Dan Vickerman learned his rugby in South Africa, but reached the top with the Wallabies, writes SIMON BORCHARDT.
Australian rugby owes Bishops a debt of gratitude. Were it not for the Cape Town school, and rugby coaches Paul Dobson and Leonard Kaplan in particular, Dan Vickerman would probably not have gone on to play professional rugby at all, let alone 63 Tests for his adopted nation.
‘Daniel was an undisciplined kid at school and I think it was rugby that gave him that direction,’ recalled Dobson in an interview with SA Rugby magazine in 2002, four months before Vickerman made his Test debut for Australia.
‘He was a bit rough before he started playing rugby seriously.’
Dobson, who promoted Vickerman to the Bishops U15A team, said it was obvious he would settle into the second row.
‘He was extremely tall, with big feet – generally a lock through and through. What I remember about him was his fierce loyalty to the team and the other players.
‘At school level he was an aggressive player, but he learned to channel that aggression. I had a lot of time for him and I’m not surprised he has gone on to bigger things.’
Vickerman, a ball boy at Newlands during his school days, went on to play for Western Province U21 in 1998 and made his debut for the senior team in a Vodacom Cup match against Border in 1999.
In July that year, Vickerman played for the Baby Boks, who lifted the Sanzar/UAR U21 Championship trophy in Buenos Aires after beating New Zealand 27-25 in the final. His teammates that day included De Wet Barry, Wayne Julies, Jaco van der Westhuyzen, Shaun Sowerby, Gerrie Britz, John Smit, Hanyani Shimange and Lawrence Sephaka, all of whom would go on to play for the Springboks.
But that was the last time Vickerman would wear the green and gold. His parents emigrated to Australia in late-1999 and he opted to join them the following year. While Western Province made him an offer to stay, his mind was made up and in 2000 he wore a gold jersey at the Sanzar/UAR U21 Championship.
Vickerman first attracted attention Down Under at club level for Sydney University, but it was the Canberra-based Brumbies, and not the Waratahs, who snapped him up.
‘The Waratahs never expressed any interest in me, so there was no question of ever playing for them,’ he recalled before the Brumbies’ Super 12 match against the Stormers at Newlands in 2002. ‘In any event, I admired the Brumbies’ approach to the game and my heart was set on playing for them.’
The Brumbies went on to beat the Stormers 36-15, with Vickerman and second-row partner Justin Harrison winning their lineout battle against Hottie Louw and Quinton Davids. At the time, then-Stormers coach Gert Smal had still not forgiven the player for leaving the Cape.
‘I did not coach Vickerman, because he left during the off-season before I took up my position with Western Province. But I had watched him play and was very upset at his decision to leave. [WP Rugby managing director] Rob Wagner and I met with him and tried hard to keep him in Cape Town. We felt he had the potential to become one of our great locks.’
Vickerman went on to win the first of 63 Test caps against France in Sydney that June.
‘I played about 25 minutes [off the bench],’ he recalled after retiring from the game in 2012. ‘Sharpie [Nathan Sharpe] and I were interchanging, with Justin Harrison calling the lineouts. I have fond memories [of the game] … I almost got binned after having a wrestle with a French hooker, but it was all good … I never thought [my Test career] would go on for as long as it did after that.’
Vickerman would have played more than 63 Tests had he not moved to England in late-2008 to study land economy at Cambridge University, effectively making himself unavailable for the Wallabies for the next two seasons.
He returned to Australia in 2011 at the tail-end of Super Rugby, and only played a couple of games for the Waratahs (who he had first joined from the Brumbies in 2004), but did enough to earn a Wallabies recall.
Vickerman went on to make his third appearance at a World Cup and started the quarter-final against the Springboks in Wellington, which Australia won 11-9.
In 2012, a persistent leg injury which had sidelined him for Super Rugby, forced him to hang up his boots. When asked how difficult it would be for him to watch the Wallabies from the sidelines as an ex-player, Vickerman said: ‘I don’t know if it’ll be tough, I’ve had my turn. I’ll just be supporting them as their No 1 fan. I’ll just be looking forward to them doing well, because I’m a proud Wallaby.’
However, as Owen Finegan revealed after his ex-teammate’s death, Vickerman struggled to adjust to life after rugby, and it may have led to his suicide on 18 February. He left behind wife Sarah and two young boys.
‘I think everyone was shocked by it,’ said Finegan. ‘It was devastating – we all play on an old-boys team called the Silver Foxes and Dan had expressed a number of times how difficult his transition was. It is difficult for a lot of professional sports people, especially when you’ve had 10 or more years at the top of the game.’
Judging from the flood of Twitter tributes, Vickerman will be remembered for the way he played the game and lived his life, rather than how he died.
One of the tributes came from his school, Bishops: ‘We are devastated to hear the news of the untimely passing of old boy Dan Vickerman. Dan played 63 Tests for Australia. He was 37. Rest in peace.’
VICKERMAN'S TEST CAREER IN NUMBERS
777 – Wallabies number
63 – Test caps
41 – Test starts
13 – World Cup matches
26 – Tri-Nations matches
60 – Test win percentage
20 – Matches for Brumbies
58 – Matches for Waratahs
6 – Super Rugby tries
LIFE AFTER RUGBY
Dan Vickerman struggled to make the transition from professional rugby player to regular working man, but he did prepare for it, as the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
He studied land economy at Cambridge University for three years during his career, and after retiring from rugby, spent four years in the property development industry.
Last year, he became chair of a joint Australian Rugby Union and Rugby Union Players’ Association committee dedicated to player development, and had recently accepted a new role with funds manager Newgate Capital Partners.
There was possibly more to Vickerman’s death, but it has highlighted the need for the game to help players move on.
‘We do take this issue very, very seriously and this tragic incident will cause us as a game to ensure we are doing everything possible to work with players,’ said ARU chairman Cameron Clyne. ‘We’ve offered [help] immediately to players who are impacted, and coaches, but it will cause us to shine a light on this very important issue.’
– This article first appeared in the April 2017 issue of SA Rugby magazine
