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'I’m 31 and never expected this' - The Scot living the Belgian dream
Ryan Godsmark was deliriously overjoyed in the wake of last Sunday’s triumph by Belgium in the second leg of the 2023 Challenger Series tournament in Stellenbosch. The Scotsman’s adopted European team had arrived at the qualifying tournament as outsiders – yet they departed as week two champions and only narrowly fell short of overall champions Tonga on the aggregate points, 38 to 34, which qualified the Pacific Islanders for this month’s London Sevens and a shot at making next season’s World Series.
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With shape-throwing music pumping out through their boombox and players taking shiny happy people selfies with the trophy in the post-final aftermath in the Paul Roos Gimnasium at the Markotter Stadium, Godsmark took a fleeting break from all the delightful horseplay to put into perspective what had just unfolded.
The Belgians have been quietly working their way up through the backwater sevens circuit in recent times, progressing from Rugby Europe Sevens Trophy level to Championship level and they even secured a playoff match with Wales for a place at last September’s Rugby World Cup (they lost 24-12 in Bucharest). However, beating Tonga in a Challenger Series final was fairy tale stuff in Stellenbosch.
“It’s just class,” enthused Godsmark to RugbyPass, his jersey off and a towel around his waist while preparing to get ready for the commute back to Cape Town for an unexpected night of celebration. “We came into the tournament not really expecting anything. We didn’t have a lot of preparation, but we have a good group of boys.
“Just to get even get into the semi-finals was a bit of a shock, but we beat Chile, got into the final and now we have won. All the boys didn’t expect it to happen but everything we worked towards in these two weeks, a small amount of time, has just been amazing.
BREAKING: It’a delight for Belgium ?? in Stellenbosch after their #7sChallengerSeries men’s final versus Tonga ?? went down to the wire #WorldRugby7s #HSBC7 pic.twitter.com/QUmTQDqWJV
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 30, 2023
“We are probably the most amateur of all the (12) teams here. We got together a weekend before we left, did a preparation weekend and that was it. This is as good as it gets really. We had the grand prix series to prove that even with the little funding that we got, we have a group of guys that have got something pretty special and we can do results.
“Other teams are looking at us to see what we are doing differently – and we are not doing anything different. It’s just a good group of guys and we know how to play for each other. It’s a real band of brothers and it worked.
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“We came in not serious. We wanted to do results, but we wanted to play for each other and this was really the gift that we gave ourselves – to spend these two weeks in South Africa because of all the hard work we did in the Trophy to get promoted to GPS. To then do a good result in GPS and obviously into this, it’s just crazy. We didn’t think it was going to happen. It is just amazing.”
The 31-year-old scrum-half is a happily accidental international player. A desire to travel and play rugby abroad originally took Godsmark across the Channel and a teaching job in Brussels was secured through contacts made when playing the game. He has since played Test and sevens internationally for Belgium and represented the Brussels Devils in the Super Cup – an exposure that makes all the sacrifice on his unpaid time worthwhile.
“I’m a PE teacher at the British School in Brussels and I’m going straight to work on Tuesday morning after we arrive off the flight from South Africa – so six o’clock I arrive, nine o’clock I will be teaching. I was travelling just to play rugby and it was through rugby that I got a job and I have been there for five years,” he explained.
“You have only one guy here (with the sevens) who plays rugby in France and is paid for it. It’s Jens Torfs, he plays in Nice. The rest of us? We have got two accountants, we have a strength conditioning coach, we have got salesmen, a student… I’m 31 and never expected this, not with Belgium anyway. I have still got another few years left in me, but this Challenger Series win will be a good memory. We will take as many photos as possible and we will really enjoy the celebrations.”
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Good ticker has taken the Belgians a long way compared to better-resourced unions such as Germany, the week one beaten finalists in Stellenbosch and the week two beaten semi-finalists. “If we could train full-time it would be amazing. Boys would leave their jobs and train full-time but we haven’t got the funding, we haven’t got the help that we need.
“The Belgian league is trying to do as much as it can but there is only so much it can do. It’s a case of organisation. You can see the difference between Germany and us. Although we got further than Germany, they are a really organised team – but it is one of our strengths to be amateur because we don’t expect too much. We know everything we do is for all of us.
“We say to each other, ‘We are paid by each other’ and that is our little thing. We make sacrifices. For example, I took two weeks’ holidays, I’m not paid to be here. All these other guys are not paid to be here, they lose money, but it is all about the experience.”
Belgium were one of just three countries at the Challenger Series with representation in both the 12-team men’s and women’s competitions. Their women’s team also thrived, reaching the final on both weekends and coming within a try after the buzzer of defeating the Springboks in the second-leg decider.
It’s encouraging but with men’s coach Youssef Driss now finishing up with the team, the question now is what comes next. “The sevens is very much on the up,” continued Godsmark despite the music pumping through his team’s sound system as the celebrations continued in Stellenbosch.
“The feminine sevens have been great. I feel for them (losing the finals) because they put a lot of hard work in. Now they are on the stepping stone, they have got five contracted players on half-time contracts, they have got a bit of funding behind them and that is through sponsors.
“Sevens is really the performer for Belgium. XVs, we are not doing so good but the sevens programme is doing well. We don’t even play sevens in the country – but we have got a great coach and he is really well-organised and knows how to coach. It is unfortunate that this is his last tournament, so we don’t know what is going to happen.”
Belgium ?? ? #7sChallengerSeries pic.twitter.com/NhjT2tbBi8
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 30, 2023
Comments on RugbyPass
Both nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
1 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to comments