adminNgoni Dapira
ZIMBABWEAN-born South African player, Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira last Saturday proved to be the most popular Springbok player to the team’s multitude of fans that watched the 2015 Rugby World Cup Group B opener against Japan last Saturday. The loosehead prop would receive a supportive roar from the crowd hollering his popular nickname ‘Beast’ each time he held the ball. He was the only player throughout the match that received such rousing support from the crowd, which he always gets even back in South Africa at his Durban based Super Rugby league club Sharks.
Mtawarira who now has 69 caps playing for the Springboks is a strong scrummager with great technique as well as a powerful ball-carrier.
Beast’s rugby career set off at Churchill Boys High School where he attended his early years of High School and got discovered by Peterhouse College which gave him a full scholarship.
In 2008 after a fantastic Super 14 season with the Sharks it became apparent that the Zimbabwean star had fantastic potential and that year he was selected into the Springboks squad though at first receiving limited game time.
However as his confidence grew, once Beast came on, his impact was significant and he went on to be a part of the starting lineup for all the subsequent Tri-nations tests up-to-date.
Back at the 2015 RWC in England, though Mtawarira received overwhelming support the Springboks started off on the wrong footing after falling to Japan 34-32 in the close encounter which automatically dropped the International Rugby Board ranking of South Africa from third to sixth position, while Japan climbed up from number 15 to 11.
The Springboks will have to play the game of their lives tomorrow (Saturday) in an even tougher match against Samoa which is still buoyant from a 25-16 victory against the United States of America on Sunday.
The commencement of the 2015 RWC has shown that major upsets can be expected this year signaled by Japan’s victory steered by their coach Eddie Jones, the former Springboks assistant coach in 2007. South Africa was the only upset among the favourites in all the groups. The defending champions, New Zealand, in Group C though giving a not too impressive show managed to defeat Argentina 26-16 while in Group A, the hosts (England) and Wales marked their territory after defeating Fiji and Uruguay respectively.
In Group D favourites France and Ireland also started their campaign well defeating Canada and Italy respectively.
Tomorrow (Saturday) another potentially match to look forward to will be the England versus Wales match which will probably guide the head of the group.
Online Reporter