Western Province front row, scares me…

I’m going, to be honest, the Western Province front row of Steven Kitshoff, Bongi Mbonambi and Frans Malherbe scares the living life out of me, they are terrifying.

This trio is probably the most feared in world rugby, they terrorise grown men and maybe appear in their nightmares. I’m sure some guys have scrummed against them, and then dreaded the day they chose to play rugby.

Let’s put my fear of these men into perspective, I’m a very small man, typical South African men height and skinny; although I have put on some weight thanks to the lockdown. I’m more like a hyena, anything that is bigger me, scares and these are guys are like all the big animals.

But my fear of the front-rowers does not come watching them break people’s bones on the field of rugby but comes from a series of observations and interactions with them.

I’ll start with Steven Kitshoff, those who have been around him will tell you he is a very nice guy, which is a problem. This man is a rare breed, he’s a big ginger, that’s scary. He also has a nickname that is alarming, ‘Spicy Plum’ what a paradox. I know for sure that nicknames are a representation of a person’s character; anyone who carries the name ‘Spicy’ is a no go.

Moving on to the hooker, Bongi Mbonambi. In Chasing the Sun, the amazingly produced documentary series about the Springboks journey to winning the 2019 rugby world cup, the man from has a segment from episode 3. So, in this segment, I saw Bongi Mbonambi turn into Mike Tyson, I was sober by the way. The tone he used, the words and focus on the lens, was so Mike Tyson. When you watch a Mike Tyson interview, you get chills and fear, well, I experienced all of that while watching Bongi.
“I always play this scenario that, let’s say I’m in my home with my family and a random guy comes to my house, opens the doors and starts living his life in my house. That won’t happen. I’d rather die than let that happen,” said Mbonambi when painting a picture of what motivates him to fuck up opponents during a match. To him, rugby players are robbers, he’s not one to fuck with.

The tighthead prop, Frans Malherbe, the guy is a descendant of wrestler Andre The Giant, he’s a giant. I had a one-one interview with Frans Malherbe during a press conference celebrating his 100 caps for the Stormers, I was excited because I was interviewing a world cup winning. Frans is big and he was close by during the interview, in my face with his huge frame before me. I suddenly started stuttering and shivering. He must have thought I was nervous about interviewing him while I was just scared of him.

The world cup winning front row will be in action this weekend when the DHL Western Province takes on the Vodacom Blue Bulls, they scrumming against Trevor Nyakane, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen. Will be interesting to see who will come out on top and see who’ll be fearing after that.