INTO THE BREEZE - It‘s a short road from dream to nightmare

WHEN Groot Flip played rugby, there were no dieticians checking hotel menus to see what the players were eating. Having several beers after a match was part of the tradition and no one trained every day.
Flip was a solid 130 kg, maybe more, when he and his mate Div were walking down a passage in a New York hotel one day. They were clearly not happy chappies.
A journalist who passed them asked the obvious question and Div, a strapping 110kg lad, said there was only one double bed in the room he and Groot Flip had to share.
It is a long story, with an acceptable ending. The journalist had a room with two single beds. They swapped rooms and that's how Flip van der Merwe and De Villiers Visser had a good night‘s sleep right at the end of the 1981 Springbok tour.
When the new generation of Springboks defend the World Cup in New Zealand next year, it will be 30 years since Div and Groot Flip played there as members of Wynand Claassen‘s team.
The way things stand now, Klein Flip could be in the 2011 team. And the sons of two other 1981 ‘Boks are likely to be there, too: Gysie Pienaar‘s lad Ruan and Hennie Bekker‘s son Andries.
When Klein Flip made his international debut at Newlands last week you could see all the emotions on his face when he joined his heroes and role models out there.
His dad must have popped a couple of shirt buttons, because in some ways the game has not changed. When a young man is selected to play for his country, all his friends and family members rejoice, knowing how hard he has worked to make his dream come true.
For Klein Flip and the other bright youngsters in the Springbok team, last week's outing against the French was merely another step on the road to 2011. They still have much to do and much to learn. And there is, as they say, many a slip between Cup and lip.
Groot Flip, Gysie and Hennie never played World Cup rugby but with a little luck their sons will do so next year. They, and all their friends and family members, will be bursting with pride and, at the same time, praying that things go well.
Because they will remember what Mr and Mrs Green, and all their friends and relatives, have gone though since things – for less than one second last weekend – did not go well in another World Cup tournament. They will share Robert‘s pain for as long as they live.
WITH GERHARD BURGER