Sharks Academy product has gone to the Bulls and is set to take the rugby world by storm

In the Spring of 2024 I was persuaded to spend Saturday watching high school rugby at Robertson in the Boland. Hoërskool Robertson were playing in their annual derby against Charlie Hofmeyr from Ceres and a friend suggested we drive up from Cape Town for the day.

He was putting the sons of several workers on his farm in the Koue Bokkeveld through school, he told me, and they’d be playing for some of the Charlie Hofmeyr junior teams. Platteland derbies were fun, he added. There would be balls-to-the-wall rugby and cappuccino vendors and war cries and mating rituals from horny teens.

The fixture started in 1994 and the students of both schools had been looking forward to the day for weeks. It would be quite the occasion. Why didn’t I come along?

I was happy I did because that afternoon — with the sun coming out after rain and the first buds of spring not far away — I saw Luan Giliomee for the first time. He was captaining Charlie Hofmeyr from fullback and while he was neither the biggest nor the widest on display, he was clearly the most confident and gifted. His game management and spatial perception were uncanny.

In front of a crowd of about 5,000, a muddy Charlie Hofmeyr won at a canter — 29-8 — with Giliomee orchestrating it all so faultlessly he might have been using a baton. His entire rugby personality was on display: the knees up gallop from deep; the positional play; the gunslinger’s quick hands. Smart tactical kicking and bravery in the tackle.

It didn’t surprise me to hear later that Charlie Hofmeyr went through the season unbeaten. They weren’t a one-man side. They had hard-working forwards, bovine in their ability not to complain. And I seem to remember that an outside centre of Giliomee had already been given a bursary to study — and play rugby — at the University of the North West. They were by no means a one-man team, though your eye always drifted back in Giliomee’s direction.

Giliomee played Craven Week for Boland in his matric year, and was hoovered up by the Sharks Academy. His leaving school might have been greeted with relief by his parents, Louis and Aldihette, because I remember Louis telling me that while Luan was at Charlie Hofmeyr the family received 17 approaches from schools countrywide.

“There was nothing they could offer Luan that we couldn’t offer him in Ceres as a family,” said Louis, who played for a South Africa Platteland team against the All Blacks at Witbank in 1992. “We decided to keep him where he was. He went to church. He rode a bike to school. We practiced kicking in the evenings.”

The move begs a question: In this time of JP Pietersen rebuilding, why would you willingly let gold dust slip through your hands? The only explanation is the Sharks have gold bars in the cupboard.

Five months into his time in Durban, disaster. In an under-21 Currie Cup match against the Leopards, Giliomee broke his hip. He also ruptured ligaments and his ankle and knee. Despite being out for nearly four months, he mended well, so well he was able to play in last season’s under-21 Currie Cup final, where the Sharks beat the Lions 63-31.

The rest of the Giliomee story is better known. His debut try for the Sharks in the United Rugby Championship (URC) in March against Munster; his selection for the Baby Boks earlier this year and his red card for playing an England player in the air in the semifinal. The red card was later overturned on review but the rescinding came too late — coach Kevin Foote had already chosen his side to play against France in the final, Alzeadon Felix getting the nod. “I’ll always feel bad leaving out Luan,” said Foote afterwards. “I know he’ll go super far in his career.”

Now Giliomee has gone from the Sharks to the Bulls, with the Bulls’ talented hooker Esethu Mnebelele heading in the opposite direction. The move begs a question: In this time of JP Pietersen rebuilding, why would you willingly let gold dust slip through your hands? The only explanation is the Sharks have gold bars in the cupboard.