The Springbok defence took most of the plaudits following our famous and improbable win over the All Blacks, and that isn’t exactly unfair.

After all, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Franco Mostert did set tackle records that will take some beating.

What is sometimes overlooked is that we managed to score 36 points, a record for any visiting team in New Zealand, including five tries. Two of those came via the feet of Aphiwe Dyantyi, whose stepping made many of the world’s best players look silly.

It’s amazing to think that Dyantyi’s skill was almost lost on the rugby world, which is apparent from a recent interview he did with Sport24.

The Bok winger opened up about how he almost threw in the towel after a jarring setback:

While his potential as a sportsman was noticed early on, resulting in Dyantyi playing for Eastern Province in the Under-13 Craven Week, as he grew older, other kids started shooting past him. The result? He didn’t make the first team at his school, Dale College.

That, in the same year that his school turned 150 years old, broke him.

“I walked away from rugby,” he said. “I dreamed of playing first team and of getting a rugby scholarship to university, but when none of that happened, I decided to focus on my studies. Rugby was behind me.

“It was a major disappointment. It made me decide to … forge a new path. I went to Johannesburg to get away from everything and everyone because most of the people from my school went to Cape Town or Port Elizabeth.”

That was almost the end of that, until Dyantyi ran into an old schoolmate in Jozi. The friend managed to convince him to play residence rugby on a Wednesday night, which set in motion a pretty rapid rise to the top:

“Someone saw me playing residence rugby and I was chosen for the University of Johannesburg’s [UJ’s] Under-19 team. From there, I climbed the ladder to UJ’s senior team, to Currie Cup and Super Rugby at the Lions and now the Springboks. I’m so fortunate that everything worked out for me.”

More than that, Dyantyi’s renewed passion for rugby has shot him into the stratosphere. In his Super Rugby debut in February, he butchered the Sharks with four tries. In his debut for the Boks in June, he partied behind England’s try line, did so again against Argentina and then, on Saturday, he reached his peak against the All Blacks.

Whilst the whole of South Africa was roaring their approval (except for those Capetonians who insist on supporting the All Blacks, who have been rather quiet of late), it was an especially pleasing performance for the winger:

…he grew up in awe of the All Blacks’ haka.

The image of a roaring Tana Umaga made his blood boil. So much so that he imitated the Kiwi icon when celebrating his tries last Saturday – first he let out a roar, then he crossed his arms across his chest. Then came the breaking of imagined chains.

If you haven’t yet learnt how to pronounce his name, you might want to get on that. It looks like this guy is here to stay.

[source:sport24]