Springbok centre Gcobani Bobo arrived in Newcastle last weekend, finally completing his move from Western Province, and says he could not have been more impressed with what he has seen.
From rugby365
The 29-year-old is in Tyneside to tackle his new Guinness Premiership challenge, declaring himself extremely pleased with matters both on and off the field at Kingston Park.
“I arrived on Sunday and was straight into training on Monday, which was good because I wanted to get running with the boys right from day one,” says Bobo, the Western Province captain who starred for the Stormers at Super 14 level and faced the British and Irish Lions back in June.
“I’ve been very happy with the whole set-up here, which I think is excellent. I was dreading the English mud when I first came, so it was a bit of a shock to get to the training ground and find this absolutely unbelievable plastic pitch. It’s a really first class surface like nothing I’ve ever experienced before, so that’s something new, and especially in winter we’ll really feel the benefits of that.
“The strength and conditioning set-up here is superb, definitely right up there with the very best international teams in the world, and that’s going to be so important for us in such a physical league as the Guinness Premiership.
“On the rugby philosophy I really believe in the way that Steve Bates and Alan Tait see the game. It’s exactly how I think rugby should be played, and if you add all of these things together then you start to get a pretty strong feeling of how good we can be this season.”
Explaining a rugby journey which saw him go from schoolboy flank to international centre, Bobo says: “To represent your country is always a great thing with the pride it gives your family and the people who have had influence on your life, and in my situation I also felt it offered some encouragement to guys from my kind of background who hadn’t had that chance in the past.
“I captained South Africa Under-17s in 1996, when professional rugby was just starting to come about, and after captaining the national Under-19s me and my mate from school made a promise to each other that we wanted to go pro and really throw everything in to it. I was still playing openside flanker in those days, chasing the ball around and loving it!”
With a nine-year first class career in his homeland and six Springbok caps to his name, Bobo admits the fire in his belly has been reignited by his latest challenge.
“I feel like a new boy at a new school on my first day, trying to find new mates when everyone else has already had a few weeks to get to know one another, but I needn’t have worried because everyone has gone out of their way to help me fit in,” he says.
“For me after nine years in South African rugby it’s just refreshing to hear some different voices, new ideas and some different philosophies on how rugby should be played. I’m looking at it as a new challenge, I’m so excited even at 29 years old and I just want to get into it. This is a new stage of my life and my rugby, and I’m very much looking forward to it.
“Looking at the league there are a lot of quality teams and great players, so it’s a great stage on which to judge your talent and learn about yourself and your team mates. We get the games on South African TV, so it’s not something that’s a totally unknown quantity, and I’m already pretty familiar with a lot of the teams we’ll be up against.”
Already settling into his new environment, Bobo has found assistance from some familiar faces at Super 14 level, as he acclimatises to life in the north east.
“I’ve moved in to the house where Jimmy Gopperth was for his first few weeks till I get sorted, and it’s great because he’s just around the corner and has been chauffeuring me around the city every day!
“Yesterday we had a team outing to Barnard Castle School in the County Durham countryside, which was great fun and a different vibe from our day-to-day training here at the club. We trained there in the morning with the kids watching us, and then in the afternoon we coached them, so it was good to meet some of the locals and feel a bit of the passion that there is for rugby in this area.”
With a busy summer seeing Bobo up against some stellar opponents in the British and Irish Lions for his final Western Province outing, he recalls: “It was an awesome experience to play against the Lions, although the weather wasn’t great with all the rain in Cape Town.
“Funnily enough all the Lions fans decided to take their tops off and go bare-chested to the game even in the cold, so when we all emerged from the tunnel in our hoodies we thought it was hilarious to see these guys!
“That sort of thing made sure it was great spirits in the game and around the stadium, but it was just a shame that we lost with the last kick by James Hook, who had a great match. After the final whistle I swapped shirts with Ugo Monye, and when I signed for the Falcons I gave Ugo a call to say ‘hey buddy, I’ll see you up in Newcastle!’”
Having had his own passage to the UK delayed by a month due to red tape, however, he reveals: “Getting over here was a bit of an ordeal, to be honest, because I had to sit an English exam to get my visa and work permit.
“I hadn’t sat in a classroom for over ten years, but I had to write essays, sit interviews and take comprehension exercises just to get in the country. It was strange to say the least, and having sat the exams to then have to wait a few weeks for my papers was extremely frustrating when I knew the boys over here were already together and training as a team.
“Luckily I kept in touch with everything that was going on via the official website of the club, so in that sense I still felt a part of things, but to be training on my own back home waiting for my visa was a little bit annoying at the time. Even though I’ve only just arrived I feel like I know what’s going on here, because I’ve been reading interviews on the website with the coaches and players, talking about their beliefs and ambitions and how they want to go about things.
“There are a lot of different competitions up here, but everyone at the club seems focused on the Guinness Premiership and really targeting that as the main goal for the season. We see ourselves as being very competitive in that league and really capable of achieving a good position.”
Taking the pragmatic approach, he adds: “You can do as much work and talk things up at this time of year, but until you get on the field and win some games it’s kind of academic. Only that match scenario will show us the real grit and hunger of this team, and everyone is really looking forward to the game in Ulster on August 21.
“What’s nice for this new group is that we have a chance to build something new together for this club, and the pressure is on each and every one of us to make Newcastle as successful as it can be for the fans. I can only see it as a good thing, because people are being taken out of their comfort zones and really trying to amp it up a bit.”
As one of a host of newcomers replacing some familiar faces at Kingston Park, Bobo insists he is his well and truly his own man.
“For me that’s just not an issue at all, because I’m a totally different person from anyone that was here before.
“I’m a new character on this scene, and I will bring my own style to it. The guys who went before have paved the way with some of the things they’ve done for this club, I know how much it means to everyone and hopefully in a few years I’ll be remembered in my own right for what I did in a Falcons jersey.”
Revealing a nervous energy around his new move, he adds: “I actually felt it for the first time today when I put on my kit for the team photograph and walked down the tunnel on to the field, the butterflies were going a bit.
“It’s not the first time for me though, because I played at Kingston Park for the Cats back in 2003 during a Super 12 warm-up alongside Russell Winter and against Warren Britz. We had snow, ice and everything that night, so I know what to expect and I can’t wait for it all to start.”
With thanks to Newcastle.
