Back in mid December, as Gerbrandt Grobler made his return to the training pitch at Munster’s University of Limerick headquarters, the coaching staff were excited.
Grobler was expected to make his long waited Munster debut in January 2018 and the team of Johann van Graan, Felix Jones and Jerry Flannery were excited to see what he could bring to the mix.
Mark Flanagan had come in as injury cover when Jean Kleyn and Grobler were injured but was back at Saracens. Kleyn was fit, getting fitter and looking good. Billy Holland was starting to motor too, and both Darren O’Shea and Fineen Wycherley were getting some league experience.
Grobler, though, he was going to add another dimension. In December, Flannery told The Hard Yards:
“I’m looking at the New Zealand model and I’m looking at guys like Gerbrandt Grobler and Rhys Marshall. They’re not from the Irish system but they are here now and they are adding value. Gerbrandt is a lock we signed from Racing last year but he has been injured. He has come in and he played a few games for us already in preseason.
“He’s a very good footballer. When I spoke to him [after his arrival], he told me he would have played 10 at the start. When he was a kid, he would have played outhalf and across the backline, so he would have had that skill-set.
“Rugby is a late specialisation game. As you physically mature, it’s about ‘Where is the best position going to be for me?’ Gerbrandt turned into a 6-foot-6, 120 kilo lock, who now has the hands of an outhalf.”
Many Munster fans listening to Flannery’s description of this huge, physical lock with attacking awareness and handling abilities [from 17:00 below] would have been excited about his competitive debut too. Some would have been aware of Grobler’s past drug test failure but not all. Developments over the past fortnight, though, have made everyone aware of Grobler and his indiscretion now.
Grobler is suddenly all over the airwaves, newspapers, websites, TV stations and social media [we’re probably forgetting a couple of outlets] because he is fit and ready to make that competitive debut.
Back when he was 22, in 2014, Grobler was hit with a two-year suspension after testing positive for drostanolone – an anabolic-androgenic steroid – during the 2014 Currie Cup. He set up a hunting business in South Africa and thought his rugby career was over. Encouragement from Springboks legend Schalk Burger led him to hold on, however tenuously, to that rugby dream.
Sure enough, when his ban expired in October 2016 Grobler was signed by Racing 92 and ended up playing 20 times for the French club. Near the end of his time at Racing, Grobler proved to be a frank, honest interviewee during a chat with Gavin Mortimer [writing for SA Rugby Mag]. On his ban, he said:
“I was broken. You lose your house, your car, you lose everything. I lost 90% of my friends.
“I was 21 at the time,” he added, “young and stupid, and struggling with serious ankle and shoulder injuries. They weren’t getting any better, and I knew I needed to start playing again or I could lose my contract. I had my back against the wall and had reached a point where I thought, ‘Okay, I’ve done all I can, so what else can I do?’“
What he did was cross the line and, in a country that is often maligned for its attitude to doping in rugby, the only ‘at least’ here is that he was caught and punished. The sanctions for such blatant doping should be higher but the ban was two year and Grobler served it.
Munster were then alerted to his availability, in early 2017, and made a move after he came highly recommended. Tadhg Beirne would be coming in June 2018 but with the likes of Dave Foley [Pau] and Donnacha Ryan [Racing] departing, Munster needed a stop-gap. In he came, announced on the same day as the capture of fellow South African Chris Cloete.
His doping past was noted in several outlets at the time but the storm has been six months in coming because of his injury issues. He has already played in a Munster jersey, against Worcester in the preseason, and in a competitive game, for Munster ‘A’ against Nottingham last weekend, but there have now been calls for the province to not feature him in the senior team. It has even been suggested that the IRFU should pay up the remainder of his contract and send him packing.
The major positive to come from the intense scrutiny over Grobler’s arrival at Munster has been IRFU chief executive Phillip Browne admitting that the union would ‘probably not’ bring in another convicted doper in the future. Nothing has been set in stone but there will be policy reviews in the coming days and weeks and the zero tolerance claims will become zero tolerance rules.
The major negative is that Grobler has had to endure over the past two weeks. He was, of course, in the wrong by trying to cheat the system, and fellow players, back in 2014 but he has served his ban.
He may acknowledge himself that this is the stigma he willingly attached to himself and he has to live with, but Grobler has yet to give an interview or side of the story. He was in the wrong but he has been badly let down by those that brought him in in the first place.
Looking on his six-month stay now, it is almost like a social experiment. Drop a black sheep into flock and see how long it takes to be shunned. If you were a young, Irish rugby player even considering an unnatural boost to your system, Grobler’s unfortunate face accompanying story after story would surely put you off. World Rugby may give you a second chance – rightly or wrongly – but the taint is yours to keep.
He may yet play for Munster but he will not stay beyond the summer. The Grobler legacy will last much longer than his time in Limerick.
