While many would have known that a total of 26 Springbok players tested positive for Covid-19 before the test series against the British and Irish Lions, few would know the hell of being isolated in a small room for 14 days while trying to prepare for a test series.
** The first episode will be broadcast on Sunday (M-Net, 6pm; SuperSport, 7pm) **
For the first time the inside story will be shown during the first episode of the groundbreaking series Two Sides, which airs its first episode on Sunday night and gives a behind-the-scenes, in-depth look at the strangest British and Irish Lions tour ever to have taken place.
The documentary, whose first episode touches on the lead-up to the test series, and the Covid outbreak in the Springbok camp that almost scuttled the tour, shows the desperation and despair in the Bok camp at wanting the tour to go ahead, and in trying to get 23 fit players to at least play in the South African A game against the tourists before the test series.
The Boks had not played for 20 months before the Lions arrived, and while the tourists had a series of games against franchise teams, the Springboks were fighting their battles against a Covid outbreak.
During an exclusive interview with SuperSport.com, which does not form part of the documentary, Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber detailed his view of the Covid hell the team went through, and the way they navigated it not only to get a team on the field, but to also play a successful test series during a pandemic.
The documentary shows the tense meetings, how players were isolated and what it took to get a team onto the field to face the Lions.
“We started three weeks earlier in Bloemfontein and as the teams exited the Currie Cup they joined us and as Regulation nine allowed the overseas boys to start joining us, we got them into the camp. We had a nice group of 15/20 players that assembled in Bloemfontein and the funny thing was that we were in a bubble, but we flew home,” Nienaber recalls.
“We had no cases in the three weeks we were in Bloemfontein. When we moved over to Johannesburg, players joined us from the Premiership and French league. It was nice seeing the players again. Against Georgia we went for the guys who were with us in Bloemfontein.”
But it was after the Georgia test that Covid struck the camp in earnest.
OUTBREAK RUMOURS
“Going into that Georgia test, there was speculation that there were rumours that there was a bit of a Covid outbreak in the Georgia camp - I’m talking about a rumour here, I’m not 100 per cent sure of my facts. There was definitely talk of positive cases in the Georgia camp before our test match,” Nienaber says.
“I remember Rassie was nervous and maybe we should have postponed or cancelled that test match. He was pushing for that, we knew that preparation going into the Lions was key for us, we hadn’t played any rugby as a group together since the World Cup final. From our perspective it was a balancing act - maybe getting exposed to Covid and playing that Georgia test match or maybe sacrificing one more game in preparing for the Lions tests.
“It was a tough one for us but we went and played the test match - the information we got was that it was fairly safe and everything was fine.
“On the Friday night, we played, and on the Saturday we had a training session as normal, because we would have played the next Friday against Georgia. On the Sunday there was a positive case that emerged.”
RUGBY STOPPED
Nienaber recalls how all rugby was stopped immediately to try and halt the outbreak, which eventually found its way to 26 players and management.
“Obviously the whole rugby programme halted, and everyone had to go into their rooms and there was only a couple of cases. I don’t think there was management yet. I wasn’t positive yet on the test results that came out on the Sunday or Monday that we tested.
"Then because there were positive cases that returned on Sunday, there was another batch of tests that occurred on the Monday and the rugby programme halted. That was where I tested positive - myself and Felix (Jones) and then a lot of the other management added on. And players as well.
“It was good that we went into isolation because it stopped the spread but there were positive cases that came out - I was positive on Monday, on Tuesday more players tested positive and on Wednesday more players tested positive.
“I’m not sure which day it stopped, if it was the Wednesday or Thursday.”
VIDEO-CALL COACHING
But then the 14 day quarantine hit the team, and they were confined to their rooms and coaching via video calls. Team members had a set 45 minute period a day they could exercise in the hallway, alone, without anybody else around.
“The hotel had two wings, a north and south wing. We stayed in the one wing and if you tested positive, your room got this one sticker over and you were evacuated out of your room and that wing. You went to the other wing, which was the isolation wing.
“When I left the wing quite early. The security come and fetch you with all this PPE on and you go over alone and you walk across and go to your room and that is where you stay. Your room in the other tower had this contaminated sticker on it, so everyone knew if they looked out of their room who had tested positive.
“On the Covid side of the hotel, the food was delivered to the door, and if you opened up the foot was delivered. That is where you stayed for the duration of the 14 days you had to quarantine.
“Thinking of it now, it was good that we didnt know what we were getting ourselves into. Everyone knew what it would be but not in your wildest dreams you would have thought it would be that difficult or that tough.”
*The first episode will be broadcast on Sunday (M-Net, 6pm; SuperSport, 7pm).