Newly minted Glaswegian understands those that don't want him in a Scottish jersey
Kyle Steyn tells a story about unity, forgiveness and love, the tale of a white South African cop assigned to protect Nelson Mandela amid some of the most volatile days the nation had seen.
The subject of the yarn is Steyn’s father, Rory, a former Johannesburg police officer raised in the days of apartheid and conditioned by division. In 1994, he was hired to lead the security team who watched over the newly-elected president during his five-year term – he knew little of what to expect or what kind of man he had been tasked with guarding.
As it transpired, Rory Steyn had court-side seats to the fusion of a people. He was at Ellis Park when Mandela was greeted by a rapturous frenzy three days after his inauguration.
He ran security for the All Blacks at the 1995 World Cup – and remains convinced they were poisoned the week of their final loss to the Springboks in the most poignant match in rugby history. He famously bundled Mandela and Prince Charles into the back of a Rolls Royce to escape a stampede of clamouring supporters in Brixton.
He saw these huge public events but he was also privy to moments of great spontaneous beauty. The intellect, the humility, the unwavering benevolence of Mandela, whether addressing a gnarled Afrikaner or a gawping child, captivated him. These were values he would impress upon his three boys.
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“My dad worked for a special branch of the police, so he talks about how he was listening to bugged phone lines of people that worked for Mr Mandela, then four years later he was working for Mr Mandela,” Steyn says.
“He learned that Mr Mandela had only taken him on because he’d been working for that branch – Mandela was trying to make an example of his own security team, about how he could get white bodyguards of the old apartheid regime and people who had looked after Mandela all the way through his time in jail to integrate and interact and be a perfectly functioning team.
“Dad openly admits when he was younger he voted for the pro-apartheid party. He said it was incredible to see all the perceptions of Mandela, the way he acted in front of people and behind closed doors were just 100% consistent. The way he treated people, no matter where he was, was just mind-blowing to my dad.
“So certainly growing up, we were under no illusions as to how to be inclusive of everybody and that’s certainly something I’m most thankful to my dad for – having that open mind, I’ve got so many black and white team-mates that have all been great friends.”
The roots of Steyn’s blistering ascent through Scottish rugby were laid in Glasgow long ago. Douglas, his maternal grandfather, was an engineer from Bearsden, the plush city suburb a few miles from Scotstoun, where his grandson has thundered on to the scene as a potent member of the Warriors backline.
Steyn’s mother and her three sisters were born here before Douglas found work in South Africa and emigrated with his brood. “My granddad’s got two brothers, one stayed here in Bearsden and his family still lives here, so I’ve been up there to see him and they showed me the house where they actually grew up, which is cool,” Steyn says.
“My mum’s family is crazy about Flower of Scotland, so putting the TV on for the anthem was almost more of a thing than watching the actual game. The four girls and my gran were interested in the anthem and my granddad and I were interested in the rugby. They’re not good singers at all.
“The Fiji game [in November] was the first game I watched at Murrayfield and hearing Flower of Scotland there was spine-chilling with no music and then the pipes go off…unbelievable.”
Gregor Townsend stumbled across Steyn in almost comical fashion. He was in Bloemfontein to watch Glasgow play the Cheetahs and got chatting to the bloke handing out the sponsor’s man of the match award. The man turned out to be a friend of Rory’s, who said there was a handy young centre captaining the Griquas Currie Cup team and did Townsend know the lad happened to be Scottish-qualified?
Zander Fagerson, Callum Gibbins & Kyle Steyn have been added to our European squad ahead of this month's Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against @Saracens, subject to EPCR confirmation. pic.twitter.com/4sQpLwq0tO
— Glasgow Warriors (@GlasgowWarriors) March 14, 2019
“Gregor passed it on to [Scottish Rugby’s director of rugby] Scott Johnson and [Scotland Sevens coach] John Dalziel. I got a call from Scott Johnson asking if I saw Scotland as the future for me and I said yes from the word go,” Steyn says.
“I got in contact with John and came over last February for a trial period with the sevens, did two weeks’ training and managed to go away with the side to LA and Vancouver. John stayed in contact with me the whole way through the year and eventually I got a sevens contract.”
The goal was always to get a XVs deal and now Steyn has made it happen. At 25, he will be a full-time Glasgow player next season but with Dave Rennie losing so much firepower to the Scotland and to the treatment table, he has started each of the Warriors’ last four PRO14 matches and been among the most impressive performers in every outing. He was even called into the Scotland camp in the last week of the Six Nations amid a heinous spate of injuries.
There was a little anxiety about how his new team-mates would feel about a South African called Steyn fetching up and pulling on a blue jersey. There have been critics too of his rapid elevation to the national squad – not because he’s a poor player or a bad guy, but because it is seen as a slap in the face to those who have learned their rugby in Scotland.
Goodbye message from our Tafel Lager Griqua Captain, Kyle Steyn:
"I have been very privileged to play for Griquas and become apart of its rich history over the last two years. I have learnt many valuable lessons and made special memories and great friends. ..
Read more on FB. pic.twitter.com/dSQdqXX3fJ— Griquas Rugby (@GriquasRugby) October 12, 2018
“I’m here because I want to make a difference to the Warriors, to the sevens, to Scottish rugby as a whole. I understand where those people are coming from but I’m sure we’ve got the same goal – they just want what’s best for Scottish rugby and so do I,” Steyn says.
“My dad actually asked one of the sevens boys about that, in thanking him for the way they welcomed me, and he just said, ‘We’ve got a really small pool of players, a couple of South Africans, a couple of New Zealanders – that’s something we’ve got to adapt to, to help ourselves compete with these teams’.”
By sheer good fortune, Steyn’s parents were able to watch him crashing over for his first Glasgow try on Saturday – fittingly, against the Cheetahs – as they follow their youngest son on a high school rugby tour around Britain. Clan Steyn will descend on Allianz Park this weekend when Glasgow arrive aiming to inflict only Saracens’ fifth home defeat in the Champions Cup for eight years and reach the semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history.
The pair have already contested two ferociously brutal and immensely hot-tempered pool affairs this season. Saracens won both. In the first, at Scotstoun, there was as much collar-grabbing and shunting and off-the-ball verbals as there was rugby. Maro Itoje greeted a disallowed Glasgow try with sarcastic revelry. Rennie sent a clips reel featuring unspotted incidents, errors and reckless clear-outs to the tournament organisers after Mathieu Raynal’s erratic performance with the whistle.
Chuck in the howitzer of a Calcutta Cup draw at Twickenham, in which 11 Saracens and Warriors featured, Ryan Wilson’s antagonistic cameo on a rugby podcast, and Rennie’s midweek assertion that his opponents attempt to compensate for their errors with “a lot of push-and-shove to maybe bring the referee in to change a decision”, and the stage is set for another engrossing, angst-ridden duel.
“We need to put in a really physical performance but mainly it’s just a belief thing, believing we can go down there and get the win,” Steyn says.
“Making the ref aware of what they’re up to and making sure they’re not successful with it is probably the big one. They’re trying to throw us off from achieving something we want to do, and our main focus has got to be that we still want to achieve that. The boys are certainly going to be fired up and nobody will step down.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Nz should have won. I didn't watch the game, but the ref was at fault and the bounce of the ball and the Bokke used the Bomb squad and the Bokke slow the game down and the Bokke scrum. They should remove the scrum. The Bokke are to strong. Not fair. Nz should have won
2 Go to commentsThanks for a much more balanced piece Ned and not that BS that Bin Smuth just posted a short while ago. read this article and then Bin Smuth’s and tell me there isn’t a huge difference🙄
2 Go to commentsWere the Baby Boks part of this game or did the Baby Blacks play themselves?🤔 That man Bin Smuth once again does a little write-up on the game and it is like 95% about the Baby Blacks🤣 Glad he ends off with the Baby Blacks were actually in cruise control for most of the game and weren’t actually playing for the win WTF🤣🤣 Maybe he was expecting the Baby Blacks to run rampant….
1 Go to commentsOne does not expect anything more from Ben Smith who epitomises the worst of New Zealand media arrogance and an inability to balance what he has to say about any team that beats the All Blacks. His reference to context is pathetically thin. He does not comment that Frizell deserved a red card given his blatant manipulation of his body to ensure that he could drop his body weight onto Mbonambi’s lower leg. No mention of the ball lost forward before the All Black’s try (lost in-field of the 5 metre line and gathered beyond). The All Black commitment and effort was superb and there was little in it. Given the Springbok passage to the final and the loss of their hooker in the first three minutes, their resolve and capacity to win their fourth final out of eight attempts (not three out of ten) deserves the praise that has been forthcoming from media around the world, worth reading and listening to. Ben should join his “pundit” friends on TV - he would fit in well. This sort of article reduces any credibility Rugby Pass has ever had. Why persist with this sort of nonsense? The man does his country and a rugby blog a disservice.
187 Go to commentsEtzebeth went on to say: “I would never dream of saying that systems stay in place following a change in captain. To say that would be deeply, deeply, disrespectful of Siya. A while back an Irish person told me they would be fine without Sexton, so I’m just responding to that.”
3 Go to commentsClose games are what we want to see…. What a match it was…. I am sure that everyone was drained by the end of it. The reality of it all there has to be a winner and a loser. The fact that we still talking about it is almost 6 months to the day Rugby is the winner.. Asante sana… Here is to 2027 and what it will bring out.
187 Go to commentsIt’s going to be a good game. COYQ
1 Go to comments“Shock”, the guy was casually saying he was just slightly surprised. Nowadays if you say anything it gets taken completely out of context. Calm down everyone.
156 Go to commentsAll I can say after reading this bitter, sour, sad piece is… Thank you very much! This will be read in the change room just before kick off on 31 August…
187 Go to commentsLook, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
187 Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to commentsReally Rugbypass? Ben Smith I think you forgot what the Springboks did to the All Blacks at Twickenham 8 weeks earlier? Springboks 35 All Blacks 7. There is alot of ifs and buts in your article. The All Blacks threw the sink at the Springboks and unfortunately they were not good enough regardless if they played with 14 men or not. It was the Springboks who forced the All Blacks to make mistakes! Sorry but not Sorry the Springboks is the best ever Rugby World Cup Nation in the world. 4 Cups baby!
187 Go to commentsYou just backed the Boks with that fantastic review! Well done! Have some cake!
187 Go to commentsBen Smith please write up something better than this. The Springboks would have won the world cup if you were 15 men on the field. They would have found a way, they always find a way to beat the All Blacks.
187 Go to commentsWow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the desperation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
187 Go to commentsGOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
3 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
187 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
2 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to comments