Swanepoel's monster kick the reward for a long, ha

Xerox Lions fullback Tiaan Swanepoel may well be the man of the moment, with the country talking about the monster 64 metre kick that he slotted against DHL Western Province on Saturday, but his journey to the point of glory comes on the back of years of hard work.

The journey is one that forced him to leave South Africa after being snubbed at Western Province, play a season of Shute Shield in Australia and return to the Lions to wait his chance before his moment finally arrived in a rain-soaked game on Saturday.

With flyhalf and captain Elton Jantjies missing his first kick, he handed the ball to Swanepoel, who proceeded to terrorise Province with his boot and was very unlucky not to win the man-of-the-match award after a superb kicking performance.

The Lions mindshift came a week earlier though, as against Griquas there was a moment where Swanepoel found his voice after taking the field for the injured EW Viljoen, and stepped up to Jantjies to ask to take a long touchline kick. Jantjies agreed and Swanepoel struck a monster downfield.

It ignited a conversation and a will from the Lions to shift the focus away from Jantjies as the prime target for opposition. But few would have realised just how big Swanepoel's boot was until he stepped up in the rain and surprised all with the massive kick.

COACHING PRAISE

Swanepoel received a lot of praise afterwards from his coach Ivan van Rooyen and captain Jantjies, especially as his boot had kept them in the game and in touch with WP when they were 19-9 down and he returned to kick the match-winning penalty at the end in the 22-19 win.

"We know what Tiaan can do with his boot, he kicked about a 70m kick the other day in training. So we know that it was a weapon for us," Van Rooyen said.

"We're really big on educating the players on what decisions to take and when, so it was a great decision from Elton to go there early in the game.

We knew that he had it distance-wise and it was some nice BMT from Tiaan." "We obviously desperately needed a win against a very good Western Province team. You can't really call it an 80 minute performance but you can call it a 'mentally 80-minute challenge and fight. To beat them for the first time in three attempts this year is big for us. We know the quality they have, so we believe that we will get a bit of momentum from this one, definitely."

Jantjies said the team had never lost belief or patience and said the game management, especially in the last 10 minutes was crucial in their victory. "In the last 10 minutes I felt it was going to be massive in terms of game management and decision making and to have a guy like Tiaan to kick us back to within seven points. I felt the moment Tiaan stepped, the boys got some energy. That's what we stand for as a team - to create something unexpected - and Tiaan saw that opportunity and he took it."

HARD LABOUR

But Swanepoel's journey has not been meteoric. And has involved some genuine hard labour. He has had to bide his time, be patient, and use the opportunities he has been given, often by injury to others like EW Viljoen or Divan Rossouw.

And use those opportunities he has, with his form making it difficult for the Lions to look elsewhere after the performance on Saturday.

A former Stellenberg pupil, Swanepoel was drafted into the Maties and WP under-21 ranks, and kicked WP to the 2017 under-21 Championship. But a hip injury meant he missed the Stormers' pre-season training the next year and the emergence of Damian Willemse saw him become surplus to requirements.

Disillusioned and without a contract, his agent suggested a sabattical and a restart in Sydney, where he would play for the West Harbour Pirates in the Shute Shield, and Swanepoel agreed. But the move was not one of glamour. Swanepoel literally was an amateur, having to hold down a job while playing for the club.

"I had an eight-to-five day job. And it was hard labour. It was totally new. I had come from Cape Town and Maties where I'd never worked a day in my life. It was all very new," Swanepoel said in an interview earlier this year.

"I held three jobs during my time in Sydney. I actually worked in factories! One of my jobs was at a firm selling sand. I had to take bags of sand and physically pick out rocks that were too big. Some days I would have to weigh the volumes and so forth. "At one stage I was working for a technology firm. I had to move television sets and sound systems the whole day, from eight to five. It's boring, I know. But you do what you have to make a bit of money."

CULT HERO

Upon his departure, his-then Maties coach Hawies Fourie said openly he was a loss for WP Rugby, saying "he is one of the best place-kickers he had ever encountered.

"I really hoped that his career would kickstart in 2018, because he played some excellent rugby in the Varsity Cup and WP under-21 team. It is disappointing that such a talented young player couldn't find a place, but hopefully the move to Australia will be a new start for him," Fourie said.

Swanepoel became an instant cult hero for West Harbour, where his huge boot saved them in their club derby against rivals Gordon. A massive 60-metre punt secured a 23-all draw and immediately made him a club hero, and a cult figure with Youtube videos spawned and shared on how to recreate such a massive kick.

The news caught the eye of the Lions, who lured him back to South Africa with a contract, but Swanepoel had only one start against the Jaguares in Super Rugby before Covid-19 struck, and stopped the season altogether.

And so the wait began once again, and with the Lions signing both Rossouw and Viljoen in the interim, the wait stretched out as the team were hindered by two games called off because of positive Covid tests.

Against Griquas in Kimberley he reappeared when Viljoen went off injured, and had found his voice. Something had changed and the confidence to seize the moment seemed there. So when Jantjies tossed him the ball early in the game on Saturday, it was the moment that Swanepoel had been waiting for. A moment he had wanted for several years.

And the manner in which he seized it sent out a stark warning to the Lions' opposition in the rest of the season. The monster boot can punish you. If the Lions use it wisely it could turn out to be one of the most important turning points in a frustrating season for the Johannesburg side. And it is a weapon few others have in their arsenal.