logic is that scoring anything more than 250 in the fourth innings is never easy, but England have won by seven wickets twice and by five wickets twice in beating New Zealand 3-0 and now levelling their postponed series against India 2-2.

Their run-rates in those innings have been 4.93 chasing 378 against the powerful India attack, and 3.53, 5.98 and 5.44 against the New Zealand bowling line-up that won the World Test Championship last year.

These extraordinary achievements have come under the refreshing new positive philosophy of coach Brendan McCullum and captain Ben Stokes. It has been called BazBall in honour of the Kiwi-born coach, but it is also a reflection of how captain Stokes, one of the great all-rounders, has always tried to play the game.

Having seen off the two teams that played in the inaugural World Test Championship final, England are now heading into a series against South Africa, currently second in the standings.

Many critics will be tempted to write off the Proteas as having no chance, but let’s not forget they beat India in a series at the start of the year and then drew with the Black Caps in New Zealand. And South Africa have a history of taming teams that have set out to play ultra-aggressively against them, thanks to their perennially strong bowling attacks.

Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje are amongst the fastest bowlers in the world, and left-armer Marco Jansen is an exciting prospect who could surprise the English.

But it could be an unfamiliar strength that the Proteas turn to: In Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer, South Africa have two world-class spinners and, with the pitches in England starting to dry out and take turn in August, their contest with the mighty English batting order should be memorable.