David O’Sullivan: The Triumph of the Overachiever

By David O’Sullivan

David O'Sullivan
David O’Sullivan

Whatever the outcome of Saturday’s Super Rugby final between the Hurricanes and the Lions in Wellington, the South African team will celebrate a season in which they have overachieved. Consider where they were three years ago – relegated from the competition, without a sponsor, and trying to organise pick-up matches in the ill-fated Lions Challenge Series to keep the players active.

But the hard times galvanised the players. As Jaco Kriel said last week after the semi-final victory over the Highlanders, this team is “a brotherhood, it’s a family, we really care for each other, we will fight for each other, and I believe it’s one of the secrets of the team.”

They could have sulked about the relegation in 2013, which certainly stung. But they opted to build the team. Coach Johan Ackermann said the decision to train at school fields and play games at clubs like Alberton and Pirates were done so that the players could learn to appreciate what they have.

The Lions won re-entry into Super Rugby by a slender two-point margin over the Kings and have never looked back. They finished third from bottom in their first year back and 8th the following year. They targeted a position in the playoffs in 2016, and found themselves topping the log. After the decision not to field a full-strength side against the Jaguares, they slipped down to second place, but have stormed into the final after demolition jobs over the Crusaders and Highlanders. They have exceeded all expectations. They have overachieved quite spectacularly – win or lose on Saturday.

2016 is surely the year of the glorious overachiever in sport. Consider the humble story of Iceland’s national football team. The joint manager Heimir Hallgrimsson is a part-time dentist in the tiny fishing village of Heimaey. Before Euro 2016, he admitted they wouldn’t have the best players and definitely wouldn’t have the bulk of the ball possession. But he did promise his team would be disciplined, hard-working and focused.

They came into Euro16 as rank outsiders, expected to be the whipping-boys of the tournament. Instead they held the eventual winners Portugal, and Hungary, to draws and beat Austria. They qualified ahead of Portugal for the playoffs and promptly booted England out of the tournament in a match that was watched by 99% of the population, 10% of whom were at the Stade de Nice that day. A glorious overachievement by a team from a country that has more volcanoes than professional players.

Consider the story of Leicester City’s incredible overachievement in being crowned English Premiership champions. Their chances of winning the title were 5000-1. Their previous best performance in the league was 2nd place in 1929. Two years ago they were struggling in the First Division, last year they were about to be relegated from the Premiership. Manchester United spent more money on new players in two years than Leicester had spent in 132 years. As the Guardian newspaper put it: “This is a genuine good news story, champions whose achievement cuts across entrenched barriers, vaults an impassable gulf of finance and privilege, a reprise of the most inspiring basic sporting principle of open competition.”

Consider 25-year old tennis player Marcus Willis from England. He was ranked 772nd in the world and was about to give up tennis to become a coach when his girlfriend persuaded him to give Wimbledon a shot. He had to go through pre-qualifying and then qualifying before he got into the main draw. He promptly won his first match, securing prize money of 50 000 pounds to go with his total earnings for the year of just 269 pounds, and booked himself a match against the great Roger Federer. “I’ll try to win the match. I probably won’t,” he said. And didn’t, but he couldn’t care. He was living the dream. Federer appreciated what Willis had achieved, saying it was what tennis needed – “someone coming out of nowhere.” A glorious overachiever.

South Africa has its share of glorious overachievers. Rewind 20 years ago to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games where Penny Heyns was the centre of attention. She won South Africa’s first gold medal since re-entry into the Olympic Games, winning the 100m breaststroke. She continued to command all the media focus as she prepared for her next swim two days later in the 200m breaststroke where she was expected to win a second gold.

So no one was paying much attention to a 25-year old swimmer from Bellville named Marianne Kriel. She wasn’t unknown in swimming circles, having competed at the Barcelona Olympics where she was the team captain. She competed in five events, but failed to make a single final.

When she lined up for the final of the 100m backstroke at the Atlanta Olympics, the day after Penny’s first gold, she wasn’t even considered to be a medal contender. She was ranked 12th in the world. However, the world champion He Cihong of China hadn’t qualified for the final, nor had the world championship runner-up Nina Zhivanevskoya and upsets were on the cards.

Super_RugbyKriel knew she had to swim faster than she’d ever done before in her life just to get a medal. Which is exactly what she did, touching in third place a mere 0.21 of a second in front of the fourth-place finisher, setting a personal best time. She maintained her look of utter disbelief from the pool to the medal podium, where she stood holding her hands up to her face in amazement as her bronze medal was presented to her. A glorious overachievement.

The Lions go into Saturday’s final as the underdogs. The bookies put the Hurricanes at 4/10 to win – overwhelming favourites. The Lions are at 2/1.

The weather in Wellington will be foul – cold, wet and windy, which is expected to suit the home team. But the Lions beat the Blues at Ellis Park last month in similar conditions, though against weaker opposition.

History is against the Lions. Only one team has won Super Rugby away from home.

The bookies, the weather and history all say the Lions will lose. Johan Ackermann feels it’s a 50-50 game. The team is confident they can continue their fairytale season. After all, they’re glorious overachievers.

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