The Silent Assassin

by Dan Retief

Kitch Christie bestowed Ruben Kruger’s nickname upon him in the oddest of places – the lawns in front of the old Elizabeth Hotel in Port Elizabeth. The Springboks were in the city for their 1995 Rugby World Cup match against Canada and Christie, typically breaking with convention, called the team out for an impromptu lineout practice.

I was there reporting for the Sunday Times; working on a profile of the quiet flanker who had established himself as the unobtrusive kingpin in the Springbok pack.

When I had informed Edward Griffiths, the team’s media officer, that I wanted to do a feature on the Free Stater, who as a schoolboy had caught my eye with his unshaven neck and immense presence in the Craven Week, he warned: “I’ll see what I can do. He doesn’t enjoy doing interviews and I don’t think you’ll get much out of him.”

I think being able to speak Afrikaans helped because Kruger did agree to a brief chat – and Griffiths was right, I did not get much out of him!

I needed to pad out the piece so I strolled down to watch the lineout practice to try to grab a quote from Christie.

“Ruben?” he said in that forthright way of his. “You guys (the Press) don’t really know what he does or what his value is to the team but I can tell you he’s indispensable. He’s my silent assassin.”

And there it was. The perfect description of a man who would become one of the great Springboks and the natural headline for the story I wrote.

He became a good friend in the teams I reported on. Humble, unpretentious, never giving anything but his very best.

Years later I had occasion to do a TV profile on him and his charming wife and childhood sweetheart, Lize (before their daughters were born) and he was immensely proud to show me the home he had built her on the Silver Lakes golf estate in Pretoria.

He was shy and didn’t really enjoy being in front of the camera but the day provided an apt insight to who he was. In a cupboard he showed me a collection of all the Springbok jerseys he had ever worn; the shorts, the socks, even the training jerseys and shorts because, as he explained, they were too precious to give away!

During an immense 1995 he was awarded a try by referee Derek Bevan in the “monsoon” semifinal against France in Durban which he admitted might just as easily have been denied (“Sometimes they give them, sometimes they don’t”) but he was adamant that he was robbed of a certain try by Ed Morrison in the Final at Ellis Park.

“There’s just no way it wasn’t a try,” he said. “I had the ball tucked into my chest, Os (du Randt) was shoving me from the right and the other forwards were on my left. When I went over the line I fell on the ball and no-one else got near it,” he explained without a tinge of bitterness.

Sadly after that pinnacle Kruger’s career would be dogged by injury and misfortune.

He had formed a lethal partnership with fellow Free Stater and protégé Andre Venter but suffered a sickening blow when, after scoring a try in the first minute of a Tri-Nations test at Eden Park in Auckland in 1997, he broke a leg while trying to force his way over for another in the 11th minute.

It says much for the esteem in which Kruger was held that when he awoke in hospital early on Sunday morning the first people to visit him were All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick and their coach John Hart.

He fought his way back to be included in the team that went to the World Cup in 1999, although he was unable to unseat Rassie Erasmus at flank or persuade Nick Mallett that he might be a better option than Bob Skinstad at No8 (Gary Teichmann having been unforgivably left at home), and the following season there was the shock discovery of the malignant tumour that he would fight for 10 years.

What a sad irony that this strong and silent man who served Springbok rugby with such pride, dedication and distinction would be taken down by the stealthy killer that also claimed the life of the man who gave him his nickname.

Published by kind permission from SuperSport
(http://www.supersport.com/cricket/columns.aspx?id=8697)