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!