Define Unlucky
Who would you rate as the greatest rugby player of all time? Before some recent research I would have been quite clear on my choice, but now I’ve probably changed my mind.
He’s been called one of the greatest Springbok rugby players. He’s been rated as “the best captain of all time”. His career of 13 years spanned 109 tests and included 4 World Cups. He has been part of teams that have won the under 21 World Cup, the senior World Cup and two Tri-Nations championships. Apart from captaining South Africa 37 times he’s also the most capped centre in Springbok history, and yet he’s been called the unluckiest player of all time. Why?
It has nothing to do with his 13 year long career, it is all about World Cups. In just five minutes of his first ever test for South Africa, a knee injury put an end to his hopes of playing in the 2003 World Cup. In 2007 he tore his biceps in the first game of the same tournament and missed the rest of the competition, including the victorious final. In 2011 a rib injury in the opening game ruined that tournament. A horrific knee dislocation in 2014 could have ended his career, but successful reconstructive surgery (with artificial ligaments) granted him one final World Cup campaign in 2015. Devastatingly, he was sent home in just the second game after breaking his jaw. An injury that did end his career.
The World Cup is the pinnacle of rugby achievement and it only takes place every four years. You would expect him to be deeply aggrieved, perhaps even bitter, but this is what Jean de Villiers had to say about his run of injuries: “I still believe if I had not gone through those injuries I would not have reached 100 Tests. I learned most of all how to overcome adversity”.
A broken jaw may have been the end of his career, but it wasn’t the end of adversity. Life is full of adversity, learning to overcome it is precious, far more precious than any trophy, even the World Cup. So just how “unlucky” was Jean de Villiers? It depends on how you look at it. His endurance and character are qualities far greater than his physical strength, speed or ball-skills, and they are what made him a truly great player. Maybe even the greatest. We can learn so much from his example
Take some time to read Romans 5 in the Bible. In it, God talks about our weaknesses, hardships and disappointments, and His ability to turn these into opportunities. In His hands they become opportunities to learn about His grace and to hope in Him to overcome even our greatest adversities. That hope gives us an eternal advantage far more valuable than anything as temporary as a tournament or even a career – and there’s nothing unlucky about that.
