Krige grasps new challenge

By Chris Hewett

When South African flanker Corne Krige arrived in Northampton a few days ago, he was not convinced he would receive the warmest of welcomes.

Not because he had left his calling card on half a dozen English bodies during a Hammer Horror of a Test match at Twickenham during the autumn of 2002, or because he had served in high office during the Springboks' gung-ho preparations for last year's World Cup - a build-up that veered from the bovine to the pornographic and back again - but because he had been asked to captain his new club, without paying so much as a single due.

"It is true to say that I was nervous about my reception," Krige admitted this week, minutes after being confirmed as captain on a full-time basis.

"Having arrived in England on the Sunday, it was quite something to find myself captaining the side in an important pre-season match six days later. The thought crossed my mind that the supporters here, who obviously know their rugby, might think: 'Hey, who the hell does this guy think he is?'

"As it turned out, I was made to feel at home immediately. I was moved by it, definitely.''

Cornelius Petrus Johannes Krige... the man sounds like half a pack. He was born in Zambia, educated in Paarl and forged in the fires of the hottest of all SA sporting furnaces, Western Province. His entire professional career to date was spent at Newlands.

One of his prime motivations in signing up for a stint in the English Premiership was to breathe some fresh air after months and years in the heavy, occasionally fetid, atmosphere of Springbok rugby.

"The Springboks will be in my heart, always,'' he said. "But that part of my life is over now, and there is something in me that feels nothing but relief. There are two extremes in the world of South African rugby. There is the incredible support for the Boks, who are absolute heroes when things are going well. And then there is the flip side, which is seriously bad.

"You can be annihilated, torn apart, by the rugby press and public when the team is struggling. Things are said and written that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. The strain on myself and my family was immense. I don't miss that side of the South African game. I never want to experience anything like it again.''

He recognises something of Cape Town and its rugby fervour in his new surroundings in the East Midlands.

A cynic might say that if Krige cannot make a home for himself at Franklin's Gardens, where so many of his countrymen - the coach Alan Solomons, the prop Robbie Kempson, the lock Selborne Boome, the hooker Johan van Wyk and the wing Wylie Human - are earning a living, he could not do so anywhere outside the shadow of Table Mountain. But to Krige's mind, Northampton is a genuine home from home.

"A little like the Springboks, this club has suffered from inconsistency - a win-one, lose-one syndrome,'' he said.

"When we come right down to it, we are talking about under-achievement. It is the kind of situation which suits me, I think. It will take me some time, maybe a couple of months or more, to work out exactly what needs to be done here, but I would much rather face this kind of challenge than come into a club where there was no room for improvement.''

Krige has been described by the sage and perceptive Solomons as a "natural leader" in the mould of David Wilson and Andre Vos, fellow southern hemisphere flankers who made, and in Vos' case continue to make, a priceless contribution at Harlequins.

"I didn't expect to be given the club captaincy immediately, or even at all, but I do enjoy the role and am prepared to make the necessary sacrifices, as I have always done,'' Krige said.

With sacrifice comes high regard. Two years ago, when Krige led perhaps the least-experienced Springbok side ever to leave South Africa in a Twickenham Test against a mature England team in red-hot form, he sensed the panic and helplessness around him and, in an attempt to show he cared, proceeded to create mayhem around the paddock.

It was not a particularly edifying spectacle and Krige subsequently apologised for it, but many senior England players understood his motives and respected his naked courage.

Over the next couple of seasons, as the newcomer to the Premiership finds his feet in the most demanding club league in world rugby, that respect will only increase. - The Independent