With the draw for next season’s Super 15 now in the public domain, the Lions’ melancholy record of having lost all 13 matches in a single season will be an everlasting footnote in the records. But the last thing anyone expected was that in the same season the Lions would be in contention for the Currie Cup.
It took a while, and after beating the Leopards in their opening game, the Lions lost their next four, but new coach John Mitchell was looking around at his resources. Mitchell, a former All Blacks coach, came to South Africa from the Western Force and, after the sleepy rugby backwaters of Perth, was astonished at the depth of talent and facilities available to him on the Highveld.
With no baggage, he has taken his new union in hand and given it a vigorous shake. The result has been earlier than usual opportunities for some prodigiously gifted youngsters and a run of five successive wins in the Currie Cup. Last weekend’s win over Griquas has propelled the Lions into the top four, but it is the way they are playing, rather than the results, that has opened eyes.
Mitchell has brought fresh faces to every unit: Martin Bezuidenhout at hooker, Joe Snyman at lock, Warren Whitely at number eight, Jaco Taute at fullback and the pick of the bunch, Elton Jantjies, at flyhalf. Snyman, at 24, is the old man of the group, Jantjies turned 20 last month and Taute doesn’t reach that milestone until next March.
Jantjies has caught the statisticians’ eyes with a run of 19 successful goal kicks, but that is really just the icing on the top. The fact of the matter is that Jantjies is the most exciting flyhalf talent to emerge in this country since the turn of the millennium. He can run, pass and kick off either foot and he has the kind of hips that make fools of flankers who tackle the wrong spot.
Jantjies was born to play, it seems. His father, Thomas, has been a medical officer in the National Defence Force for 23 years and, for 18 of those years, he has been coaching Elton and younger brother Tony. “For Elton’s first birthday I bought him a cake in the shape of a rugby ball,” Thomas told the Mail & Guardian.
“As soon as they could walk I encouraged them to play rugby and many times I would come home tired from work and they would look at me and ask, ‘Daddy, are we not going?’, and I would have to go into the garden with them to play.”
Postings to different parts of the country meant that the boys’ schools changed regularly, but they settled into a solid routine at Klerksdorp High and then won scholarships to Florida Höerskool on the West Rand. Everywhere he went, Thomas was involved in coaching, both at school level and with ladies’ rugby in Potchefstroom and Pretoria.
Tony, whose preferred position is scrumhalf, is on the books at the Bulls, whereas Elton has been part of the set-up at the Lions for five years now. Thomas said: “He played for the under-19s when he was only 15 and they made him play fullback because they didn’t want him to get hurt. He played for the under-21s at 17 and in 2008 he went through the season only missing one kick at goal.”
Beguilingly simple
Elton’s left-footed place-kicking style is based on Percy Montgomery, the record point scorer for the Springboks, and is beguilingly simple. One step and bang. Then with the ball halfway to the target he turns his back, picks up the kicking tee and trots back to the halfway line. He doesn’t expect to miss.
But South Africa produces a dozen schoolboys every year who can kick beautifully. Jantjies differs because of his innate sense of space and his ability to read the game. Since he became the first-choice flyhalf the Lions have been liberated. They score from all over the place and, perhaps most importantly, they tackle like men possessed.
Therein lay the problem under Dick Muir in the Super 14. The Lions scored a fair number of tries, but they also conceded them by the bucket-load. Mitchell has brought structure to the team and mixed in a large portion of youthful exuberance. He also has the not inconsiderable bonus of having a back-line coach by the name of Carlos Spencer.
Thomas Jantjies remembers the day his son came home to tell him who he had just seen at training. “Carlos was one of Elton’s heroes at school and he was just so excited when he met him for the first time. Now that he and John are in charge I don’t need to coach him anymore. I have signed Elton off to them.”
And fairly soon he will need to sign him off to the Springboks. There’s a Grand Slam tour to the United Kingdom coming up and Jantjies should be on it. He may, after all, be the flyhalf at next year’s World Cup. And if he does tour, will Thomas be there? “Yes, sir, I’ll make a plan. I’m just looking for a big sponsor,” he said jokingly.