03.03.03

I thought today was a good day to start my next newsletter. How often can you write a date like that down? Okay so this is the third year in a row now (01.01.01 and then 02.02.02), but it's still cool, isn't it? Who can believe we're in 2003 already? Who can believe it's already March?

Who can believe the Sharks beat the Brumbies on Saturday? Brilliant - Darlene and Kerry you will be pleased to note that I was a loud Sharks supporter during that game, which I watched at home. Okay I did say, "Go Stormers!" to them once by mistake, not having had the chance to experience a Stormers win earlier in the day (in the middle of the night actually). Because they lost. Poor Michael and I had to get up in the middle of the night (02.30) to drive to the Waterfront to watch them at the Sports Café. It turned my stomach to see people eating breakfast there at 03.30, but obviously not as much as it turned my stomach to see the Stormers go down 22-0 at half-time. They had a respectable second half, but still lost 41-17 (ouch). Almost a reverse of the 40-18 victory they had over the Sharks the previous weekend. Except the standard of game was higher against the Highlanders. Super win for the Bulls too ("watched" that online when we got back from the Waterfront at sunrise) - I was delighted for them. And then Michael drove me or, as he says, I drove him to Match in Claremont after the Sharks game, so that I could watch the Cats, who subsequently lost. Ag shame, hopefully third time lucky, Bobby. Sorry, I just had a mad rugby day on Saturday, supporting all the SA teams, in amongst catching some of the cricket (yes, I actually watch some of it now!!) and going to a braai at Valencia's house for a few hours. Thanks for the braai, Valencia and Ashley - great to see you guys and also Karen and Kelvin and of course your three families/communities.

03.04.03

Oops, it's taken me a month to get back here. Where has the time gone? And I think I must be a record-breaking three months behind with my emails now. I have managed to write replies to some emails, for example those about making arrangements for meeting friends for lunch and that sort of thing, but otherwise you can blame my slackness on my novel-writing.

Today, though, I've completed my first-phase edit (whatever that means, since I just made it up) of my work of art (haha). I think I started writing it on 27 January (and editing sometime after that) and I "finished" writing it yesterday. By that I mean that I got to the end of the story, but I suspect it still needs a lot of work. I've done the "easy" part. It's about 545 (MS Word) pages long. I'm not sure exactly because it's in three documents (so that I could save them on stiffie disks - no CD-writer) and, since my initial prints, I've made the first fixes/edits so it's a little longer now than the 543 pages I have printed.

Unfortunately I can't print it again now because

a) it would mean buying yet another 500 pages of paper and money is scarce (because I don't work, as you know), but apart from the paper issue…

b) our printer is already out of black ink, which is why I am going to have a problem printing hardcopies of this newsletter for those who can't get to the web version and

c) it's probably almost used all the blue ink as well now - so we'll have to buy two new cartridges soon and you know how much that costs.

d) the printer is generally not well - when it's not insane, it's lazy or broken and I have to kick it around a bit (almost), so in fact it might be a new printer we have to buy rather than just cartridges.

People ask me what it's about. Let me tell you it doesn't even have a name yet. At the moment its name is "Sean.doc" (and Sean2.doc and Sean3.doc) because Sean is the first word in the story, but it's not going to be called "Sean", that much I know. As for what it's about, did you see the by-line at the top of the newsletter? "And I cannot explain with words/ In a song that only lasts/ Till I am still"? Well replace the word "song" with "newsletter", then you'll pretty much get my answer. The line is from Only with you, one of my truly favourite songs at the moment. I'm sorry you can't hear it while you're reading this - I love it more and more every time I hear it. Thanks to Michael I got to spend forty bucks on the Only with you four-track CD. And there are four different songs on it, not just four versions of the same song, which is refreshing. At ten rand a song it's an absolute steal -- thanks Garth, you rock, bru. I'll forgive you for being a Sharks supporter since you're a Durban boy. Hey, sometimes I'm a Sharks supporter too.

A couple of days ago I was going to say in this newsletter that my two favourite songs at the moment are Only with you and a totally different kind of song, In da Club by Fifty Cent. But now I have another two favourites on top of those. One of them is Daniel Bedingfield's If You are Not The One which is another song I love more and more every time I hear it. And the other one is the live acoustic version of Why by Garth Taylor. It's on my new CD and as wonderful as the version they play on the radio is (well, I think is it), this one takes the song to another level. Apparently the original acoustic version happened by accident when Garth was singing in Cape Town one day and technology let them down so he did a piano-only version. Of course I've missed my chances to see Garth in Cape Town, being a bit slow on the uptake. If I'd known he was going to be at The Galaxy/Westend on 21 March I would have gone. It would have been a perfect celebration of the Stormers (greatest Super 12 comeback) victory over the Waratahs earlier in the day.

Left: I couldn't find a pic of Fifty Cent (50 cent?) on the web, but here's Daniel Bedingfield (also sings Gotta get thru this). He's from the UK.

I know I'm talking about music a lot, but the thing is there are probably only a couple of things that I haven't neglected while writing my book. One is music. It's kept me company and inspired me while I've been writing and at least it gives me a bit of exercise (the songs I can dance to - like Only with You and In da Club). A few songs even get mentions in my book, although I might have a problem with being allowed to use the lyrics I've quoted. I've actually just emailed Garth Taylor's website people now to ask about the possibility of quoting some of his lyrics. We'll see if I get a response. It feels a bit silly emailing them now when I don't even know if I have the guts to even try to get this thing published, but what else am I going to do? I can't think of any other job I'd really want to do.

Left: And here's Garth Taylor (sure you're not wearing a Stormers cap? - sorry I just think it's funny that he sings and entertains at Sharks games and features quite prominently on the Here come the Sharks CD). His website address is www.garthtaylor.co.za if you're interested.

And there's this quote in my Bob Skinstad Into the new Millenium publication (yes I possess such a thing) that goes: "If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough." Apparently it's by Tweeds, whoever that is. And believe me it scares me to show other people what I've written, but I've enjoyed doing it immensely. I've been on top of the world at times in the past few weeks (apart from the writing, two highlights were definitely the Stormers wins on 21 February and 21 March while they stormented me in the weeks between) and that's amazing for me. And it's only been because I've been writing what's been flowing out of me. Not writing to please anyone except myself. But like I said the problem is letting other people read it now. It won't be everyone's cup of tea. Well, of course, which book ever is? But what I mean is I wouldn't want it to upset people who are close to me. I'm sure it will be shocking to a lot of people and I have to consider whether I'm going to "censor" it a bit or not. Maybe some of it is gratuitous and can do with getting cut out anyway. But if I believe in it (and I have to ask myself some questions) then I'm not going to compromise on certain things.

The quote on the back of the Bob Skinstad mag is:

Only as high as I reach can I grow,

Only as far as I seek can I go,

Only as deep as I look can I see,

Only as much as I dream can I be.

It doesn't say who it was said by, but anyway I just thought I'd share it with you.

Left: Nelson Mandela and Bob Skinstad - two inspirational leaders. Bob for president? No, I don't mean that Bob, of course. This one was born in Zim though.

And while I'm talking about Bob, I just want to say that I loved the two Cats wins against the Brumbies and the Highlanders, especially the latter. So cool to see captain Bobby playing so well in that one - I'm sure he has lots more support in Joburg now. Good on you, Bob!

Wendy just phoned me now. Before answering, I turned down the sound of the speakers to quite a low volume, but she's like: "Are you listening to that Garth Taylor CD again?" Grrr. When I was writing the bit in my book where I was quoting Why or someone in the book was singing it anyway, I was in bloody tears because the stupid song was playing at the time and oh, it was just so emotional because it was near the end of the book and that part was just sad for me. Anyway I just thought I would share that with you because if I can share that then maybe I'll be able to share the book. It's not one-tenth as revealing as the book, but hey it's part of the way there.

I haven't had much patience with reading lately because when I've read other books during the writing of my one, they either irritated me or made me think why can't I write like that? Why don't I have such a big vocabulary? Why can't I describe things the way they can? So I haven't been reading much - it's not as if I've given myself the time to read anyway. If I'm not writing or editing, I'm watching rugby.

I told you at the beginning of this issue that I had a serious rugby Saturday at the beginning of March. I decided I wanted to watch all the Super 12 games that South African teams were involved in. So Michael and I talked about it and decided it was going to be easier and cheaper just to get M-Net instead of going to sports cafes and to Newlands all the time. So, not wanting to buy a decoder, I had a brainwave to ask Verity if they were using theirs. They weren't and have transferred ownership of it to us until further notice. If they want it back we'll have to transfer it back to them. But thanks again, Verity and Danny, for being so kind! Verity is in the USA at the moment - she earned herself a HERS programme scholarship thing. So it means three weeks at colleges in the USA and she's going to New York (for a bit of fun) this weekend. She has to do a project that she would have outlined in her application to be considered. I think, amongst others, three women from UCT were awarded the opportunity to go.

And then once we had the decoder I decided I wanted to watch every Super 12 game, not just the SA ones, so I've been a bit nuts since there are usually five games per weekend.

Let me tell you a bit about the night of the first Super 12 game for the Stormers, when we went to Newlands. I took the train there and Michael went straight from work. I had organised tickets for Kelvin, Belinda and Natalie too and they were already there when I arrived. I had to wait ages for a train, sitting on the same bench as a man who was talking to himself, well he thought he was talking to someone else, but it was clear he wasn't. The game was awesome - an emphatic Stormers win always is. The Mexican wave just went round and round the 40 000-plus stadium for ages and ages. I think I have a pic here from the game, I seem to remember picking one off the web some weeks back. Let me have a look.

Left: There we go, Fleckie bringing the Sharks to their knees, with Tjoepie and Quinton in the background.

Then I convinced Michael that we attend the afterparty. I'm a pain, I know. It was supposed to be ten rand each to get in, but for some reason they didn't ask for any money so we just had to spend thirty rand on vouchers which allowed us two meals and three drinks (not bad). It was at the SAB Cricket Oval in Newlands, near the stadium, so we just walked there.

We had boerewors rolls and I enjoyed a bit of the music while Michael waited anxiously for the Stormers to arrive. Haha, no actually it was only me (the groupie) who wanted to congratulate them on the game and to wish them luck on their tour overseas, which was due to start on the following weekend. They were flying to Australia in the morning so when they finally arrived at the party, most of them were with their wives/partners.

Most of them congregated in one section of the field (by the way it was late evening by then, around ten or so) and we managed to track them down, hidden away though they were. It's not as if they hadn't announced at the game that people could go and speak to them at the party so I wasn't being forward or anything.

It took a couple of minutes, but I eventually got to share a few words with Corne Krige. When I saw him, I said to Michael, "He's so tall," but I think it's more that he has a presence. I only thought about it afterwards because I'm not sure I've ever experienced that before, where someone just seems… larger than life? I can see how he can be so respected and how he can be the Bok captain. And then he got a wonderful birthday present on 21 March when, battered as he was, he led the team to come back from 21-0 down to beat the Waratahs in Sydney nogal, on the last game on tour nogal. I remember he said to me, "I hope we'll do well." And he probably wouldn't have felt they did on the other three games of the tour, but the last one clearly made him feel a whole lot better (I don't mean physically though). I had to hold his left hand when I spoke to him because as usual he'd messed up the right one in the game so I couldn't shake it. Luckily De Wet Barry has taken over the duty of writing "Corne's Diary" (which I get emailed) while De Wet's been out injured - wouldn't want Corne trying to write or type with that busted hand ;-) And Mr Barry does a good job of it. Anyway it was a great experience to meet Captain Courageous.

And then I walked up to Hendrik Gerber to say congrats etc to him and he gave me a hug - it surprised me because he seems so reserved. But sweet too, obviously. And then he was giving me looks (must have been thinking, "What is this mad woman still doing here?") when we were about to bugger off after I shared a few words with Robbie Fleck, Pieter Dixon, Bolla Conradie and Selborne Boome. My dad loves Bolla - well, lots of people do, and I'm glad he's going to get lots more game-time this week after his fantastic performance a couple of weeks ago. Anyway Bolla had a laugh when I said to him that I hoped he'd enjoyed his few minutes on the field at the end of the Newlands game. Dixie always smiles a lot and it's true what Gavin Rich, my favourite rugby journalist said (see the latest SA Rugby mag with Fleckie on the cover - I read the article in Exclusive Books), that Fleckie comes across as shy. Selborne comes across as very serious and seemed preoccupied when he said to me that he was very excited about the tour. He didn't look as if he was enjoying himself so I wasn't surprised to see him leave at the same time as we did, which was about ten minutes after the Stormers (and the Sharks by the way) arrived at the party. Breyton was there having a good old time, but I didn't find the right moment to talk to him. When I spotted him we were actually inside a mostly roped off area and Michael said to me, "I'm not sure we're actually supposed to be in here," but anyway we weren't getting any funny looks from the Stormers (we were outside that area when Hendrik was giving me looks). It's just that there were cans of beer lying around, waiting to be grabbed up and when I looked around it did seem a bit exclusive.

Above: Hendrik Gerber - usually in the No.7 jersey, but is our fetching No.6 this weekend while Corne is resting and Selborne Boome takes over as captain.

While the Stormers were in Australia and New Zealand, I faxed them every week, and after their three losses over there, I wrote them a long one-page fax and told them to pull their faces right. No, not quite like that, but I said they must start enjoying their games and smile when they do good things and maybe things would go right for them. Shame, I was mostly quite nice though. I said they mustn't forget the Endurance weekend they had in the Boland before the Super 12 and I think maybe remembering that helped them pull through at the end despite the number of injuries they suffered each week. I probably didn't have anything to do with their win (I sometimes have an inflated idea of my own importance, I think), actually (haha), but I'm glad I wrote the fax anyway (I still have it if anyone wants to read it). It felt as if it had made a difference, and obviously they do appreciate their fans.

Left: Speedy Neil "It's My Ball!" de Kock on his way to scoring that awesome try when injuries forced him to the wing and out of his regular scrumhalf position against the Waratahs in Sydney on 21 March.

A couple of weeks ago the Stormers webpage had a competition to win two tickets to watch them play the Reds (from Queensland, Australia) on 12 April. There was one sports trivia (actually Stormers trivia) question per day from 17-20 March and you had to answer it on the day the question was asked. The first person drawn with all answers correct would win. Well, the first question stumped me a bit so I almost didn't enter, but then I remembered an article that had been on the page recently and I could work out the answer from there. One or two of the other questions I had to research a bit as well. Anyway last week I got a phone call to say that I'd won and that my name would be on the website shortly. So I told them how cool and awesome it was of course. And then later in the evening I dialled in and had a good laugh because the main story on www.thestormers.co.za was "Congratulations to Melody!" with a short paragraph that included my full name (minus the middle one) and if you clicked on it, the full story was there. There were many entries apparently, but only four people got all the answers correct and I won the lucky draw. For days afterwards it was still one of the headline stories. Famous at last - yeah, sure. You can see, if you click on the Competitions section now, that I'm not lying. Anyway I am still really chuffed about it especially since I thought I might not be able to go to Newlands again this year. Now I get to watch them make Chris (how-many-black-eyes-can-I-earn-in-one-game) Latham pull up his socks (actually he was awesome last weekend, but you really should see how he wears his socks). And I get to see my namesake, Ben Tune. No but seriously, I can't wait to visit Newlands again.

It's hours later now. Wendy had a couple of friends over for a while and then they went out for supper. They live and work in the UK and are here for a few weeks. And then I had supper and then made a couple of phone calls to friends (Shelley who was out and Gay who was in, if you must know).

Just called Shelley again now and had a wee chat. We agreed that we must make a point of seeing each other since we haven't yet this year. She's just started a new job this month and it sounds better than the last one.

Speaking of people starting jobs, Tamsyn's also just started one after being without for a couple of months - just ringing her now to see how it's going. She's really tired, but says it's going okay - it's back at a place she used to work at.

And Debbie's delighted that she has a permanent job at Pathcare now because she loves it there so that took effect this month too and I'm assuming Kelvin had his contract extended where he is. When I saw him on Monday, it was his last day, but he said he would be going in the next day and they would just have to pay him, haha.

Wendy's looking for a new job - went for an art director interview on Tuesday so hopefully that works out. The job would be in Newlands.

I got an email from Verity again earlier - she's looking forward to her day in New York - she says the most fun thing she's done in the US is shop… oh and have two glasses of red wine in one day (a dangerous thing for her - haha).

The other email I got earlier was from Garth Taylor's manager guy, Alan Leibowitz (who co-wrote one of the songs on this CD I've been raving about - Stand by Me). He wants me to send him the paragraphs in my novel where I refer to the songs and said it is certainly possible that I would get permission to use them. He suggested I phone him today, but I thought I would first send him the relevant material, and I told him so in my follow-up email. He said some more stuff and I said some more stuff back, but I won't go into all of it here. It's actually all pretty scary, to be honest, but so cool that he got back to me so quickly.

So you're still wondering what my novel is about? I don't really know how to describe it though. It's a bit of a love-story, I suppose. Now I'm laughing because it's a lot of a love-story. It's actually more than one love-story. I would say that there are four main characters in it (all aged under 26) and one of those four is the one whose perspective you get to see most of the time. Her name is a lot like mine - I thought I would change it at some point, it was just to get me going on the story at the beginning when I couldn't think of a name, but I couldn't possibly change it now. But there are lots of other characters in the book as well and you see glimpses of the perspectives of most of them from time to time. There are quite a few ethical themes in the book and it's very dialogue-orientated. It's about friends and friendship, love, sex, looks, sexual orientation, HIV, gender stereotyping, family, religion, responsibility, interpersonal relationships, strength, money, communication, commitment, loss, tears, truth and lies. The setting is mostly in a fictional town in South Africa although there's also a bit that takes place in Sydney, Australia. And the whole book takes place (apart from the flashbacks/talks about the past) between 13 October 2002 and 15 January 2003. It's sad, funny (well, I can hope), maybe sweet at times, perhaps thought-provoking and even interesting, hopefully unpredictable, and really quite rude sometimes, I'm afraid to say. Shocking even, especially coming from a mild person like me (some of you know me a little better perhaps hahaha). It is probably far-fetched, but hey what's an imagination for? Yeah and it's got the music and the rugby although not all that much of either, actually. And cell-phones, lots of cell-phone activity. Hey, it's set in South Africa, what can I say?

Maybe sometime soon I will take what I've just written above and try and come up with a proper blurb about it.

Right, now that I've got that out of the way, let me move onto other news.

Michael's on the couch watching a movie on e-TV. Wendy's returned from her dinner out with a leftover bit of what I suspect is medium-rare steak.

Kgabo, in Michael's office, asked him to come and play for the UCT Softball Club and so after a couple of practices, Michael joined the club. He's got practices after work on Mondays and Wednesdays. His boss is leaving for the UK sometime soon so there'll probably be some changes at work, but at the moment it's quite stable and he's still working hard. It's tough for him trying to work on his studies though, but hopefully he'll manage! I think sometimes he wants to kick my ass off the computer, but he knows he must just say if he needs it for anything. Generally I'm stuck to it though. A friend of his who now works in Gauteng offered him a job recently, but he decided it probably wasn't the right timing. He says he still has lots to do at UCT. It was also going to be a high-stress job and if he's trying to get his degree as well, then the upheaval added to the stress of the work, wouldn't really have been a good idea. He says it's not because I selfishly said I wouldn't leave Cape Town. I said it was up to him, which it was. This issue is dedicated to him because without his support I wouldn't be where I am right now, with this novel-thing going on.

His family's probably having a rough time at the moment because their staffie, Katy, suffered a heart attack and died a few days ago. She was over ten, but that only makes it harder, doesn't it? Anyway it's very sad and was very unexpected.

It was my mother's birthday last week and she had dinner at a friend's place after work. I organised a card, flowers and sparkling wine to be delivered to her at work. They were from Michael, Wendy, Lauren, Ross and me. We couldn't be there with her, so hopefully that brightened her day a little. She's still working very hard at Sasol.

My dad got a surprise visit from his friend, Brendon this week. He's moved back to South Africa for at least a couple of years. So he was pleased to see him again and spend time with him. Michael and I visited him (my dad) on the weekend while he and his cousin, Jeff (sp?), were refilling his big fish tank. He had taken all his big goldfish back to the pet shop because they were just too big for the tank and so he's transferred the fish from the smaller tank into the big one now.

I haven't been very good about visiting people or keeping in touch lately. I've just been preoccupied and there aren't enough hours in the day. My parents and grandparents must think I am a complete waste of time! Ah well, maybe I'll improve now (*nervous laugh*).

I visited Verity, Alex and Danny about a week before Verity went to the USA. They have moved to Pinelands now and are renting a lovely old house with large gardens in the back and front. This was after they put their house in Mowbray on the market immediately after being held up there one night not so long ago. Gun, knife, what more do you want? Luckily they came to no physical harm and only small items were stolen. The guys (one of who was wearing a bright orange overall that said "Not Guilty" on the back) were not interested in their cars. Verity had just bought new CDs with the vouchers the insurance company had given them on the day I visited. My little buddy, Alex, remembered me and showed off some of his vocabulary. Verity's missing him like crazy at the moment.

On Tuesday I had lunch in Claremont with Sameera (high-school friend, the one who's a doctor haha) and she introduced me to Kauai which I've sometimes considered trying, but never actually got around to. They're very health food-orientated. I loved my Peanut Bliss smoothie especially, but my sandwich was good too. Tamsyn would have been there, but she had to start her job that day.

On Monday I had lunch in town with Amanda, Macjerry and Hannah-Joy who were down in Cape Town on holiday. Of course Amanda and Macjerry still work on holiday anyway (their phones ring all the time). We ate at the Spur and also there were Debbie, Kelvin, Rowina and Valencia and kids plus one extra kid. It was the first time I'd seen A&M&H since the day after Hannah was born - she's four months old now and hopefully Amanda will send me the photo's we took there sometime! It was really wonderful to see everyone again and, oh yes, Debbie wanted me to put that photo of Macjerry spending quality time with Hannah-Joy in this issue, so here it is, her wish is my command.

Tamsyn and I have spent quite a bit of time together in the couple of months she hasn't been working especially since she's moved to Kenilworth now. She moved in with friends since it wasn't affordable to stay in her flat while she was without a job and the flat was going on the market anyway so she was going to have to find somewhere else. We always have good chats.

Yesterday I walked to the Medicross to get my annual flu shot. My arm's just a little tender where the injection was, but otherwise I'm fine.

A few weeks ago Tamsyn and I had a lovely dinner and dessert at our old friend, Shirleen's house. She was with us at high school until standard eight (and actually with me for my last two years of primary school as well). So that was a very interesting and enjoyable evening. Unfortunately we haven't caught up again since then, but I'm sure we'll organise something soon, this time with Sameera who couldn't make it the last time because her parents had just returned from Mecca.

Lauren is back at UCT now, hard at work - she's doing Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology this year. Tough stuff. We see her at least once a week and sometimes she sleeps over here and probably gets a bit irritated with me when I want to watch early morning rugby matches since she has to sleep in the lounge.

We still have chameleons, yes, but I don't spend much time spotting them these days although I do have a look everyday. I saw a couple of them today although strangely enough none in the few days before. I usually see at least one or two a day, you see. The garden needs a serious weed - blah. We've also had to cough up an additional levy for the complex to buy a new lawnmower.

I'm sure there's more news, lots more, but I still have to add some more pictures to this issue and I've set a deadline of today for this newsletter. I have fifteen minutes left of today so I am going to say goodbye now. Be good and take care.

Love, Melody

P.S. 04.04.03

Since I have some space left over (in the hardcopy version), just a few things:

* I actually bothered to learn some of the basic cricket rules during the World Cup and so got some enjoyment out of some of the games - a real achievement for me ;) and felt really sorry for Shaun Pollock and the guys when SA fell out of the tournament. But hey Australia deserved their win, didn't they?

*I wanted to get some pics from Debbie that were taken on Monday at the Spur, for this issue, but I didn't get a response form her when I smsed her earlier, so next time!

*David and Sharon's baby boy, Seth, was born on 22 February (a little earlier than the 03.03.03 date they had hoped for initially) - I hope I have the date right! Yet to visit them though.

*I won't get to see Chris Latham next week at Newlands unless the ankle that got severely sprained today recovers miraculously. Oh well, time to rest those black eyes I suppose.

*Got a nice supporters club email from Selborne Boome (or Boomer, as he signed the email) earlier, since he's the captain for tomorrow's game and I thought the following was sweet: "From my side it is truly a great honour to head up this Stormers team. The Stormers have over the years consistently proven to be the most supported and popular team in the Vodacom Super 12. We know we have a lot to live up to and to prove. Rest assured we will be doing whatever it takes to make you proud. Thank you for your on-going support, especially when we were on tour and far from home. Thank you for believing in us to the end. Our loyal fans support in the face of adversity is truly humbling and inspirational." Pleasure.

Left: The Stormers celebrate their victory against the Waratahs. Corne sure doesn't look purty, especially with his mouthguard sticking out like that, but at least he was elated. On the left in the pic is Leon van den Heever and in front Bolla. They were all awesome in the game.