Mike Greenaway
IT is premature, of course, to compare Patrick Lambie with Superman, but for now a comparison with Clark Kent is apt.
“Mild-mannered gentleman” perfectly describes both, and while the green jersey the former pulls over his head is yet to produce the same results as Kent’s blue suit, you have the feeling that it might just do so in time.
SA Schools’ cricket and rugby in Grade 11 and matric, headboy at Michaelhouse, six Test caps at age 20 (and a few more to come before his 21st birthday, which is six days before the Rugby World Cup final of October 23)…
John Smit predicts he will captain the Springboks and gave this delightful description of Lambie’s character: “This is the one rugby player in the world that a father will welcome knocking on the door to take out his daughter.”
His greatest attribute, though, is that none of the attention remotely ruffles his cool, calm disposition.
On Saturday, for instance, he will be the man under the high ball with 15 All Blacks charging down at him, and when you put that to him he smiles calmly and says quietly: “It doesn’t bother me. I guess I am lucky that I don’t really get nervous. I have never been a player that gets himself worked up before a game. My heart races a bit before my first kick at goal, but generally I enjoy a bit of pressure. It helps me focus.”
This will be his second start against the All Blacks and the first occasion he will wear the green and gold in South Africa. He played off the bench on the November tour, then in July replaced Morne Steyn at flyhalf against Australia before deposing him in the starting line-up for the match in Wellington.
It was a confusing week in New Zealand because Lambie was announced in the team at 15, but started at 10.
“Well I think the plan was to confuse the All Blacks’ preparations a bit,” he says bashfully. “I was always going to play flyhalf and I knew that early in the week. But this time I am definitely starting at fullback. There is no ruse this time.”
This time last week he was picked in the Sharks team at 12 to play Western Province, which will mean he will have played three different positions in three games (flyhalf in Wellington, inside centre at Newlands and fullback in Port Elizabeth).
“It was a nice surprise to get the recall to the Springbok camp, and then to go straight into the starting line-up in my first Test on South African soil has been an amazing development,” he says.
Amazing indeed considering he has gone from playing the Leopards on Friday night before a few thousand diehard Sharks fans at Kings Park, to playing New Zealand at a sold-out Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, following the injury to Frans Steyn.
“Moving to fullback (from 10 in Wellington) is not an issue at all,” he says.
The story goes that he played little rugby in Grade 10 because of an elbow injury, and in Grade 11 Guy Cronje (who has played for the Sharks) was the flyhalf, so he moved to fullback for the first time and by the end of the season was in the SA Schools team. That year he went 18 kicks at goal without missing, which must be something of a schoolboy record.
“I guess I was ultimately more of a fullback at school, but I have really enjoyed being closer to the ball at first 12 and then 10. I am really not fussed about moving between the three positions,” he says. “I do not feel that I am being messed around because I am equally comfortable in all three.”
For all his measured, unfailingly polite answers, Lambie admits that playing his first Test at home will make a welcome change to the disappointment of the performances on the Baby Boks tour.
“I am seriously looking forward to playing with all the senior guys after our experience overseas,” he says. “It is a totally different squad and it is an honour to be in the mix with the senior players, it is a different experience and inspiring to be among these giants of our game.”
The Boks are in danger of being whitewashed for the first time in Tri-Nations history, and Lambie does not skirt the issue.
“It would be an embarrassment. Nobody goes out there to lose,” he said. “But it is going to be really tough against a side that we regard as being in no way weaker than the one we played in Wellington.”
But Lambie will be in the forefront of the Springbok effort, make no mistake.
“I have so much to play for. I desperately want to be in the World Cup squad, as do my teammates, so in a way it amounts to a massive trial for all 30 players on the field, but for us it ultimately comes down to getting the result. We really need this win.” 8 P13