RUGBY
Andy Colquhoun in Fremantle
The press call them pofferbaadjies and they hunt in packs. You’ll find them wherever the Springboks are playing, wandering the streets and filling the bars.
A pofferbaadjie is a Springbok camp follower and the name comes from the padded green Springbok jacket that is the de rigueur uniform of the breed.
By midweek Fremantle had not received its expected quota of them but they are out there somewhere in Western Australia. I know that from the piles of biltong that were left on our flight into Australia almost two weeks ago.
It was dumped by the pofferbaadjies who had ignored the advice of their travel agents and decided that they could not travel overseas for such a long period without their biltong. But everyone has their cracking point and, after the in-flight customs video admonished that anyone bringing in dried meat risked a hefty fine and/or deportation the ‘baadjies began to shed biltong like Jonah Lomu sheds tacklers.
”There’ve been a few fans around but most of them are locals,” says Springbok prop Robbie Kempson.
”We had a braai with them on Friday and there must have been around 100 there but the price was a bit steep they told us: Aus$90 (about R378).”
The price would not have troubled former shoe retailing magnate Dave
Rodwell. The South African multi-millionaire lives half of the year in Fremantle and the other half in Bantry Bay and on Sunday he had the Boks around for a light lunch.
Apparently the tables groaned under mountains of food with a full range of surf and turf with Rodwell thoughtfully ordering in Nando’s from a Perth franchise.
Comedian Eddie Eksteen was at Springbok training earlier in the week and Ruan van Zyl former hooker and one-time captain of Eastern Province made a be-suited appearance to go over old times with former EP team-mate Willie Meyer.
Van Zyl, with his wife and two children, is one of the many South Africans who have emigrated to Western Australia. Quite how many have made the dash to this part of Australia is unclear estimates range from between 40000 and 80000, but it is enough to upset the Wallabies, who complained that the last time they took on the Boks in Perth it was like playing an away fixure.
The migrs have pitched at Springbok training with their Australian-accented kids wearing Springbok jerseys.
Perth is seeking the fourth Australian franchise and their eyes could be cast in a westerly direction when they come to recruit. Despite the large numbers of South Africans on the left-hand rim of Australia they figure little in the senior ranks of the local club leagues; the vast majority are family men whose playing days are behind them.
But they all have children and can it be long before a Van der Merwe or a Botha pops up in Australian rugby? Fair dinkum mate, it’s going to happen.