update!

hello!
i doubt it that anyone is still reading this blog, but to keep my conscience (spelling???) clear, i'll keep on posting! nothing exciting has been happening the last weeks. it's been training most days and the rest of the day it's been wedding admin and honeymoon admin. now to anyone out there thinking of getting married, just a few words of advise......it's alot of hard work!! but i'm sure its worth every minute of it!
no other new exciting news really, looking forward to 7's in george next week, the IRB sevens that is, look out fot the big TURBO banner! haha!
have a blessed weekend! keep emailing me and if you dont have my address, ask!! hehe

back on home soil....

hello to who ever is still reading this post! anyway, it's been one week that i'm back in SA and it's been quite an adjustment for me! as expected i do only have limited internet facilities and the blog page wont be updated as regularly as usuall! have a blessed week!! looking forward to hear from YOU!! :)

The last one...

Hello to all my beloved readers of this blog page. It is with tears in my eyes that i'm typing this very last post from the comfort of my flat's floor. The flat that became my home away from home, my outpost, my barracks, my Osama Bin Laden's cave, my shelter. I'm all packed up and ready to go, all set for the Groot Trek to auckland tomorrow morning. My flat looks empty and nondescript..... BUT I am so looking forward to be spending time in the big city with tom, tanya and the kids! One last week of "holiday" before i head back to Afrique du Sud. Yay!!

Depending on my internet accessibility back in the Republic, i will try my best in keeping this blog page updated! I wish you all a Happy Happy Christmas and a Merry Merry New Year! :)
I'll finish my last post from palmy with a well-known Irish Farewell Blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

final days....

Kia Ora!
it's with mixed emotions that i'm entering the last week of my stay here in palmy. Happy to know that i'll be seeing chantelle and family soon, but sad to leave the place that became my new "home town". No other news to tell. Have been playing golf over the weekend (yip, the weather finally cleared up) and been watching some rugby league on sat night (its a whole new concept to me, rugby league, but something i'm starting to enjoy watching). Have a blessed week! There might be something exciting in the pipeline for next year, but i'll officially announced that later on! Cheers!

Latest update!

hello everyone!
So the latest update is the following.....
there is no update! haha
enjoy yr w-end!

KKK

Whats up everyone?!

i wouldve thought that after my earthquake experience this past monday, my post would be full of concerning comments asking whether i'm okay and stuff, but i guess i was wrong.

anyway, we had our End-of-Year Function for the Turbo's last night and it was nice to see all the boys again after the 2 week lay off. We are officially back training this coming wednesday and it should be fun what Hammer has in store for us. (he's our fitness trainer) We also got presented with our match jersey last night and hopefully it's the first of many turbo's jerseys to come! This weekend sees the final of the Air New Zealand Cup between wellington and waikato and also the second test between the kangaroos and the kiwi's in the land of Oz.

Now if you dont know what's happening in the above picture, let me give you a hint....look at what hat this guy is wearing on the operating table, now who agrees that he's chances of walking out there alive is very slim?

have a good weekend all of my fellow earth people, go to church on Sunday, let go and rest our for next week!

for those who wants to know what my special thing is, i'm starting today by putting cryptic clues into my post's as to what it is i'm doing! :)

(allrighty, i'm just joking bout my opening sentence, by now you should all know that as soon as i start typing this post's of mine, sarcasm is at the order of the day, not always but sometimes, love you all and enjoy da weekend! )

I

Now that was close....

hello everyone!!
this past weekend i had my first experience with an earthquake without even realising/feeling it whatsoever! yip, it's true ladies and gentlemen, the centre of the earthquake was about 15km from palmy and it was on sunday nite at 18:55! it registered 3,9 on the richterscale! now, no need to panic, i'm still okay and the batmobile doesnt have a scratch on it, so everything is fine down here, thanks for being concern though! i guess if they never mentioned it on the radio the next day, i wouldnt have known about the earthquake anyway. here's a link to the quake's details and stuff, very interesting...http://www.geonet.org.nz/x2639172g_l.html
i was thinking this morning that in 2 days time, it's gonna be 3 weeks before i fly back to SA and one, i dont know whether i'll be able to keep on updating this blog and two, i cant believe how fast this year is gone by. i must admit, this has been one heck of a season and i loved every minute of it, all the things i experienced, new places i saw, people i met, friends i've made and setting structures in place for my future....it's been one good journey i tell you and i only realises looking back now, how blessed and fortunate i really am.
"Time sneaks up on you like a windscreen on a bug" John Lithgow

It's WHO you know....

Hello everyone! isnt it nice when you have friends that

is friends with famous people and sometimes the perks of being friends with famous people rubs off onto you who are friends with friends that is friends with famous people??!!!

haha okay, now that i have your attention after that rather interesting paragraph, i have been a friend of this guy for like nearly 13 years and he has been dating this girl for almost a thousand days (oraait, 961 days to be exact) and she is also his fiance now after he proposed to her in the beginning of this year ( 20th january 2006 for those who wants finer details) so they have been engaged for 268 days and will get married in 55 days (on the 9th December 2006) They have also been friends with Jennifer Aniston and Tom Cruise for some time now and the 4 of them caught up recently in London (thats where the photo above were taken). Jurgens and carma decided to travel the world before they settle down after their wedding and their journey took them to London where Jurgens is working at a company in the finance department and Carma is a Occupational Therapist at one of the leading private hospitals in London (she treats famous patients there and thats how she got to know Jen and Tom). i must tell you, for people who knows a lot of celebrities, jurgens and carma are very down to earth friends and they never distinguish between their normal friends and their famous friends. Jurgens is a character on his own and he's had his fair share of "trouble" over the years. I know he was almost sued by craig davidson for copying his running style en i also know that he has been the victim of crime once.....his one crutch was stolen during "new year's" of 2004 (after a grueling knee operation 2 weeks earlier he was very dependable on his crutches for aiding him in walking). Carma on the other hand has been the more responsible one of the two. She's been involved in only one fight her whole life and that was the fight for her fiance. You see, back at varsity she was in competition with a gay guy to see who can get jurgens first (we wont mention any names), but as all good love stories go, jurgens got to carma first and it was love at first sight! After making a few phone calls to the Scorpions (just to make sure there's no skeletons in any closets) i can confirm that they have so much in common and will be an exemplar of married life for the next generation! Here's a toast to wonderfull friends!

Back to business....

i'm very honest in writing the following cause i wouldnt be able to lie about this.......BUT this has been the most laziest, boring, not-doing-much-actually-nothing-at-all week of 2006! it was so strange not to get up in the morning and pack your bag and go to the Sport Institute and spent your day there training, analyzing or just hanging around in between sessions. i must admit, i didnt know what to do with myself during this week, although i did spent about 10 hours fighting in World War 2 and also catching up on my sniper skills. actually, i only did what my psychologist told me to do.....take a mental break away from the game!! haha!! the weather also didnt come to the party and i was literally confined to being indoors the whole week!
oraait, so this coming monday it's back to gym and some light training. i'm itching to get exercising again cause i find myself to feel very "unhealthy" when i'm not active. i'll be looking at various ways of cardio training like mountain bike riding, squash, more basketball and the best and most efficient i believe of all will be golf!! (weather permitting of course!).
As you can see, not much exciting news here from palmy! have a blessed week, chin up, work hard but play harder. remember, we dont stop playing cause we grow old, we grow old cause we stop playing! :)

More team photo's!

here are some more photo's of the team day after our last game. i think there were a few guys that got up with a headache the next day! :)

The bench woes continues....

Hallo everyone!
It seems to me that during the latter part of 2006 i was meant to be sitting on the bench the whole time! It just turns out that maybe i'm a good impact player like Bobby Skinstad!! Haha only joking boys and girls! A friend of mine from church runs the basketball league up at massey university and i asked him if it would be possible for me to come play socially with them. I ended up sitting on the bench for his team last nite in their final league round robin game before the play offs next week (hence the title for this post). They already qualified for the play off's and the other players didnt mind me being on the "bench". It was so much fun and i so badly wanted to score an "official basketball point", but it never happened. i was so bad when i came on that after a while i noticed that they never passed me the ball when we were on attack and shooting for the loop. I was actually laughing so much cause i sucked! it's okay though, i was having a blinder of a nite on defense though and that made up for the missing shots (yip, i missed like 5 easy shots), but hey, you cant be good in everything! :) haha just joking!
Today's also the new start of my "diet". I've been having a real good feast the last few weeks indulging in some nice food and that let to me gaining just a few unwanted pounds. The main reason is that the last few games i was on the bench, but you still had to eat like you were playing a full game, cause you never knew how many minutes you could end up playing, and although we had extra fitness sessions, it's just not the same. BUT it's okay, nothing i cant handle and it's actually an exciting couple of weeks ahead!
For those of you who dont know yet....I'm getting married on the 24th February 2007 to the prettiest, funniest, most companionable, smartest, most perfect woman ever in the whole wide world!!!!!!!!! yay!! so be happy for me and tell everyone you know! (there is only a limited number of seats available for the wedding and right now we are selling them for R500 pp so hurry and get yourself a seat! haha just joking!! )

Last Team Day of 2006!!

Hi all!
We had a team day on friday morning after our game and had to dress up to represent the "mini teams" of the squad!

What a TEAM!!!

Hello everyone!!
I cant tell you how sad i am to sit here and to know that the 2006 season is over! This has been such a great season and so i've enjoyed every minute of it! even though we didnt manage to win one game, the experience we gained throughout the year will be the basis to build from next season!! If you have to look the word "sacrifice" up in a library here in Palmerston North, you'll find a photo of the Turbo's!! Cause thats what this season has been all
about!! most players had to give up their jobs to be able to train during the day, our coach and manager moved up from wellington to settle here in palmy and then i think the biggest sacrifice was from our baggage master/assistant manager.....he does all the "dirty" work as manager eg. make sure there's clean training jersey's, fill up waterbottles, take all dirty rugby stuff to laundry, make sure training equipment is ready and so much more. BUT he is doing all that stuff voluntary and not getting paid a cent from the union! AND he is a local baker and has to get up every morning at 3am to start at the bakery and after work he'll come to our trainings and work till late. Now that is 'love for the game' and 'sacrifice' i tell you!! (by the way, he will get paid from next year on! ) I have the greatest respect for this team and what we've achieved this year with so little. I just cant wait for the next 2 years here at the turbo's!!
By the way, we lost our last game 24-16 infront of a home crowd of about 9500. now i know that doesnt sound like a lot, but trust me, in our small stadium it was huge and the atmosphere incredible!
there will be a follow-up on this post within the next 2 days with more pics!

Losing draws to an end....

Yes everyone!! Not only is this the WINNING title for my post that was given to me by the one and only jurgens bosman, but it finally happened!! We didnt loose last nite!! yeah, yeah okay, and we didnt win either, it was a draw at the end, 25 all! Sooooo disappointing i tell you! we scored in the last 7minutes and our first-five just had to put the ball over the crossbar to seal the victory, but pulled it to the left! Not his fault though, they brought him the wrong kicking tee to kick from! now whats that all about i say!!! nevertheless, a very good game indeed and things are just getting better and better down under i tell ya! I also had the privileged to meet Joeli Vidiri, he was, and still is, a famous fijian 7's and 15's test player that also played for the All Blacks in both the rugby codes. Currently he is coaching the Counties B-team and i met him through kevin putt and joggie on friday nite. a very down-to-earth and friendly guy.
Other great news, another good friend of mine got engaged today. He was my roommate in high school for 3 consec years! Congrats Frikkie de Jager!
No other instant news flashes!
Just a shout out to jurgens! thanks mate! Enjoy the UK and will see you on the 9th Dec!

Update

Hello everyone!
Just a quick update. We playing in auckland again on friday night against counties manukau. ironically, kevin putt is their main coach. (those who dont know, he used to coach at the sharks). anyway, i'm on the bench again, but we've been told that the coaches are trying out other players at this level so they can assess the depth for next year, although i know i havent been playing well the last 2 games and dont deserve a starting spot, so i'm cool with it.
have a great weekend and will keep updating as we go along! :)
PS. I need a suggestion for the title of my next post and there will be a prize for the winning one! :)

experience...??

I was reading an article this afternoon on Jake White and his obsession with the experience of the springbok team and how the "more" test caps a player has the "better" it is for the team. (In some way i tend to agree with him cause when you have to choose between 2 players who's current playing form are the same, but one has more caps than the other, you will chose the more experience one. but a coach should always pick the player that is in better form first before he goes with the amount of caps! )
anyway, as my agricultural science teacher would put it: "thats besides the point" !!
It made me wonder what is the Turbo's current average age and caps and here they are:
Position Age Caps
1 ~~~~~24~~ 4
2 ~~~~~22~~7
3 ~~~~~27~~ 5 (He also played for the Western Force a few games)
4 ~~~~~24~~ 50 (This past w-end was his 50th)
5 ~~~~~27~~ 7
6~~~~~ 20~~ 7 (He played NZ U/19 last year)
7 ~~~~~24~~ 38
8 ~~~~~24~~ 7
9 ~~~~~30~~ 7 (Joggie is the oldest in our team)
10 ~~~~25~~ 16
11 ~~~~18~~ 5 (thats the school boy in our team)
12 ~~~~24~~ 20 (can be a few more, not 100% sure)
13 ~~~~25~~ 16
14 ~~~~26~~ 14
15 ~~~~24~~ 7

The above caps are the players in that position that started the most games. the average age for the team is 24 years old and average caps are 14. so if you look at our team, probably (i would say definitely) the youngest and most inexperienced team in the competition. Give us 2 years together and the average age goes up to 26 and the caps to about 30 and we can win this competition!! Oraait, you can stop laughing now!! Thats what you think is impossible i will try my best to prove you wrong!! :)
have a good and blessed week!

2 weeks left

yup, thats all that is left of the 2006 season, 2 weeks and then it all starts again for next year. It has been a very interesting 2006 for me and i have learnt a lot. from playing vodacom cup for the eagles to playing in the Air NZ Cup for the turbo's.
So for those that dont know, i have signed another 2 year contract with the turbo's and will be looking at settling in NZ permanently, after my 2 years i just need another 6 months and i can apply for permanent residency here in NZ. I've been enjoying my time here in NZ and once chantel joins me, it will be even better! No other news really. Have a blessed week!

Latest update from Palmy!

The latest from the land far far away!
So i was actually wrong in my previous post! We didnt get a thursday night game this week and we play Hawke's Bay away on friday night! I'm on the becnh again this w-end, i'm soooo dissapointed in myself cause i know i didnt have the best of games last friday against North Harbour and i shouldve played better, but have you ever expereinced that the harder you try, the worse things get? Anyway, i'm not gonna let that get me down, just keep on working harder and trust in God for the right things to happen!
Nevertheless, this week has still been fun and we had such an amazing cellgroup tonight, singing worship songs and a good message! And i'm really looking forward to church this coming sunday, it's gonna be really cool!
I've been spending more time recently on my "new" thing and things are getting better! yay!
Okay, so not any major news really, just the usuall, but it would be great to hear some news from YOU!! yes, you reading this blogpage right now, well, if you too shy to post a comment then sent me an email!
have a nice week all of my friends and family!
Last thing, i've heard something this week that i couldnt believe at first, but after thinking for a while i thought it might be true. someone made the following statement:
Every person on this earth is connected to each other through 6 persons or less! (well, dunno if it makes sense to you, but it does to me!! haha)

What a LEGEND!

Hello everyone!
What an unbelievable weekend it was! Apart from 40min of bad footy we played, i would say that the w-end lived up to its expectations! I was so looking forward to playing against jonah and also to get another start in a NPC game. We had a good first half and were leading 6-5 going into half time. Then came the second half and we conceded 23 unanswered points. pretty disappointed bout the 2nd half and it reminded us that we still have a long way to go in terms of being able to play a full 80min of competitive rugby, BUT things are falling into place slowly! I had the honour of tackling jonah once, but i have to be honest, he was almost over me! :)

The morning of the match day we went for a tour of the North Shore. Our game was only at 19:30 and management didnt want us staying inside all day, so they arranged a tour. It was very interesting and i got to see and take some beautiful pictures of the auckland scenery!

It looks like we'll have a thursday night game this coming week, so it will be even shorter than last week (training wise). Depending on results we'll either play Hawke's Bay at home or Southland in Invercargill on the South Island.

Have a nice w-end!

Biggest game....

Latest news from palmy is the following: I have been included in the starting lineup for our game on friday against North harbor (i'm very gratefull to get another opportunity) and one of the biggest legends in world rugby will be wearing an opposition jersey....the man himself Jonah Lomu! I feel privileged and honored to play against him on friday. Doesnt mean i'm gonna stand back for him or let him run over me (and if he does it wont be on purpose!) but it's gonna be so good if i can pull off a good tackle on him. Something to tell your grandkids about! :)
Have a great w-end and will post again on saturday after we return from north harbor!
b y e!

Touching words!

We sang the following song in church tonite and the words are just so amazing.

The Stand (By Hillsong United)

You stood before creation
Eternity within Your hand
You spoke all life into motion
My soul now to stand

You stood before my failure
Carried the Cross for my shame
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll walk upon salvation
Your Spirit alive in me
This life to declare Your promise
My soul now to stand

So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all
So I’ll stand

My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

Show me Your heart
Show me Your way
Show me Your glory

A Journey .....

Of a thousand miles starts with one single step!

As a team we are getting better each week, but that "killer instinct" just not seem to be there yet. (I would say we at about step five now referring to the title ) If you take a look at our stats you will know what I mean. During all our games we tend to dominate the 2nd half, both in territory and possession, but we dont get to score tries. We get so close (literally), yet we dont get to put the ball down behind that ever elusive white line! Patience I guess, we just need to be patient and work harder at what we doing. It's gonna come right for us sooner than later i hope!

Well, without wanting to sound too philosophical today, it struck me this morning how mentally tough it actually is to be a professional sportsman. And no, it's not meant to be bragging or anything, it's just i dont think people always see what's going on behind "the game". What i mean is all the extra hard work that sportsmen put in, without anyone knowing or acknowledging, and that requires a discipline that reminds me of the earlier era of the East. (eg. China, Japan). This morning all the bench players had to do a fitness session (cause we didnt play the whole game yesterday) and 2 of us decided to do a 'tackle/jackle' session instead of the 'stairs' session. Now this tackle/jackle session is very hard and you cant just cruise through, it's really tough. At the first relay fo the session it started raining. Now imagine, it's sunday morning 8am, you a bit tired from last nite cause you played bout 20min and also had to do the warmup and stuff, you cold and longing for the warm bed and here you are running in the rain while you couldve done the stairs session which is hard, but not nearly as hard as the tackle/jackle. It really took a lot to get my mind on running hard and to push myself as hard as i could and not to think of how i dont have to run as hard everytime. At the end it wasnt that bad, once you get going you dont stop, just keep on going! What made it worthwhile was after recovery i stopped at a garage to buy milk and the attendant came up and said that we played a good game last nite and that he's supporting us from now on. Makes it all worthwhile i tell you!

okay, enough deep stuff! on a lighter note, we had about 12 ooo people at our game last nite, yeah, i know for south africans it doesnt sound like a lot, but we had a full stadium (like 90%) and it was the biggest crowd since the early 80's. There was a really good atmosphere and it's better than playing at a big stadium with no people. The Manwatu Rugby Union in the beginning of the year expected/budgeted for an average crowd of 5000 people, the smallest crowd until now was 9000 people against taranaki. Things are picking up here in palmy and everything bodes well for the future!

This week is gonna be a "shorter" week in terms of training. We play this coming Friday nite against North Harbor. Hopefully i'll play against a former squad mate, south african born all black greg rawlinson.

Have a blessed week all friends and family and remember to live life with a grateful heart!

Latest update 30/08

Hello everyone!
Just a quick update on the latest news from palmy, NZ. I am on the bench again for this w-end's game against wellington lions. It's kind of disappointing, cause i really wanted to test myself against the wellington loosies, but i guess everything happens for a reason and i just have to keep on going and be ready for when i get my chance again. Went to ten pin bowling tonight for the first time in ages as a cell-group (from church) and really enjoyed it. Not a long post, just a quick update!
I spent all of my free time on my "new thing" i started last week and it's going better than i expected!
Have a blessed week!

Snow...Yeah!!!

Once upon a time, an Argentinean, a kiwi and a japie went to look for snow. Only the japie has never seen snow before, so this journey was especially exciting for him. They were away for days and when they finally returned, no one believe them that they actually reached the snow covered mountains. This pictures are their evidence!!
haha, i went to see snow for the first time in my entire life yesterday and it was an absolute fantastic experience!! it was freezing cold, but the scenery was very beautiful!
This past thursday also marked a "new something" in my life, but i wont be telling what it is, only that it's been something i've wanted to do for a long time now, and i finally started! I'm loving every moment of it!
have a blessed week and remember that in today's circumstances, it requires us to sometimes stand back from everything that's going on around us, and just give praise to the Holy One who created us and let us not forget Him!

Japanese Tourist

Hello everyone!
Sorry for this late posting of the w-end's update, but the last few days have been really busy and fun!! we left last friday morning for our game against Bay of Plenty. It was an 5 hour bus trip, with a stoppage to have a captain's run and lunch for about an hour. I cant describe the beautiful scenery i have seen on our way up to Rotorua, so i'll post some pics.
We drove past the snow covered mountains, the beautiful lake taupo and Rotorua itself, is a beautiful place to visit. We arrived early at our final destination, the
Rydges Hotel, and a few of us decided to go do some sightseeing. We ended up "go carting" at a place, close to the hotel. Friday nights are always "gambling" nights. There's a group of players that started to play a card game called "stop the bus" and you have to put down a predetermined "deposit" to be able to play and the winner takes all. In one of the pics you can see the boys in their robes getting ready to play some cards. Saturday was game day. I'm very disappointed in our loss. At the end what cost us the game, was 7min before half time when they scored 3 quick tries. At this level you cant afford to loose concentration for 1 min, otherwise you will get punished! Saturday night, after the game, we had a bit of team building, some sing along songs with the guitar and some "fines" for some players. Very good for team spirit and just having a laugh. Sunday morning we had recovery in the hotel's swimming pool and afterwards we headed back to Palmy. Apart from the game on saturday, a very enjoyable w-end, one of my best here in NZ! Have a good week all of you!!
PS. If you wondered about the title for this post, well, that is my nickname in the team, cause everywhere i go now, i take my camera with.

36 - 48 hours.....

That's the time span after a rugby game before it starts feeling like you've been in an accident and a train ran over your body. When you cant turn your neck to the sides, you cant lift your arms, when getting out of bed is too painfully and breathing normally is impossible. It is then that you wish you have your own jacuzzi and a full time masseuses!!
We lost our game this w-end 18-12 and we really could've pulled this one through at the end, but we didn't. I was so disappointed cause we are starting to play better rugby, its just at crucial times we turn over the ball where we should've scored. Personally I'm happy bout certain aspects of my game, but there's more things I'm unhappy about. I cant wait for the game when I bring the whole "artillery to battle" and using everything i've learnt up until now.
This week is very busy because we driving up to Roturua on friday morning for our game on saturday against Bay of Plenty and only coming back on sunday.
Not much other news. This is life at it's best and i'm loving every moment of it. (meaning top class rugby week in and week out.)
Hope you all having a good time!
God Bless

The one and only!! haha

Hello everyone!
so we have an official photographer for the Turbo's team!! Joggie's wife, Simone, will be taking photo's from all our home games and i will be getting some pics from her to post on the website!
this is some photo's against tasman last w-end. enjoy
and remember....a camera always make you look fatter than you actually are!! right?! :)

Nice.......!!!!!!

Yesterday was the best day, weather wise, that i've had in Palmy since coming here beginning of May. It was such a nice warm, sunny, windless day and it was a blessing to be out there training!! For those who dont know, we are based at IRANZ (International Rugby Academy of New Zealand) out at Massey University and we train twice a day, so you there from like 9am in the morning till like 5pm the afternoon. It's the best training facilities i've ever seen and it's a privileged to be able to train there. So yesterday we had a gym session from 8-10am and after that we had our 1-on-1's with the coaches (where you look at yr game and what needs improving and that kinda stuff) then depending on your time of meeting you have like 2 hours for individual skills. Now this is the part that i actually want to tell, but i had to explain the other stuff, sorry! After our 1-on-1's we had lunch and there was like 90min before our next session, so we did some skills (like receiving kick off's, quick hands, catching high balls, tackling technique) but the best part was.............................it was such a lovely day we took our shirts off for a tan!!!!!! Now that is something i never would've imagined doing in the middle of a NZ winter!!
I've managed to retain my position in the starting lineup for our game this Saturday against taranaki. The loosies i'll be playing against will also be my competition for a place in the Hurricanes wider training group for next year, so it's gonna be a hard one, but a fight i'm definitely looking forward to!
Hope everyone reading this blog is well and are having a good time!
Like i said before, life is good and God is great!!
It's a blessing to be alive!!
cheers

.........?

For the first time in the history of this blogsite of me, i dont know how to start a post or even a title for it. I am at a lost for words people. I'm angry and embarrassed at myself, disappointed, hurt, sad......to play like we played yesterday against tasman, hurts very deep and for me personally, i'm disappointed cause i know the potential of our team is far better than yesterday. After our gutsy performance against auckland 2 weeks ago, we looked like a team that didnt wanne play any rugby. the mood in the changeroom afterwards was somber and the plane trip back was even longer. but as they say, its water under the bridge and we can only look forward. One thing we learnt from this w-end is that at this level you have to bring your best game every w-end otherwise you'll get thumped!
As you can see on the previous post, Nelson is on the top op the south island and Blenheim is very close to it. The tasman area is wine country and there were rows and rows of vineyard as we drove from the airport to blenheim. It's the part of NZ that gets the most sun. On every road trip we have a special "tour guide" that collects info from the place we touring and this w-end's guide was kempy, our reserve hooker (he's in the 2nd pic with mic) so any info bout blenheim/tasman thats wrong, all his fault, not mine!! :)
The first pic is the "baggage collection" at the blenheim airport. It's very small and we just took our bags of the truck that collected it from the plane directly.
3rd pic is the guys relaxing in the team room before the game. we had to check out od our roms at 11am and had to wait/relax/sleep in the team room till 1:15pm. it wasnt the ideal preparation for the game, but our performance cannot be blamed on that.
Well, i was up early on this beautifull sunday morning in palmy, off to recovery now (swimming and stuff) and i dont know after that. Am so looking forward to church tonite, it's like the highlight of my week. have a good w-end you all!!!

long road trip!!

hello everyone!!
here is a map of NZ en the town we play in is called blenheim, it's on the top of the south island, close to Nelson on the map.
Our B-team also plays down there this w-end, but they have to drive all the way down to wellington, get on the ferry to go over the Cook Strait, and drive further to blenheim. We are very lucky to be flying down there and not doing a road trip!
not much news, will post again after the game! have a good w-end you all!!

Latest update!

Hello!
just a quick update on the latest news! i retained my position in the starting lineup for this coming saturday's game against Tasman down in Blenheim on the South Island. I am really gratefull for this blessing and know it will go well on saturday!
this morning we had a mini unit training session. it means that you train in your mini units, working together on defence, attack and just working on playing together as a unit. the tight five, loosies, inside backs and outside backs are all seperate mini units. the loosies today worked with graham mourie, a former All Black legend of the late 70's and early 80's. he was the captain of the first all black side to win a 'grand slam' at the end of 1978. what a legend! he is heading the wellington academy at present. like i've mentioned in previous post's, at this stage i'm like a sponge, soaking up everything i can learn all the time from anyone! i cant even describe how much i've learnt since coming here and it's been really fun!
life is good and God is great!
will post again after tasman! have a good w-end!

Pride

This post is dedicated to the 3 people who convinced me to continue with the blog namely jaco, chantel and Bob. Thanks for the words of encouragement and from now on, whenever i feel like i'm wasting my time with this blog, your 3 names will pop up and i'll do it, even only for you 3!

So this is something i've been wanting to write about for awhile now but never got to doing it. I wanne share my thoughts and experience on the word "pride". That characteristic is something i saw the first day i arrive here in Palmy. The saturday afternoon i got here, i went to my club's game and met a few of them afterwards and the thing that stood out for me was "prideness". now i dont know if there's a word like that in the dictionary and if there aint, then i just made it up, anyway, you might be thinking.....now how did he see prideness? well the way the players wore their club attire afterwards, that's it. You see, back in SA i've only wore a tie after a game once and that was when i played for the Natal U/19's, no blazers. Now some might call me old school but in NZ that is still very much part of the game here. The club officially hands over your club-tie to you at the aftermatch function and when you play a certain amount of games, you get your club blazer. Same with playing rep rugby. ("rep" is the term they use for representational rugby for your province, like playing for the turbo's) With the Turbo's there's only like 5 players wearing blazers after the game, the rest of us wear our tie and a pull-over. You have to earn the right to wear a blazer, it's not something that you just get given, and for me that is what is missing in SA rugby i think. Like i said, call me old fashioned, but i wanne play every game now so that I too can recieve my green blazer and wear it with pride! It will take me like 2 years to earn it, but it's worth every minute of the wait and hard work! Now i dont want people to think that i'm sour grapes for not getting the chance to play top rugby in SA, but you have to experience it to know what i'm talking bout. In NZ they have a saying: " I play rugby first and it's my job second". Now i've interpreted in this way: You're never bigger than the game, doesnt matter who you are or where you play, you play cause you love it and not for the side shows going on. Good example: this past w-end all the All Blacks, bar a few, were told they can play NPC, jerry collins started for the wellington lions and played the whole game, mind you though, the next day he turned up at his club and plays another full game. now just think bout this, it's in the middle of an international season and it's not like he needs match fitness, he pitches up and plays another 80min of footy for his club. Now tell me, when have a top international player from SA ever done something similar like that? again, you play rugby first, then it's your job! and no, i'm not sour, i'm just old fashioned! little things make a huge difference at the end of the day!
well, not much news otherwise, just biting nails till the next team announcement. i have a feeling the next blog might be bout "standards and rules" but more bout that later!
Hope you all having a jolly good time! It's not been fun training in the rain again, but hey, make the best of what you've got!
Verse for the day: 2 Chr 7:14 " If My people, who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face then will I hear from heaven....forgive their sin and heal their land."

And down comes the rain!

Hello everyone!
So let me be honest. I dont see this blog as a blog anymore, cause it feels like i'm doing this all just for myself. i dont get anyone to write comments, no one emails me and ask me bout stuff in the blog or regarding me and its starting to feel like an online diary, rather than a webpage i use to reach family and friends!
So until further notice, this blog page will contain no more post's, photo's or information. I will keep it all to myself and if you wanne know anything, ask and you shall be given!
hope all is well!
and no, i didnt take a hard knock against my head this past saturday, it's just how things are gonna be from now on!
i'm still the same old same!
cherio!

And what a begining it was....!!!

Hello everybody!!
I write this post as i'm sitting in pain infront of my computer! it feels like a train ran over me, not once but twice and came back for a third time! :)
We lost against auckland yesterday 41-10, but the scoreline is not a real indication of how things went. It was a tough encounter and both teams played good rugby. At the end of the day it all came down to experience i would say. We had as much, if not more, scoring opportunities, but wrong decision making at crucial times cost us at the end. I was just happy that we proved the rugby public in NZ wrong. 99% of the people said that we are not good enough to play at this level and that the team are gonna recieve a big hiding from the NPC Champions of last year. We proved them wrong!
We have a bye this coming w-end and the following w-end we off to Blenheim, on the South Island. We play against a new team in the competition. It's 2 provinces, that played in the 2nd div last year, that melted together, so its gonna be a difficult one, but its all bout the process and not the end result. As long as we improve each week, i see us winnning the competition in 2008!
Not much news otherwise!
Hope you all have a blessed week!
Those who know me, let me hear from you, it's getting lonely on the FAR side of the earth!

A New Begining......

The above heading for this post is part of the new Air New Zealand Cup slogan and for a part of me it's also a new begining. It was quite a journey to get here at this specific stage in my life and alot of sacrifices were made along the way. I trust the Lord that this will be all for a better "me" and I walk this next part of the journey with absolute faith in Him.
The team for this saturday will only be announced on thursday, so untill then it's training hard and putting it all in. I am looking forward to competing against the best there is in NZ and just going out and doing all the new stuff i've learned!
So this past w-end i went down to go watch the Boks play the All Blacks at the Cake Tin in Wellington. Quite a few of my friends played for the Boks and i spent some time with them after the game and it was good to catch up on some news from home. The sunday a few of us went along the harbour and had lunch together and after that myself, meyer and albert went to the Te Papa Museum. It's one of the bigger museums i've seen in my life and it was nice just walking through and having a look at some of the stuff! There was also an exclusive exhibition of "The Lord Of The Rings" movie. They showed all the clothes and stuff that were used in the movie and also videos of how the produced some of the parts of the film. It was very interesting and something different, it's a pity no photo's were allowed to be taken, although there was a sneaky photographer in our midst that got to take one, wont mention any names though, what happened in the museum, stays in the museum! :) After the trip through the museum, us 3 played some cards at a coffee shop inside the museum while having a coffee and chocolate brownie! Very relaxing and just something different than the usual.

My sincere apologies for not posting some news recently, but time management was crucial the last 10 days and i just couldnt spent that much time infront of the computer when i needed some sleep and recovery time badly! Hope the pictures make up for it all!

Just something that i got from a good friend of mine is the following:
It took God a week to create the earth, sun, stars, jupiter, mars, etc.
God is still working on you and me. How much more special must we be if He has already worked our whole life on us and will never stop working on us and our perfection!
You all have a blessed week!

Hawke's Bay here we come!

I made the team for the Hawke's Bay game this Friday and I am really relieved that the hard work has paid off and I'm gratefull for this blessing and opportunity!! There is a couple of our players not playing due to the "flu" going the rounds, but only the backs were affected by the sickness, you know the forwards are a bit "harder" than the backs! :)
We've had another hard training week behind us and i think they trying to get us as tired possible for our game, so that we can play and make decisions while we tired and mentally drained. Dont know if that makes sense but it's difficult to explain!
Otherwise there aint any new exciting news from Palmy, except that this training in the mud isnt fun anymore!! After every training i spent an additional 5-10min in the shower, scrubbing the mud off my boots and clothes, otherwise it stains! I'm still learning alot from our coaching staff, which is a good thing, and on tuesday we going down to wellington for a scrum session with mike cron, he's a all black scrum guru, so am looking forward to that too!
I'm gonna take my camera with tomorrow and if there's time and something to take photo's of, i will!
Have a good w-end and GO BOKKE!!!

3 weeks and counting!

It's 3 weeks till our first game in the NPC, or the Air New Zealand Cup, and i cant wait for it to start! We dont know the final squad yet, but this coming friday we play against Hawke's Bay, which is also our last pre-season game, so i would think that the team playing will be the one he would like to use in the first game against Auckland, giving that the team perform. nothing I can do untill then, except training hard and giving it my best shot!

We've had another long and tough week on the training pitch and yesterday finished the week off with an 2 and a half hour training session and 30min of swimming afterwards. They wanted the training to be as identical to an NPC games as possible and it was a combination of fitness, contact drills and defense for the duration of training. Lots of fun down under i tell you!
This morning we had an extra optional "stairs session" where you climb 84 stairs up and down every 2 minutes, we did 25 sets, and after yesterday the legs were quite heavy, but as a good friend of mine once told me: "There is never a crowd on the extra mile" , so even if you tired, no one but you will know how much "extra" you've put in!

We have tomorrow off and i need to do some house chores, analytical work at the union about our last game and then i will treat myself to the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

You all have a good and blessed week and remember John 10:10 "...Jesus came so that we can have life and life in abundance!"

Cellphone vs Bible

I got the following from a friend of mine.....makes you think!

CELLPHONE VS BIBLE

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?

What if we used it to receive messages?

What if we treated it like we couldnt live without it?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it as we traveled?

What if we used it in case of an emergency?

What if we upgraded it to get the latest version?
This is something to make you go...hmmm…where is my Bible?

Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cell phones, we dont ever have to worry about our Bibles being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill!

Wet and muddy!

Now this doesnt look nearly as bad as it actually was! The fields are flooded with water although the one we trained on tonight was only partially flooded. It was still muddy and very wet, but it's al part of the experience! And the other pic was the malva pudding i made for cellgroup last week! Life is good down under and i'm enjoying every moment of it. wish my other half was here, but she'll join me next year if all goes well! NPC squad only announced next week, so another week of hard work and putting in the extra effort.

So what I'm used to is that when it pours down with rain, training either gets canceled or postponed. This morning we had some testing done on the athletics track in rain that were pouring down. We did a 60m sprint, rest 10min, 400m sprint, rest 10min and finished off with a 1500m. I was pretty stuffed after that and my legs still feel tired and lame, but nothing worth it's gold comes easy, so there's no complaining here!
It looks like the rain's gonna be here the whole week, so mentally i'm preparing myself for some wet training sessions, muddy clothes and a lot of washing this week!
I am still on the lookout for pictures to post on the blog. Tomorrow we have our official launch of the NPC Campaign with the name "Turbos" being used for the first time. Exciting! Some players will receive their new Manawatu Blazers, so something to look forward to. There's a few of us that wont be receiving any, cause you have to play 14 games for manawatu before you get your own blazer. Something to work for! In NZ, "old-school" stuff is still playing a huge part in the rugby culture. Like on friday, after our plane trip up to auckland, the whole team stayed seated in the aircraft and waited for all the other passengers to disembark, before we got out. Just little things that at the end makes a huge difference i think. I'm just enjoying myself at the moment, getting to know the "world"!!
So i bet you've been wondering what the picture is all about?! Haha! I downloaded some stuff from NASA and this is my laptop's desktop background! Isnt that a great picture? What an awesome God we serve! He is just SO much bigger than any of us! (by the way,that is a pic of a hurricane as seen from space!)

I never learn....

This past w-end was the second time that I forgot to take my camera with whenever i leave Palmy! Our game was in a town called, Whangarei, and it's 2 hours drive north of Auckland. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and every thing was nice and green. At some parts the highway was next to the coast and there is some nice beaches along the way! I can kick myself for not being a proper tourist and taking some nice pic's for my web-blog! My sincere apologies to you all for yet another pictureless post.....I will make this up to you all!
So we played against Northlands, they a pretty good side, finishes each year in the middle of the NPC log, so they not the worst team, but not Top4 yet. We did pretty well considering the things that has happened the last 2 weeks and the amount of training we did the last week. We were leading 13-0 for the best part of the game. We really played very good structured rugby the first half and blew them off their feet. 10min into the 2nd half they brought on first-five, dave hollwell, and he outplayed us as an individual. He picked up the tempo of the game and we never had enough gas in the tank to last the full 80min. They scored their 27points in the last 30min, managing to beat us 27-13. I was pretty happy with my game except for the intercept pass i threw that lead to one of their tries, but that's life hey....i made a good clearance kick,under pressure, from inside our goal area too, so i'm happy with my all-round play! :)
This wednesday the NPC squad will be announced, so it's hard work till then, but it's worth every drop of sweat on the training pitch!
For all you soccer fans...sorry bout england and brazil, but there's 2 reasons i'm happy they not gonna win this year's world cup 1-> brazil have won the trophy more times than any other nation so it's just fair that someone else win's it and 2-> david beckham.
Cant wait for church tonight, we are busy with a theme "Kingdom Atmosphere" and tonight will be part 3. It's just so amazing how everything in your life can change, once you have that peace in your heart!
A BIG congrats to robbie harris who made his currie cup debut for the sharks this w-end! Well done superstar!! Hope there's many more to come!
Have an excellent week and carpe diem!

Latest news from Palmy.....

Hello everybody!
So the last 2 days have been really tough and hard, but it's been worthwhile, cause i made the team to go to auckland this w-end! I know it's a blessing from God and I must go full out this w-end to cement my place in the team. It looks like I am playing No.8 which doesnt really bother me, I've been enjoying playing 6-flank the last 2 games (remember that here the #6 flank is the blindside flank and not the opensider! ) Our new coach is really good and at training there is always new stuff to learn. I am really looking forward to the next few months, I know how much I've grown as a player the last 3 weeks and i think the next few months is gonna be a big learning curve!
Since last friday it has been really good weather here, when i say good i mean no raining, so i cant complain on that side!
Tonight is my first night i'm going to one of the cell groups of the church. The people are all more or less my age and tonight is "dessert night" (you have to take a dessert to cell group) so i'm looking forward to some yummy desserts after training! I've baked a malva pudding, hope they like it. It's not one of my best malva's ever, but it's okay for a 2nd time in 10 months! Malva and custard.....mmmmm! :)
Thats all for now, i had a record number of 2 comments on one of the previous posts and was i happy bout it! Remember if you leave a anonymous comment, pls leave yr name! thanks!
You all have a great day! Remember it's a blessing to be alive and live life to the fullest!

More 70's photo's!

Here are some more photo's!

Born in the right era!

We had our 70's party on Saturday night after our game and it was great fun! What helped alot is that we won our game 46-12 and everyone was in a festive atmosphere and in happy moods! I can tell you one thing and that is i am glad i didnt spent my youth in the 70's cause the clothes they wore were not so comfartable, it's all tight fit (the pants) and those afro's......imagine waking up every morning with a hairdo like that! No thanks, i was born in the right era!

in the pics are a few of my team mates and the green and white track suites...they originals from the 70's! It took me 3 shops to find big enough size clothes to wear and i couldnt find shoes, but hey, you win some you loose some! :)

The guy in the orange shirt is our coach and the one on his left is our team manager.

This coming week is gonna be a tough, long and hard week, but if you make it to the end, the reward will be more than satisfying! I want to sit on that plane on friday, flying to auckland for a warm-up game, only 22 players is going and that will be most likely the new coach's "A" team, so if i can make that and keep on performing, i hope to stay in the team and run onto that field, in 4 weeks, for the first game against Auckland.

Have a blessed week all of you and i have a surprise prize for the 1st person that leaves a comment again!

greetings from down under!

PS. I've been having problems with the pic's in this comment, it dont want to enlarge when clicked on. Sorry for the inconvinience, am trying best to sort it out!