On the Brink: 'Freak accident' won't slow Leicester Tigers new backrow brute
Cyle Brink is an obsessive, unabashed adrenaline junkie. As a kid in Johannesburg, he would soup up cars and tear around the bush with his pals, screaming away to discover some new fabled spot for adventure that had been whispered along the boy-racer grapevine. He loves bikes and boats and jet skis and his idea of the perfect day out is juddering around the rugged African expanses in a Land Cruiser.
“We did what we could to the motors to make them as fast as possible,” he says. “I had mates who were mechanics or big into the car scene, so you knew who to take your stuff to.
“You’d hear about a place and decide to go drive out there. Sometimes you’d get there and there’d be nothing, other times it was quite lekka.
“We went all over the place. We enjoyed driving to a big dam about an hour out of Jo’burg, but we’d go anywhere, it didn’t really matter.”
Just occasionally, though, somebody needs to apply the flanker’s brakes.
This year, the destructive brute attacked pre-season with the Lions, longing to reassert himself as one of his country’s premier back-rows after a dreadful spate of injuries. A move to Leicester Tigers was negotiated for the new northern hemisphere season. Then, pop. His ankle blew, and with it, Super Rugby evaporated.
“There was nobody near me, it was a freak accident,” he says. “One minute, it was fine; the next, it was buggered.
“Personally, I could have taken a bit more responsibility because I think I was overtraining at the time. Coming out of a long pre-season, you’re pushing to be as ready as you can, and maybe you are pushing a bit too hard and not investing enough in recovery.
“We’d had a three-month pre-season and I was still focusing so much on training. As a player, you need to find that balance. All the okes that play until they’re 37 or 38 find that balance as quickly as possible.”
When it comes to luck, Brink must have walked under every ladder and booted every black cat from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Two years earlier, days from making his Springboks debut, a team-mate landed on him in training and wrecked his knee. He was still recovering from shoulder nerve damage at the time and suspects the treatment given to ease pressure on the area might in fact have destabilised his joints.
“I was on medication to relax the muscles around that [shoulder] nerve and get it moving and functioning properly again,” Brink says. “That obviously played a role in weakening something in my knee and when we were doing the contact session just before we played Argentina, I went into a tackle with one or two okes and somehow or other it snapped.
“It was a very confusing time. But I had lots of support around me, my parents, family and friends, and that obviously helped. I don’t think I cooked dinner for myself once in that first month of recovery. And then just accepting that everything happens for a reason and maybe it just wasn’t your time. Get better, come back stronger.
“I made a full recovery from that and speaking to the doctor, the way he fixed that knee, it should be stronger than a normal knee.”
The ankle is coming right now too, so that by the time the COVID-19 pandemic eases and Brink can fly to England, he should be almost ready for full-contact training.
At 26, he feels he has done all he can at the Lions, his home union where he came of age and has played for eight years. This was to be his fourth Super Rugby campaign before fate intervened.
Built like a whisky barrel with limbs, Brink is the sort of dynamite-fuelled breakaway who ought to thrive in the English game. He is immensely formidable on the carry and in the tackle and a back-row combination with Jordan Taufua and Hanro Liebenberg is an exhilarating prospect.
“Before I got injured, I felt I needed to do something new – I can’t stay comfortable for the rest of my life or I’m not going to grow,” he says. “You get very set in your ways at one club so you sort of stop growing, you reach your ceiling. It’s almost like it becomes a bit too easy.
“I’ve got probably six to eight years of good rugby left and I felt I needed a change. Earning the pound is a motivating factor for a lot of South Africans but it doesn’t guarantee you’re going to be happy. You’ve got limited time as a player and you need to do and learn as much as you can and take on bigger challenges.
“The fact it was the Tigers didn’t make it too hard. [Former Leicester lock and coach] Richard Blaze was actually out in South Africa a few years ago and we had a sit-down and a chat about the culture and everything there. From then I kept tabs on Tigers and watched them play. When the opportunity came up and I got in contact with coach Steve Borthwick, I was keen to come over and start a new challenge.”
Brink is barely into middle-age as a rugby player, but his rise has undoubtedly been checked by the heinous spree of trauma – shoulder, ankle, knee and more besides.
In 2014, he reached the final of the Junior World Championship with South Africa Under-20. The team was captained by Handre Pollard and lost a pulsating final to England by a point. Among the baby Springboks group were Andre Esterhuizen, Jesse Kriel, Warrick Gelant and a squat young hooker called Malcolm Marx. Plenty of that squad are Boks now. Some are world champions.
“That was an unreal experience, really cool,” Brink says. “And we didn’t have an easy road to the final. We beat the All Blacks U20s twice that season.
“It was special putting on the Bok jersey even at junior ranks, and getting to play next to some of those guys. Out of that junior side, I think 12 or 13 went on to make their proper Springbok debuts. I’d like to be one of the guys that also comes through and makes his debut with them.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Big difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to comments