How the ‘Beast’ became a Boks star
But who is the cult hero of South African rugby?
He’s hard to miss, standing six feet two inches tall and, as Phil Vickery of the British and Irish Lions now knows, weighs in at 17 stone 8 pounds.
The 23-year-old loose head has shot to fame since making his debut for South Africa last year against Wales, but he was born and educated across the border from his adoring fans in the dark green jerseys.
Mtawarira is originally from Harare, Zimbabwe (qualifying to play for South Africa through the residence rule). A tearaway in his early teens, he turned to sport and at 17, he earned a rugby scholarship to Peterhouse College, the prestigious school in Zimbabwe.
The following year he was on a school rugby tour to Durban and playing against one of the local schools when Barry Angus, then a conditioning coach with the Sharks Super 14 side, saw him in action and offered him a place in the club academy.
The big Zimbabwean was so keen he took a 36-hour journey south from Zimbabwe to join the Super 14 outfit.
His dream of playing number eight for the Sharks didn’t last, however. Coach Dick Muir – then with the Sharks, now with the ’Boks – suggested a switch to loose-head, and after some consideration, the big man decided to give it a try.
However, the transformation was painful: in his first outing as a prop the youngster wasn’t sure how to set himself for the scrums and, though the game wasn’t an elite-level encounter, he sustained an injury serious enough to keep him on the sidelines for three months.
Mtawarira returned to action with the Sharks in November 2006, determined to focus on his front row duties; within three months he was playing loose head for the Super 14 side. Within two years he was in the Springbok number one jersey, an extraordinary achievement for a player coming to grips with a hugely challenging technical position.
According to the official Springbok player guides then, Mtawarira collected the tag of the Beast because of his powerful style, but the player himself has been far more candid.
“I’ve had the name since I was about nine years old. I was a bit of a bully,” he said before adding that he was now a much better person. “I didn’t get called that because of my good nature but as you can see, I’ve become much nicer these days. It’s stuck with me from Zimbabwe.”
Mtawarira admits it has not been an easy journey to becoming a world class prop. He said: “I really had to work on my technique, how to make the hit and then hold my own after the hit, and the thing that was hardest was getting my binding right.”
It’s not all about the technique, of course. Springboks captain John Smit praised the Beast for his role in the Springboks’ 26-21 victory over the Lions. He said: “He flew in his fiancée for the match and did brilliantly, so I think we have to keep her around for a couple of weeks.”
Mtawarira is a devout Christian – he credits the prayers of his church with his recovery from that knee injury in 2006 – while his fiancee, Kuziva, was picked out at church by his mother Bertha.
Last year, when the Beast came to international attention, Scottish tight- head Euan Murray – another devout Christian, coincidentally – was asked about Mtawarira before facing him: “I don’t even know what his real name is, but he has a reputation for dismantling tight heads.”
Just ask Phil Vickery.
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