Jeff Wilson’s sporting rebirth from All Black to Black Cap may inspire former Springbok rugby fullback Conrad Jantjes to make a similar switch later in his career.
Wilson is a relative rarity among modern sportsmen in that he has represented his country in two sports.
But Jantjes — currently in Christchurch for the first time to play for the Cats against the Crusaders — went one better in his own youth.
A junior Jantjes wore South Africa’s colours in rugby, cricket and soccer.
The 25-year-old settled on rugby as a professional career, but the former all-rounder has not ruled out returning to the cricket crease some day.
Jantjes said he has followed Wilson’s return to cricket with great interest.
”It’s been in the back of my mind, as soon as I saw him do it, to maybe one day go back to cricket.”
But the days of concurrent careers in professional sports are over, Jantjes said.
”There’s no way you could play both. The Currie Cup ends in the last week of October. Pre-season for Super 12 starts soon after and you’ve got the end-of-season Springbok tours.”
Jantjes has no regrets about choosing rugby over soccer, but admits he has occasionally wondered ”what could have been”, particularly when he has been out of rugby with injury.
As a teenage midfielder or striker, he had a trial with English Premier League club Chelsea. But he admits now he was ”a bit too young”.
”I had just turned 14. Here was this South African boy going over. I’d never seen snow in my life, and my first training session was in snow.”
Ironically, Jantjes played against two current Chelsea stars, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole, when the South African under-17 team met their English counterparts.
Alongside him for South Africa that day was current Ajax of Amsterdam player Steven Pienaar. The England XI included Real Madrid’s former Liverpool striker Michael Owen.
Jantjes juggled all three sports, with some success, at Boksburg High School.
He injured ankle ligaments playing soccer in his final school year and said ”things started happening quicker” for him in rugby after his return.
”When I got back, I went straight into Craven Week.”
South Africa schools selection followed and he was later named as a Baby Bok in the national under-19 and under-21 sides.
Jantjes broke into professional rugby, spending his first two years playing alongside current Cats coach Chester Williams, who helped South Africa win the 1995 World Cup when Jantjes was 15.
He got a Super 12 call-up in 2001, but was ignored for much of the campaign by the Cats’ coach, Laurie Mains, the former Otago and All Black mentor.
However, Springboks coach Harry Viljoen spotted Jantjes’s potential and named him in the South African Test squad.
Lunch with Mandela
The speedy and skilful fullback won eight caps that year and looked on the brink of a long and successful Test career.
He even caught the eye of former South African president Nelson Mandela, who invited him for lunch.
When Jantjes took the call from Mandela’s secretary, he thought it was a radio-station prank.
”She said she was from Mr Mandela’s office … She asked me to stay on the line and he was going to come on the phone.”
Still, Jantjes thought he would end up talking to a DJ.
”It’s probably one of the most famous voices in the world to imitate. I was speaking to him, but it wasn’t registering that it was actually Mr Mandela. Then he said, ‘Why don’t you come around for lunch?”’
Jantjes only realised it was ”for real” when he arrived at the Mandela residence in Johannesburg and found his name was on the security checklist. He chuckles as he recalls sitting inside Mandela’s lounge, waiting while he took an overseas phone call from United States President George Bush.
”I just sat there and thought, ‘OK, George Bush is on the other end … not a problem.”’
Jantjes said Mandela is a ”keen sports fan” who reads all the newspapers and ”knows exactly what’s going on” in South African sport.
Jantjes’s own name was hardly out of the headlines then, but just as he seemed set to play a vital role leading up to the 2003 World Cup, he suffered two crippling injuries.
An ankle injury laid him low for eight months after the 2002 Super 12. Then he tore his hamstring, which meant another ”three or four months” of enforced inactivity.
”Until then, I had basically been injury-free. But I struggled for about two years or so after that. It was a slow comeback. Last year was the first time I could start playing with confidence again without worrying about injuries.”
It is almost four years since his last Test, but Jantjes has not given up hope of a Springbok recall. His main aim now, however, is to enjoy the game.
”During those two years, I was struggling with injury, I got my hunger back for the game,” he said.
If the Springboks don’t need him, then maybe one day, the Proteas cricket team will. — Sapa-NZPA