People might not be aware but former Springbok player and coach Nick Mallett is my uncle, so I don’t have a bad rugby lineage! He’s the brother of my mum and that side of the family is really close so my brother and I spent a lot of time in his and my nephews’ company talking about rugby.
A lot of my rugby memories come from watching both my uncles play, my mum’s younger brother played club rugby with Nick and they also coached together. And my aunt, who sadly passed away when I was 13, was what you would call an analyst nowadays.
In Nick’s early coaching career they didn’t have the same data resources as teams do now for things like ‘lineouts won and lost’, field position etc. etc. so she used to go to games and write down all the stats on a pad and I’d sit beside here fascinated and taking it all in. She was a wizard!
It wasn’t until I went to the University of Cape Town, though, that my rugby really took off for me as a player. Having missed the Varsity Cup squad in my first year, I was hellbent on getting in for the second season, which I did, and then in my third and final year (2011) I was captain when we (UCT Ikey Tigers) won the Varsity Cup for the first time. It was an incredible achievement because a lot of other universities were far better resourced than us. It was great to have my nephew, Greg, alongside me in the back row.
Winning the Varsity Cup put a lot of us on the map. I played with the likes of Eben Etzebeth, Nizaam Carr, Nic Groom, Dimitri Catrakilis and Francois van Wyk, who is now at Leicester Tigers. For me, it led to playing for Western Province in the Currie Cup.
It was a competition was in decline but it still held some relevance in the South African rugby season and after a good season with them, I was selected for the Stormers’ wider Super Rugby training squad.
Unfortunately I got really sick through over-training. We were given a two-week break at Christmas and instead of relaxing, I worked tirelessly to put myself in the best possible position to get in the team, but it proved counterproductive as I picked up a debilitating virus that undid all of the work I’d done and kept me out until mid-season.
By mid-season, I was back fit and I made my debut against the Sharks and played against the Bulls at Loftus the following week. But, by then, I was at a crossroads and had a tricky decision to make.
The Stormers wanted to keep me for the round-robin and play-off games but hadn’t offered me a new contract whereas I had a six-month deal on the table from Saracens.
With Saracens offering me a bit more security, I took them up on it and 10 years and counting, I am still in the UK. I originally came over because they had a bit of an injury crisis in the loose forwards with Jacques Burger, Andy Saull, Justin Melck and Ernst Joubert all out.
“I could have leant on the coaches a bit more and spoken about how I felt”
But, thankfully, after the first couple of months at the club, they extended the contract by 18 months. Saracens was almost like a home from home as there were so many South Africans in the squad so that helped to settle me in and I got quite a few games under my belt until the guys came back from injury.
Unfortunately, in my second year at Sarries, I had bilateral groin surgery which kept out me out three months and after that, I was sent out on loan to Bedford. I found travelling back and forth between the clubs to train three to four times a week quite challenging, and had I been more confident in myself, I could have leant on the coaches a bit more and spoken about how I felt.
Being quite young, I didn’t appreciate how mindful the whole club was in terms of looking after the players and I’m sure they would have understood where I was coming from.
At Saracens you are treated as part of the family, not as an asset. It’s thanks to them that I did my MBA which helped me when I was looking for an alternative career outside of rugby.
Although Saracens have been hugely successful, they have never lost sight of the fact that, ultimately, players play for the love of the game. It was the same at UCT and again at Bedford, where my loan deal became permanent and I had two very enjoyable years there. Even though the game is professional, there should always be a place for the rugby romantic in you.
Mike Rayer is a very good coach and I am very grateful to him for offering me the chance to be captain of the Blues. He gave me autonomy to mould the squad together and put together a senior leadership group to ensure we got the intensity back in our training that we’d perhaps lost in going from Championship finalists in the season whilst I was on loan to finishing ninth or tenth the year after.
The run to the final against Newcastle was hugely enjoyable; some of the tries we scored were sensational. The win at Nottingham in the semi-final was one of the most enjoyable games of my career because they were on a similar level to us in terms of resources yet were a very good team, so it was a proper test of where we were at. Being able to continually punch above our weight was something that I took immense satisfaction from my time at the Blues.
Chasing the Premiership dream again was top of the agenda when it came to the reasoning behind my move to Bristol. Also, my wife came from the West Country so when they came in with an offer it was one I couldn’t really refuse, even though at that point they hadn’t secured promotion as the play-offs were still going on.
I’m glad that I did go, because Bristol is a great city – Istill live there – and a great club. Once Andy Robinson left, I got more first-team opportunities but even though we started to string some wins together, we were relegated back to the Championship. That’s when I moved to hooker. I’d always fancied moving to the front row, and as we had a few injuries, I thought I’ll give it a go, even though 31 was quite old to be moving position.
My first start at hooker was against Leinster A in the B&I Cup. I remember we had an exit lineout on our own five-metre line and I thought to myself, ‘if I ever need to nail a throw, this is it’.
Thankfully, I hit the top of the lineout and we cleared our lines. That moment gave me massive confidence that I could make the transition. John Afoa and guys like that were also a big help.
We got back into the Premiership that season and I got to play against Saracens, which was a big deal as they were the reason why I’d come over to England in the first place. One of my favourites photos is of me getting ready to pack down in a scrum against Saracens and Vincent Koch and Jamie George, one of my friends, were opposite me.
After I retired in 2019, I stayed on at Bristol as team manager and I did that for two-and-a-half years before I decided I needed a change away from professional rugby and needed to get some experience in the corporate world.
I’m currently a senior consultant with Ernst & Young. At some point I’d like to get back into the pro game, in the business/commercial element but, for the time being, I am happy where I am.
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