Captain Krige goes hunting

By WYNNE GRAY

Given a day off training this week, Springbok captain Corne Krige went bush.

While many of his team-mates went shopping or lazed around their Dunedin hotel, Krige and a couple of others travelled about an hour to sample some of the local hunting opportunities.

A few mountain goats and wild turkeys felt the Springboks' deadly fire in a day Krige will always remember. His only concession in the buildup to tonight's test at Carisbrook was to travel by four-wheel-drive to save his legs.

"It was pretty tough terrain and it would have been great to have tramped a lot of it, but we had to think of the test, too," he said.

"We went with a couple of locals out on a farm and they do a lot of fishing there, so next time I get back here I want to go and do that.

"Too often we come here and don't get a chance to do much outside the rugby.

"At some stage I just want to come back to New Zealand to explore the outdoors. My wife [Justine] loves adventure racing and mountain biking, so I would love to bring her out here to do that while I go out into the bush."

Hunting and fishing are as much a passion for Krige as his high-profile career as South Africa's rugby leader. Had he not been a rugby player, he would have chosen to be a professional hunter.

His enthusiasm for the outdoor life was instilled as a child growing up in Zambia before he was shipped off to a boarding-school education in Cape Town when he was seven.

"I only saw my parents twice a year and I grew up away from my family. They had no choice because schools in Zambia were not great.

"It was tough for them and me, but it was how I learned to fend for myself. It developed my determination and single-mindedness.

"It was survival of the fittest at that age and it taught me to stand on my own two feet."

Krige likes to return to Zambia to hunt, but he said there were good bird targets not far out of Cape Town that allowed him to test his small-calibre firearms skill.

On a trip back to Zambia, he shot a buffalo, his largest kill, but was pilloried in South Africa by nature-lovers.

"It appeared in an editorial and people went a little berserk, so I am a little wary about talking about it too much. It is a passion of mine, but I want to keep it a little more low-key."

His attention is squarely set on tonight and extracting a better performance from his team than their last two tests.

"I always expect a lot, but I don't always get what I expect."

It was an important international, the last the Springboks had before they turned their attention to the World Cup, he said.

Krige has played one test at Carisbrook, in 1999, when the Springboks lost 28-0 and the captain damaged his knee ligaments so badly he missed the World Cup.

A quietly-spoken man, Krige is not massive at 98kg, but he is very resilient and very driven.

Knee, shoulder, hand and facial injuries have robbed him of nearly two seasons of rugby, but he dismisses those as part of his work.

"There are a few bones I haven't broken, but I am not going to specify those, in case," he said.

"I have my plans and you always expect injuries, but at some stage I will say that is enough and I will retire."

Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli always wanted the 28-year-old flanker as his national captain.

"Corne has been a leader ever since he played the game of rugby." Straeuli said. "He always wanted to do the job.

"He is very passionate about the game and Springbok rugby, and he is one of those kinds of people like Morne du Plessis who is a superb leader. He makes good decisions, he has good rapport with match officials and the respect of all his team-mates.

"If I was to relate him to a New Zealand player, he would be very much like Todd Blackadder."