A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, when the Lions and the Cheetahs were once serious challengers for the Super Rugby title in the guise of the Cats, I called their coach, Laurie Mains, for a few quotes ahead of a match. Mains answered the phone.
“Hi Laurie, it’s Kevin McCallum from The Star,”
“Hold on a moment,” said Mains, and the line went quiet. I heard his voice, muffled, as he spoke to someone else. Another voice came on the line.
“Hi, Kevin,” said Annemarie Mains, wife of the coach and media/PR of the Cats.
“Can I speak to Laurie?” I asked.
“Laurie said he doesn’t want to speak to you. He said you made him out to be racist in your column last week,” she said. I laughed, I sighed and we said goodbye.
In that column I had written about Conrad Jantjes and Lawrence Sephaka, both Boksburg-raised boys who were in the Cats squad. Neither of them were getting much game time under Mains, who either did not rate them or felt he they did not fit into his game plan. I did not say Mains was racist. I suggested it didn’t seem he was trying hard enough to include black South Africans in his teams. Later in the year Jantjes and Sephaka would become Springboks.
Jantjes was picked three times from the bench for the Cats that season. “It got to the stage where I even thought that I might go back to cricket,” he said. Jantjes had played SA Schools cricket and football.
Ian Macintosh, the former Bok coach and then the technical advisor for the Sevens squad, liked what he saw in Jantjes and persuaded Mains to loan him to the team for the 2001 Hong Kong tournament.
Given game time, his form and confidence lifted. Harry Viljoen called him up to the Springbok training camp. His improvement was exponential as his talent was trusted. He stretched and ripped apart what he had believed were his limitations. “Each day was like a trial for me, having to perform in every session to prove what I could do.”
Viljoen gave Jantjes a start at fullback against the Wallabies later that season. He was named Man of the Match in a Bok victory. Both Jantjes and Sephaka won 24 Bok caps.
In May of 2000, Mains threatened to resign as Cats coach after it was reported Sarfu were unhappy he was not sticking to a “gentleman’s agreement” to include two black players in his match squad of 22. “Laurie Mains had to fill his quota for the Cats and that was why I was there – on the bench,” said Jantjes.
Jantjes was a wonder to watch when he wasn’t on the bench, a player imbued with natural timing and vision. All he needed was to be given a chance. That’s what all black rugby players want and need.