Rugby Special Forces Style

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The regimental badge for 1 Reconnaissance regiment my base and home for 2 years.

I played rugby for over 18 years before I retired early due to work commitments as the fear of injury was real. The company I worked for would not cover the risk like my previous employee would and thus was a fairly straight forward decision.

Looking back there are a few matches that stood out as the most enjoyable even though they actually held no real importance. I was in the Army at the time based with a Special Force Unit. I enjoyed my time there as it was not a normal scenario that you would expect.

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On the bottom left it doesn't look like much but there was a rugby pitch there not that we ever used it for practice.

The base team would change all the time as we only had about 100 Operators ranging in age from 20 odd up to about 40. The only plus for the team was that everyone was super fit and we never trained. In the two years I was there I represented the base in 3 matches and we won all three.

The funny thing is we had no preparation or practice sessions yet we all kind of clicked. We knew as a team we would be a challenge for most just with our makeup of players as they were some of the toughest guys I have ever met and played with.

The first game was against a league team and our base was going to replace the normal army team for that fixture. The team we were up against had no idea that they were up against an elite fighting unit and probably expected a normal army team that day.

I had no rugby boots with me and a few other guys as well so we were playing in running shoes. This didn't really phase us as we had no idea at the time that we were up against one of the provinces top clubs. I only knew what a big deal and a shock it was after we had beaten them. I had been in the province for about two weeks and was still finding my feet and playing sport was not exactly a priority at the time.

I have no idea what the opposing team thought as we ran out onto the pitch as we must have looked like a proper makeshift team. Players with no boots and different colored shorts and the only thing that was the same was our jerseys that we had obviously been given prior to running on.

Pep van Zyl my RSM and a founder of the Special Forces. Scariest man you could ever come across. I am not joking either. He is worth a post on his own which I will do at some point.

I can remember this game like it was yesterday and can remember the crowds reaction as they were rather quiet.The so called stars of their team were knocked down time and time again and we just over powered them with brute force. There wasn't much technique or finesse about our team,but it was a hell of a fun thing to experience.

This was my first taste of open rugby as everything up until now had been at a junior level. I was still going to spend the next two seasons at junior level representing the Defence Force, but these matches with a makeshift team were seriously good fun.

Someones rank meant nothing and it was great for me as there is no better way of bonding with a new group than playing sport together. I played two more games for them over the next 18 or so months with one game against the Navy and they obviously knew who we were as we played as our base in our black and white jerseys and they were smashed.

The final game was an invitation to play as warm up game helping a top club team prepare for the season that was starting the following week. This was against Bluff rugby club in front of a friendly crowd of around 2000 people. Our base was on the Bluff so everyone knew about our unit and may have peaked more interest to come along and watch.

I had rugby boots this time and the players all had the proper kit. The base took pride in their team and you were not asked to play, but were told you were playing. This game was taken more seriously than all the others as everyone saw this as a bigger test. The whole base wanted to play in this one showing everyone we were actually quite good.

I had no idea at the time that this was like a local derby and more of a slug fest than a rugby match. Underhanded thuggery more like it as hand offs were more like punches, actually they were punches. There were so many penalties in this game and there should have been loads more but the referee turned a blind eye to most things unless it was really dangerous. We won this game in the end, but it was not about winning but more of putting up a good fight testing the toughness of the team preparing them for the new season.

Most of the guys I played with were involved in some of the coup's around the world and in Africa. Some of the senior guys had been involved in the botched Seychelles coup when informers tipped off officials that they were on their way. We had all nationalities from English,Irish, South Africans, Zimbabweans and ex Portuguese soldiers from Mozambique. It was an interesting bunch to say the least and one group I am glad to have played with.