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."