It was a random Tuesday in which I was stuck at home after having had my chance to provide an ‘essential service’, that I got reminded, from out of the blue, that my beloved Lions have not always been as uninspiring as they have been of late. They were, until Tuesday, the furthest thing on my mind, not least because they forced franchise rugby to the very back of my mind with their forgetful Super Rugby performances this season. At the time of the season’s suspension, they were in pole position for the wooden spoon on the South African Conference log after the first six games of the 2020 season.
Just last month, before the season was brought to an abrupt halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they already had a tour to forget in Australasia, and still with a match to go, after having already being pulverized by the Waratahs and the Rebels in Australia, and the Blues in Auckland, New Zealand, in their first three outings. They were due to play the Highlanders in Dunedin in the last of the scheduled matches on tour before coming back home, but were fortunately spared the inevitable ignominy by the season’s suspension.
Needless to say, then, that the tournament’s bosses, Sanzaar, couldn’t have come up with a better way to provide some perspective for the despairing Lions fans – not least this piece’s author – than by announcing that their number-crunching has dictated that Lions captain and Springbok flyhalf Elton Jantjies has been South Africa’s best player of the last decade in the tournament! Among the reasons for their brave call, they say, is that the 29-year-old has had one of the most remarkable contributions to a team. They are quoted as saying the numbers tell them that Jantjies scored, in the period between 2010 and this year, a total of 1 145 points – the second-most of any player, made the third-most assists with 59, and made the most clean breaks of any of the South African flyhalves, with 50.
He, as a result, also made the South African ‘Dream Team’ of the last decade – a feat that no less than five other teammates and now former teammates of his also managed to achieve. The others being former captain and now Lions forwards coach Warren Whiteley, Malcolm Marx, Franco Mostert, Courtnall Skosan and, my favourite part, Andries Coetzee.
‘Favourite part’ because ‘Boeboes’, as Coetzee is affectionately known, is one of my favourite players in the world and one that I feel is one of the most underrated.
Sanzaar says the fullback made the third-most carries (868), gained 5 646 metres, and beat defenders 243 times in that period. This supports what I’ve always believed about him, that he is one of the most industrious fullbacks in the game, and that his influence in attack is matched by very few.
Good on Sanzaar for recognizing a team that for three years – between 2016 to 2018 – made consecutive Super Rugby finals, and recognizing some of the key players to that incredible achievement.
Now I can bear to hear the words ‘Super Rugby’ again, especially coming from someone who knows their numbers well.
* Cover image: Elton Jantjies Twitter page (@jantjies_elton).
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