Wednesday, 13th June 2007 at 4:42 pm

Emerging Springboks go cultural

In between taking on lesser-known opposition in the IRB Nations Cup in Romania, the Emerging Springboks have been doing their best to counter perceptions of rugby players as cultural voids. Granted, Schalk Brits shaved his head (and if someone’s reading this to you, Schalla, it looks dreadful), and Ross Skeate is loping around Bucharest with a mohican, but the flood of photos from the tour photographer suggests the aspirant Boks have been splendid tourists in the more conventional sense of the word.

By all accounts, they’ve been in an out of museums and galleries, taken in parks and monuments, and shown a keen appreciation for the history of Romania. And it’s not hard to see why (and no, it’s not the celebrated cultural awareness of team captain Brits) - as the photo here illustrates, the city’s sense of history even creeps into training.

By all accounts it’s been an amazing country to visit; here’s to Romanian rugby taking great strides forward, and more South African players getting the chance to see more than the hotel rooms and Playstation games that touring usually involves.