Brok Harris says that after leaving the DHL Stormers seven years ago intending to end his career overseas he never dreamt he’d back one day to play his 100th game for the franchise, and neither would he have expected to be so important to the cause at the age of 36.
The Roodepoort-born and Krugersdorp and Potchefstroom educated Harris became something of a cult figure when he was playing for the Dragons in Wales, with Stormers coach John Dobson admitting he was flabbergasted at the attention the prop received when Harris returned there recently with the Cape team for the Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash in Newport.
Even though he played 93 times in the blue of the Stormers after making his franchise debut against the Toyota Cheetahs in Bloemfontein in 2007, he perhaps wasn’t as valued as much at the Cape franchise. The second time round though it is different, and apart from the knowledge he is imparting to his teammates as a kind of player/coach when it comes to the scrums, he was the unsung hero of last week’s fightback against the Cell C Sharks in Durban.
Harris stabilised the Stormers scrum that had been destroyed earlier in the game when he came on at tighthead, and it was him as much as impact back Warrick Gelant who helped turn the tide in the visiting team’s favour as they fought back from a 19-3 deficit at one point to a 22-all draw.
CAME TO COACH BUT ENDED UP PLAYING
“What Brokkie brought to the team last week as a player and what he has brought to the team as a scrum coach has been incredible,” said Dobson.
“We only got Brok to join us because we wanted him to help with the scrum coaching as Shimmie (Hanyani Shimange) had left at that point (he’s subsequently returned to the role of scrum coach). Brok was part of an amazing scrum culture that started to come through at the Stormers in around 2008 and since he has been with us he has helped both the age group teams and the senior team and done an amazing job.
“The understanding was that he would bail us out if he was needed on the field, but because of injuries he has played a lot and the amazing thing was that he started out playing loosehead for us but last week it was as a tighthead replacement that he helped us out.
“We said we’d only use him if we needed him but it didn’t take us long to need him. He made a massive contribution as a player and not just as a coach on our URC overseas tour. Not just with his scrumming, but his handling skills in that try scored by Sazi Sandi against Munster were sublime. It is hard to coach scrumming when you in the middle of it, and he’s had to make a further adjustment when Frans Malherbe and Neethling Fouche were injured and we needed him at tighthead. He’s become a real yster (iron-man) in the team.”
And he’ll need to be again as he tries to follow up the hard work, he has put in helping Shimange with the scrum correction that is required after last week’s reverse gear at Hollywoodbets Kings Park. We will only know when the Stormers team is announced on Thursday afternoon whether he will be starting or not, but either way he will have a crucial role to play as a player in Saturday’s return clash with the Sharks at the DHL Stadium.
SENSE OF DISBELIEF
For the player himself, there’s a sense of disbelief that the landmark moment of playing his 100th game has arrived.
“It is unbelievable to be playing my 100th game. Seven years ago, I would not have foreseen that in my wildest dreams, but when the opportunity came up it was a no-brainer,” says Harris.
“I made my debut back in 2007, when Kobus van der Merwe was the Stormers coach. It was unbelievable starting as one of the youngsters then, and in that first game my hero Os du Randt came into the Cheetahs team as he made his comeback ahead of the World Cup after playing a Vodacom Cup game. So it was very challenging.
“I have lots of good memories, and obviously one of them was that Super Rugby final in Soweto in 2010. Even though we lost that game it was an awesome experience and I will never forget playing with some of the legends of the game such as Schalk (Burger), Jean (de Villiers), Bryan Habana, Jaque Fourie and others.
“In 2010 we put more than 40 points past Crusaders in a Super Rugby league game at Newlands. Few teams manage to do that. It’s gone by so quickly, I was a youngster back then but now I am the old guy in the team.”
Having an old guy in the team to help nurture the youngsters is starting to come into vogue at franchise and provincial level in South African rugby, with the return of players who have gained experience playing overseas being one of the counter-balances to the so-called player drain. Local rugby appears to be moving towards a point where players start their careers here and play for their provinces and unions until their mid-20s and then head overseas before returning towards the end of their careers with all the experience and IP picked up playing in another country.
SANDI NOT TO BLAME FOR DURBAN SCRUM WOES
Harris reckons that the Stormers have a bright future ahead of them because of the quality of the youngsters coming through.
“When I started out I was playing with a lot of old legends but now there are new legends coming through. Guys like Nama Xaba and Marcel Theunissen have big futures ahead of them, and the same for Sazi Sandi, Leon Lyons and Andre-Hugo Venter, who is just 20. There is so much talent. I mention the forwards because I spend so much time working with them. But allround there is a lot of talent for the future.
Harris mentioned Sandi, the player he had to replace and then console after the game after the mauling he appeared to take from the Sharks pack, and Ox Nche in particular, in the scrums. Harris agrees though with Dobson that perhaps singling Sandi out last week was unfair. He feels it was the pack as a collective that got it wrong, and he is confident that what the Stormers have worked on this week will lead to a much better performance in Cape Town.
According to Dobson, in real time last Saturday he and his fellow coaches saw what most pundits and spectators either at the field or watching on television saw - Springbok strongman Nche giving Sandi a tough afternoon. However, on analysis and after watching the video, it is evident that the rest of the pack let Sandi down.
“I concur with that 100 per cent. It was not Sazi that was the problem. We left him a bit exposed because we were not consistent enough with our front row set up and the back five giving pressure,” said Harris.
“It was a timing issue and that is something that has been a key focus for us this week. We’ve put in a lot of work and I am confident we will do a lot better in the scrums on Saturday.”
Harris admitted he’d spent time with Sandi immediately after the game helping him through his disappointment and made it clear to the younger man then that he was not to blame and that he’d recover from the experience. As much as anything else, that mentoring role is why players like Harris are so crucial to the South African rugby system going forward.