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Bret Harris From: The Australian March 15, 2011 12:00AM
THE best 21st birthday present Nathan Sharpe received was to make his professional debut but, 12 years later, there is only one gift he wants on Saturday when he equals George Gregan as the greatest Super Rugby cap-winner -- a win over the Lions.
The Johannesburg match will be his 136th in the competition -- the first 70 of them for the Queensland Reds, the rest for the Western Force team he has captained from the outset in 2006.
But Sharpe isn't eyeing off any personal achievements, not when the Force is still chasing its first win of the season.
"I wasn't even aware of this record until Sunday and I'm not even quite sure how I've come to equal George . . . he must have missed a few games through injuries," Sharpe said. "But it's not about me this weekend. We've had three disappointing results so far this season and all I want out of this match is a win as a reward for the boys who have been toiling away."
Sharpe has good and bad memories of the weekend he played his first Super 12 match, in 1999 against the Hurricanes at Ballymore. "We won (11-0) but the next day, as I was getting dressed for my 21st, I noticed for the first time that I was losing my hair," he quipped.
His debut was made possible because Australian captain John Eales was recuperating from the shoulder injury that nearly kept him out of the World Cup later that year. Sharpe's performance that day earned an approving tick from Eales, but that was by no means the first time Sharpe had caught his attention.
"I have very clear memories of our first meeting," Eales told The Australian yesterday. "I went to the Southport School to make some presentations at an end-of-season function and he came up and introduced himself. He was in Year 10, but he looked me straight in the eye. Not many people are tall enough to do that and he was only 15 at the time."
Eales cannot comprehend how little respect is accorded in Australia to the man who surpassed him as the Wallabies' most-capped second-rower.
"People underestimate him and it always surprises when they do," Eales said. "He always delivers. He is very solid, has very good ball skills, is gutsy and, on top of that, he takes on enormous leadership responsibility, some of it directly in the game as the lineout caller and general tactician but also off the field as well."
Sharpe might now be 33 but Eales is far from convinced that the Force captain's best rugby is behind him. "I think Sharpie is one of those guys who keeps getting better with age," he said.
If anything, Sharpe has become more valuable, not less, to the Force over the years.
"He was the first guy we contacted, long before we even had a coach or a chief executive," recalled Force chairman Geoff Stooke. "He came across right from the start as a quality individual, an intelligent footballer and a natural leader."
Now that Sharpe is set to equal Gregan's record, the question is whether the 93-Test veteran has an even more prestigious Gregan mark in his sights -- his world record of 139 Tests.
"Apparently not," said Sharpe, who does not have a Wallaby top-up contract for next year.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226021384315
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Originally Posted by TOCC
Honorary Sandgroper is high praise indeed.
