RUGBY NEWS - Thomas du Toit and Wilco Louw have known each other long enough and have competed against and with each other often enough to have a healthy respect for each other’s abilities, and they also consider themselves friends, but there won’t be any love lost between the pair in Saturday’s Currie Cup final.
Western Province tighthead Louw will travel to Durban for the decider recognised as a big threat to the Sharks’ chances of advancing. He was a key man in the WP scrum that bossed the Golden Lions in the semifinal, and his single appearance for the Springboks as a replacement against the All Blacks did nothing to diminish his burgeoning reputation.
But then Du Toit, the 136 kilogram behemoth, who competed against Louw at athletics strong man events when they were schoolboys in the Boland, is a player who also boasts a fine reputation as a strongman. Even though, like Louw, he is still relatively young for a player in his position (Louw is a couple of months older and is officially 23 against the 22 of Du Toit).
“Yes, me and Wilco go back some way,” said Du Toit of a player he pitted his strength against for the first time when he was playing for Paarl Boys High against Louw’s HST Drostdy from Worcester.
“We met up again in the SA under-20 team and have stayed mates since then. We have been members of the cauliflower brotherhood for some time. We shared a room at the Bok camp recently. If anything, I want to shut him up on Saturday because he kept me awake with his snoring.”
Jokes will be swept aside though, come kick-off on Saturday, and Du Toit knows that Louw is part of a WP scrumming unit that deserves respect.
