DHL Stormers wing Leolin Zas will play his landmark 100th game for the Cape team against Connacht in Galway on Friday night but for him it will be the completion of a road much less travelled than the one followed by other players who have reached that mark.
In some ways, it feels like yesterday. Robbie Fleck, the former Springbok centre, was coaching the Stormers. His team had just played the Lions in a pre-season warmup game in which play had been held up for quite some time while Zas, then just 21, was stretchered from the field.
In the official press conference, Fleck didn’t want to confirm the extent of the injury. Everything still had to be confirmed. But Fleck had a habit of having a private separate off the record conference after the official one, and when he spoke to us then he was more direct.
“That’s a terrible injury, I really feel sorry for him. Often players don’t come back from injuries like that, it robs you of your explosiveness and what makes you good. If he does play again, I am not sure he will ever be the same player again,” said an obviously crestfallen Fleck.
The Stormers coach’s worst fears were later confirmed. Zas had suffered a severe broken leg, fracturing both his tibia and fibula just below the knee.
It was soon confirmed by the Cape team that Zas would be out of rugby for a year, but there wasn’t a lot of hope of him returning as the player who at that stage of his career was regarded as a future Springbok.
If he returns his mind to what his hopes might have been before that horrible injury back in February 2017, Zas might consider playing his 100th game for the Stormers as a consolation prize.
As a 21-year-old, playing that many games for the Boks was not an unrealistic expectation. But that would have been before the injury. After the injury, different story.
Dick Muir, when he was an assistant to Robert du Preez at the Sharks, asked about Zas in a phone call roughly a year after that conversation with Fleck. The Sharks were looking at him to join them. How good was he?
The answer was that he was very good, but that the injury had suffered introduced much doubt. As Fleck had said, many players don’t come back from that kind of injury.
The Sharks recruited their man, but Zas never really got going at the Sharks, probably understandably given that he would have needed time to recover his confidence and maybe get used to a new reality after his year away recovering from such an awful potentially career ending injury.
But after two seasons he returned to Cape Town and his career took off again as the Stormers started the URC era by winning the inaugural title. He was injured for the final, with bad luck striking again - he limped off with an ankle injury in the first half of the tense semifinal win over Ulster.
Yet he did contribute handsomely to the overall Stormers success that season and has remained a stalwart and important player ever since.
“I think it must still kick in, but yeah, I’ve been with the Stormers for a long time. This is basically the only place that I know,” said Zas looking ahead towards Friday night’s achievement of a notable milestone.
“I know I spent two years with the Sharks, but I’ve been with this team for years. I have a good relationship with the people around me, and I can’t wait for Friday. Obviously, it would have been ideal to have it at home, but what I’ve been through, I’ll take it with both hands. It’s up to me to make it special on Friday.”
Looking back on his injury plagued career, Zas made it clear he has no regrets.
“I just feel blessed to have had another chance. Hopefully, I can take it further and spend another four or five years here,” he said.
“I thought about it last night and I was like, I never knew that this moment would actually come. For me, when you go through injuries and stuff like that, every minute on the field is a blessing. I won’t take that for granted. Obviously, credit to the coaches and everybody around me who believes in me and who put me on that field.
“It will be maybe quite emotional later in the week, but I just have to go out there and give it my best. Hopefully, the team can make it special on Friday with a big W.”