Rugby: Spending quality time with sharks

On a three-week trip to South Africa, it's important to make the most of any spare time away from rugby.

In Cape Town, we were spoiled for choice, with plenty of different options available. A group ventured out to Robben Island, and witnessed first hand where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years.

This was a real eye-opener and helped us get a better understanding of what the man had endured in his lifetime.

Meanwhile, Hayden Triggs and the other bike enthusiasts in the squad hired Harley Davidson motorcycles and cruised around the Cape Peninsula, soaking up the surroundings for the day.

The golfers in the squad got to experience one of South Africa's finest courses, Pearl Valley.

John Hardie and Israel Dagg took the honours on the day, and Jamie Mackintosh posted his personal best of 148 off the stick.

The day after the game, six of us decided to test our mettle and go shark diving down the coast. The two-hour drive to our destination, known as Shark Alley, was a little quieter than usual.

But once we were on the boat and heading out to our spot, we started to loosen up bit.

Jayden Hayward even started to claim he had wrestled great whites off the coast of Taranaki in his youth. Our guide attracted the sharks to the boat by a special bloody burley mix and a massive tuna head on a rope.

When one of the fish was interested, four of us jumped in a cage tied to the boat and went under to get a closer look.

It was an awesome sight to have one of these beasts swimming so close to us. We had four different sharks approach that day, with the biggest nearly 4m long, and all came within 1m of our cage, so we got a good look.

Jayden claimed these were babies compared with those found at the 'Naki, but we were happy nonetheless.

One of the highlights of our trip came on the day before we played the Bulls in Pretoria.

Tom "Sassy" Donnelly organised a management 80m sprint race after the captain's run on Loftus Versfeld. There was big hype surrounding the race, with physiotherapist Karl McDonald going in as an early favourite.

The runners were handicapped off the start, to even it out as much as possible, and it proved to be a tight finish.

Defensive coach Barry Matthews was first to the line, just ahead of technical analyst Wayne Inch, who put in a stellar performance.

The race proved to be costly, however, with both Matthews and manager Greg O'Brien pulling hamstrings, both requiring physio and leaving them limping around the hotel for the next couple of days, much to the boys' delight.

The team is excited about getting home and playing at the 'Brook after a tough but enjoyable tour.

The team has become a tighter unit, which will help in the rest of the competition.

- Kendrick Lynn