A challenge awaits
If there was ever a challenge set for a brand-new skipper of a Springbok team, the recent call to duty for Kyle Brown is it. His side already decimated due to injury and SuperRugby call-up, the new Springbok Sevens Skipper will be leading what will be a Sevens team made up of primarily young, inexperienced players.
To add to the challenge, coach Paul Treu did not travel with his charges to Australia, choosing instead to remain behind to be by his sick mother’s bedside in hospital.
The senior players, guided by the rest of the BlitzBokke management team will be called upon to lead the preparations for Adelaide with the full knowledge that South Africa is the defending champions in Adelaide while woefully trailing the rest of the top teams on the IRB Sevens World Series log.
Thankfully, the young University of Cape Town player will have in his side one remaining former Bok skipper in Mpho Mbiyozo, ably supported by the other senior players in Frankie Horne, Rayno Benjamin, Chase Minnaar and Cecil Afrika.
Thanks to Treu’s mission of preparing all of his players to be leaders, Brown’s baptism as skipper of the 2008/2009 Series Champions will be less of a baptism of fire. Instead it will be but the next step in his development as a well-rounded international Sevens player.
We wish him and the Boys well in Adelaide and Hong Kong.
Bokke Bo!
(“Kaptein” is an Afrikaans song sung by popular Afrikaans artist Kurt Darren. “Kaptein, span die seile” translated into English means: “Captain, set the sails” While the song is primarily about a bloke and his girl, we chose to use it in this clip because it’s just such a lekker song about a captain getting ready for a challenge!)
17/03/2010 at 10:14 AM
Kyle has a lot of class and has slipped below the radar due to his humble, yet professional approach to the sport and to the responsibility that goes hand in hand with being an international player. As tough as the call of duty may be, never has it rested on the shoulders of a more qualified and appreciated player. Win or lose, Kyle Brown’s moment has arrived and the team will benefit from his leadership.
They say leaders are like eagles – they do not flock like sea gulls. You find them soaring alone, taking the lead so that others might follow, comfortable with the loneliness, yet protectors of their flock. Watch this space!