Cape takes pride in hometown Boks
Gio Aplon's parents, Cedric and Nella, celebrate his inclusion in the Rugby World Cup squad. Gio Aplon's parents, Cedric and Nella, celebrate his inclusion in the Rugby World Cup squad.
JANIS KINNEAR and MURRAY WILLIAMS
Staff Reporters
DESPITE assurances her son had made the Springbok squad for the Rugby World Cup, Nella Aplon was nervous before the squad announcement last night.
As Gio Aplon, darling of Newlands and pride of Hawston, was officially named in the squad, the Aplons and friends let out a whoop of joy as the fullback-cum-wing was given his cap.
“It’s very nerve-racking for us… Just to think all he has been through to get there,” said Nella.
Among those who gathered at the Aplon home in Hawston was family friend Percy Basson, 40, who bought Gio’s first pair of rugby boots. “I saw the talent in him years ago and said to myself this boy will go far.”
“To reach the level of a Springbok, having attended a local school where nobody could see him, shows you it was pure hard work.”
Gio’s love for the sport began when he took to the field in Grade 2, recalled his father, Cedric.
“That time he was moving backwards and backwards and didn’t really touch the ball because he was a bit afraid of the bigger guys,” he said.
But the young Gio soon came to love the game.
“I used to lock the door because he would go play after school till late at night,” recalled Cedric.
Meanwhile, there was great pride at one of the country’s most famous rugby schools today, Paarl Gimnasium in the Winelands, the rugby nursery of flanker Schalk Burger and centre Jean de Villiers.
Head of sport at the school, former Western Province and Springbok kicking ace Louis Koen, told the Cape Argus: “It’s fantastic. It’s what dreams are made of.”
Koen said the school had produced 27 Springboks, the second-highest for any South African school, behind Grey College in Bloemfontein. Wessel Moolman, headmaster at Huguenot High School in Wellington, where centre Juan de Jongh matriculated in 2005, was also excited. “He’s our first Springbok in the 15-man code – we’re very proud,” he said.
The only other Bok in the World Cup squad who attended a Cape school is Francois Louw, grandson of rugby great Jan Pickard, a Bishops old boy.
Bryan Habana and Jaque Fourie grew up in Gauteng.