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'All that went through my mind was take everything, don't shoot my brother and my friend'

By Chris Jones
(Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

Gloucester flanker Ruan Ackermann has revealed he sought help to deal with the flashbacks he endured following a frightening gunpoint robbery on a recent trip back to South Africa.

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Ackermann, son of Gloucester director of rugby Johan, was in Pretoria for a short break with his brother when three men, who had followed their car, held them up and put guns to their heads.

Ackermann had his money, credit cards and visa to be in England stolen which meant he had to arrange a new short term visa to allow him to continue his rugby career in Gloucester.

Ackerman, 24, has been able to get help from Pete Wynter, part of the Gloucester coaching staff, to deal with the flashbacks of the incident and is now able to sleep without interruption. He spoke of the mental trauma created by the holdup as Gloucester prepared for Friday night’s match with Sale at Kingsholm that is designed to shine a light on Mental Health, raise awareness and promote kindness through the #BeKind campaign.

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The Gloucester Rugby Foundation has teamed up with the Samaritans to raise awareness of Mental Health and generate funds for the Gloucester & District Samaritans. The move followed Danny Cipriani, the Gloucester and England outside half, using social media to highlight his own battles with mental health issues following the death of his former girlfriend Caroline Flack, the television presenter.

Ackermann returned to Pretoria at the end of January when the incident happened and said: “After I got back into my routine in Gloucester I started getting flashbacks as I was sleeping thinking about what if they had shot me or my brother? It plays in your head and I spoke to my Dad about if I should speak to someone. We have Pete (Wynter) at the club who speaks about psychology with the team and I talked to him after the Exeter game about what happened and have seen him a couple of times.

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“Things have settled down but if someone does sneak up on me at the angle they guy came at me then I will get a bit of a fright. I am able to sleep through the night now and I park my car without worrying.”

The police in Pretoria are still investigating the hold-up and Ackermann is in daily contact with the officer dealing with the incident. He added: “We took my brother out for lunch and then drove to the hotel and as we got there a guy put a gun to my head and told me to turn off the car. My brother had a gun to his head and my friend behind me also had a gun on him. All that went through my mind was take everything, don’t shoot my brother and my friend, take the car not our lives.

“They took everything and that included visas and permits to get back ( into Britain) and I had to get back for training and then the Exeter game and what was supposed to be a week chilling with my family turned into a dramatic, scary incident and realising how quickly your life can be taken from you.”

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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