How the Irish rumour mill inevitably followed Grobler to Gloucester
What is it about Gerbrandt Grobler and whispers? A UK newspaper interview last August resulted in him branding Ireland as ‘unfortunately a small place and a lot of people talk’. Five months later, tongues are apparently wagging in the latest small place to have given him employment.
Gloucester was supposed to be his place of refuge following the Irish media debacle that apparently cost him what he claimed was a three-year contract extension offer. Now there is small talk on the Kingsholm terraces that the South African hasn’t settled in the English south west and wants out. How curious.
It didn’t appear that way when he retweeted a December 1 Gloucester RFC picture of him smiling and standing shoulder to shoulder with Cherry and White supporters in the famed Shed while watching the derby win over Worcester.
A week later, those same followers were cheering Grobler to the hilt as led his team’s tackle count leader in their away ambush of Exeter in the Champions Cup. That, though, was as good as his December got.
A five-minute run off the bench was all he was given when Gloucester lost the return leg by a dozen points. He was then nowhere to be seen in the league outings either side of Christmas versus Newcastle and Sale, only returning to action last week at Leicester after Tom Savage was banned for a fortnight for dangerous rucking against the Sharks.
Local Gloucester media wanted answers for his exclusion, claiming there were rumours he had struggled to settle at the club since his switch from Ireland to England last summer. They got them.
Coach Johan Ackermann insisted there was nothing sinister going on, claiming Grobler’s absence was simply due to the lock losing out in selection to Ed Slater, Savage and recent arrival Franco Mosert.
‘Gerbrandt is great for the squad. He’s trained with a great attitude for the last couple of weeks regardless of whether he’s involved or not. In my view he’s happy here, he’s settled.
‘He’s settled in well. He’s obviously competitive so any player we don’t select on a weekly basis is in my office and they want to know when they can play. Nothing’s different with Gerbrandt. He’s an ambitious guy, he wants to play every week.’
He’ll get plenty game time Friday night after being chosen to start in the pack’s engine room against Munster, and when the Champions Cup dust settles over the weekend he can at least reflect that these latest headlines surrounding him are rather mild compared to a year ago.
The English media now following his career are never going to crusade against Grobler given how Gloucester’s coach is cut from the same cloth, someone who served a doping ban in his own playing days (Ackermann was banned for two years in 1997 for use of the prohibited anabolic steroid nandrolone. In sharp contrast, Grobler was at the heart of the belated firestorm last January that resulted in the IRFU’s zero tolerance policy on drugs in rugby going up in smoke.
The controversy should have ignited six months earlier when Munster first revealed they were signing for the 2017/18 season the convicted doper banned for two years for taking the prohibited anabolic steroid drostanolone while at the Stormers in South Africa. However, the announcement, made the day before the Lions played their series decider against New Zealand in Auckland, fell between the cracks and the issue was completely forgotten about when Grobler needed surgery following injury in a pre-season friendly. Only when he was declared fit did a full-blown quarrel break out.
It caught his employers on the hop and left them scrambling for answers to awkward questions they should have pre-rehearsed the previous summer when the South African’s signature was first secured. It was quite the sight watching Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray fielding uncomfortable questions about Grobler in a week when their focus should have totally been on a Champions Cup assignment at Racing.
Quite the sight, too, to witness IRFU chief Philip Browne’s discomfort when the hot topic of Grobler’s employment in Irish rugby hijacked the media conference accompanying the announcement that Aviva was extending its naming rights deal at redeveloped Lansdowne Road.
Browne left the building that day suggesting changes would be afoot. ‘Will we consider how we’ll deal with a similar situation in the future? The answer is yes,’ he said, only to have those words rebuffed five months later by performance boss David Nucifora’s insistance that ’it wouldn’t be smart to put a stamp and say, “Anyone who has had a doping conviction cannot play rugby here”. That wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever.’
This open door stance jarred. This was the same IRFU that had regularly supported World Rugby’s ‘Keep Rugby Clean’ campaigns, getting its players to wear t-shirts promoting this slogan.
The same IRFU that only a couple of months previously acted decisively in tearing up the contracts of Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding, despite the pair being exonerated in a court of law following a rape trial.
Nucifora’s admission went against the grain of the anti-performance enhancing drugs message that the IRFU percolates down all the way to grassroots to where the stars of tomorrow are dreaming of making it big.
Damaging drugs headlines are rare in Irish rugby. Two of the three players who failed a test in 1998 even had their anonymity protected. Only the name of Tom Tierney, found by an independent tribunal to have made a naive mistake worthy of only a reprimand and not a sanction, made it into the public domain.
Then came the 2003 appeal exoneration on a technicality of Frankie Sheahan. The asthmatic had been banned for two years for testing positive for excessive anabolic salbutamol levels following Munster’s European semi-final defeat to Toulouse.
Two years later, Ulster’s Rowan Frost was suspended for two months after cannabis traces were found in his system. Other than that, though, the trail had been cold in the pro ranks until Grobler unwittingly breezed into town, his signing very much out of kilter with the IRFU’s Spirit of Rugby campaign which this Sunday has a conference planned for Aviva Stadium that will be opened by Joe Schmidt.
Grobler’s stay was eventually short-lived, the Irish media’s frenzy resulting in him getting fed up of his grubby past being raked over. But this sudden backlash regarding doping in rugby had dark consequences other than the South African leaving Ireland.
By September there were whispers swirling around Murray’s absence from the rugby field. He had innocently kept precise details of a neck injury from the public, but the tactic backfired.
‘The toughest part of this was the outside rumours that my friends and family would hear,’ he said this week when delivering a motivational talk to the Irish Defence Forces which was reported by the Limerick Leader.
‘Crazy stuff that I’d failed all sorts of drugs tests and they were just keeping it under wraps and letting me serve my ban. That kind of hurt a little bit.’
Small place. A lot of people talking about doping in rugby, alleged or otherwise. It’s the Grobler legacy a year on from January 2018.
Comments on RugbyPass
Think you might have written this just before the Brumbies got thrashed last weekend
5 Go to commentsI really do believe that Billy Proctor should be selected at least in the larger squad but also it would be my choice at 13, much more a center than Ioane who can still play at wing. Roigard if fit should play, otherwise it should be Perenara or Christie. Also, Iose could deserve a spot at blindside. Of course, being a Canes supporter I’m biased but I really believe that at least Billy P is deserving a chance and being Holland one of the Selectors, I’m having a little hope he could grab it.
12 Go to commentsI would not play Swinton I’d pick Wright or Hanigan. The rest are decent starters, but can’t agree on any subs except Tupou. My take on the subs: Gibbon, Ueslese, Tupou, LSL, Wilson, White, Will Harrison, and Petaia.
5 Go to commentsSBW the biggest moron to pull on a black jersey a park footy player at best
7 Go to commentsSBW is fast becoming a laughing stock, his misplaced comments & lack of insight Is actually pretty sad.
7 Go to commentsJust well you guys are couch 🛋 potatoes selector's, picking a team of greenhorns to play England! “What are you people smoking?” The halfbacks will be Christie, Fakatava, Perenara Props; Newell, Bower, Lomax, Tunga'fasi, Hookers; Asosa Amua when fit, Taylor, Samisoni,
12 Go to commentsQuite frankly, all this is a bit pathetic. The first time Wales get the Wooden Spoon in 21 years and everyone is on the bandwagon for a ‘play-off’ game. Wales have no obligation to Georgia and no obligation to the rest of the Six Nations to play such a game. If they want Georgia in so badly then they need to include South Africa into a Northern Hemisphere competition with 2 leagues of 4 teams with the top 2 competing for the Championship. Sadly, this will end Triple Crowns and Grand Slams forever. Is this really what you want?
4 Go to commentsI think Finau to start Blackadder to come on. Poss Prokter instead of Ioane, haven't seen much from Reiko so far this year.
12 Go to commentsJoe will have had a good chat with Dave Rennie, a smart move to begin with while it’s doubtful Fast Eddie will be consulted? Plenty of Aus players hitting top form so they should go OK.
5 Go to commentsMmm. Not sure I like this article or see it as necessary.
7 Go to commentsBlackadder but no Finau! 😀 It’s Razor so you are probably right, plus Taylor at 2…
12 Go to commentsThe strongest possible AB side would actually include Aaron Smith, Bodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Leicester Fainga'anuku, Shannon Frizzel.. don’t get me started on the rest of the injury hit brigade that got flung on the heap so left. Many a whole not getting filled as of yet.
12 Go to commentsI don’t think anyone knows what Schmidt will do, one thing is certain it ain’t gonna be all the picks we on the keyboard will think. My impression of him is that he will be looking at who can step up and what is the best combination. He will ignore individuals as he looks for guys who can build a powerful team and not just guys who can make a flashy run or ignore the winger as they want to score themselves.
5 Go to commentsSome dumb selections there. Not Porecki Not Donaldson Not Gordon Not Lonegran - both Not Nic White - Fines instead Not Liam Wright Not Paisami Definitely not Vunivalu Other than that not bad.
5 Go to commentsI've never been convinced that Patty T is a test match all black. Otherwise I probably agree it's the best side available to beat the poms. Caveat that Codie Taylor is yet to be seen and could very likely warrant selection by June. I hope that Razor brings the young loosies, half backs and locks into the training squad and develops/ selects the best
12 Go to commentsYou doing the same thing I disliked about the example of Samisoni Taukei'aho, Nick. He’s great the way he is, you’re trying to do what modern-day coaches frustrate me doing, turning everyone into the perfect athlete. Next thing you’ll be telling me you’ll bench him until he’s hit that arbitrary marker, and can’t overtake the current guy who’s doing all his workons. He’s a young Kieran Read, through and through, plays wide and has threat, mainly (and evident in your clips) through his two hand carry and speed. Just let him work on that, or whatever he wants, and determine his own future. Play God and you risk the players going sideways, like Read did, instead of being a Toutai Kefu. I mean I was in the same camp for a while, wanting our tight five to have the size, and carry ability, as the teams they were getting beat by. Now I’m starting to believe those teams just have better skilled and practiced individuals, bigger by upwards of 5kg sometimes, sure, but more influentially they have those intrinsic skills of trust and awareness. Basically our guys just didn’t know wtf they were doing. Don’t think I’m trying to prove a point here but hasn’t Caleb Clarke been in much better form this year, or does he just ‘look’ better now that he’s not always trying to use his size?
45 Go to commentsThe pack lacks a little in height for the line out and I wouldn’t be completely convinced by some of the combinations till we see it in action.
12 Go to commentsThe side is good but lacks experience. International playing bona fides udually trumps super rugby form for good reason. And incumbents are usually stuck with. Codie Taylor should start or come off the bench. B Barrett will start at fullback. Blackadder has not earned the position, Finau has. TJs experience and competitiveness earns him a starting role, Christie or Ratima off the bench
12 Go to commentsPretty good side. Scott Barrett should be the captain. Ethan Blackadder a great choice at blindside. He is going to go from strength to strength having made a couple of starts for the Crusaders. Scott Robertson rates him highly. Perenara could start a no 9.
12 Go to commentsI question and with respect. Was enough done over the last few years to bring through new blood knowing the Whitelocks and co couldn’t last forever. There should have been more done to future proof the team. New squad new coach, he and they weren’t set up well. IMO
6 Go to comments