Growing up playing touch rugby with some boys in Pelican Street in Rosedale, Kariega, taught Springbok Women fullback Byrhandre Dolf how to step past bigger people, hence her dream to meet Cheslin Kolbe, who has perfected that art on the rugby field.
And as soon as Dolf had moved from playing on tar to grass when her talents were recognised, she was invited to play rugby with her peers.
Imagine Dolf’s joy when the Springbok Women and Springboks flew from Johannesburg to Gqeberha on the same flight on Sunday, and she found herself seated next to Kolbe.
As she recalls enthusiastically: “We talked a bit of rugby, and he gave me some stepping tips.”
Since boarding the flight to the Friendly City, Dolf has not stopped smiling.
Not only did she score a wonderful try against Canada in the first Test at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, where she plays her provincial rugby for the Bulls Daisies, but then, after spending some time on the plane with Kolbe, she realised she was home when the plane touched down at the Dawid Stuurman International Airport.
“It was such a great feeling to be back. Rugby takes you to many places, but it also takes you away from home a lot, so for me to come back here was such a great feeling,” she said after the Bok Women completed their second training session of the week.
This focused squarely on a better result than the 50-20 defeat suffered in Pretoria.
“We trained nicely so far, and we actually took some confidence from that game, despite the result.
“We scored three very good tries and realised that the gap between them as number two ranked team in the world, and ourselves is not that big, providing that we limit our soft moments and stay in the fight.”
For Dolf, who made her Test debut against Canada 21 matches ago in 2023, the positives outweigh the negatives coming into the second clash at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
“We focused on playing with more intensity and not having those ‘switched off’ moments, and that already worked well for us at training.
“I am optimistic that we will be a much harder team to break down this weekend,” she said.
Dolf will be playing in the green and gold in front of her family for the first time, especially doing so in front of her grandmother, Lizzie Jantjies, with whom she lived from the age of eight.
“She is going to be there and see me play and that is special, as well as other family and friends,” Dolf said, adding that her previous experience at the iconic city landmark was equally memorable.
“I was already playing rugby at the time and loving it and also doing well, having played for the Eastern Province U16 and U18 teams at the National Girls Weeks.
“In 2021, when the Springboks played against Argentina, I was actually a ball retriever inside the stadium for that match and when I handed Malcolm Marx the ball to throw into the line-out, I was the happiest person ever, being so close to a rugby idol.”
A lot of time has passed since and for Dolf, a lot of accolades have happened.
She captained the Junior Springbok Women in 2022, made her Test debut a year later and went on to play in 21 Tests, scoring seven tries (and one conversion) in the green and gold, and missing only three Tests since that debut.
“That day I gave Malcolm the ball was huge for me and, since then, a lot of good things happened for me in rugby,” she said. — SA Rugby Communications
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