Rugby - Mad Megan
She's crossed swords with former Springbok coach Nick
Mallett, exerted pressure on NRU CEO Brian van Zyl, and yes,
she's been a rugby player in her day. Meet Megan Harris - the
Natal Rugby Union's communications manager.
Megan grew up in a rugby-crazed family. The youngest in a family
of four and the only girl, she learnt early that if she wanted to
be included she needed to learn "their sport".
"If you didn't know politics or rugby, then my father
wouldn't speak with you," she explained.
"I was a bit of a Tomboy," she added. Her brothers used
her as a tackle bag and one of her brothers carried her on his
shoulders as he ran up and down the steep driveway, strengthening
his neck muscles.
When Megan was in matric her headmistress decided to do something
different and gave the girls an opportunity to start their own
rugby teams with the promise of playing the curtain-raiser at
brother school, Dale College, on their reunion day. The team,
chosen on merit, not only received coaching from the first team
coach, but by the first team players as well.
The girls had to find a second team player with the same
measurements and foot size as them and borrowed their kit. The
day of the game arrived and the girls ran out onto the field
ready to participate in a game of full-contact rugby. For some
reason, Megan, at flank, was targeted by the opposite team and
when one of the girls did a dummy pass, both girls were tackled
to the ground. "Just five minutes into the game, my
team-mate's leg was broken and I was battered and bruised.
The guys realised then - this was no sissy game," she
laughed.
After school Megan became involved in sports management and
events co-ordination with Colour Sport Management, dealing with
players such as James Small and Pieter Muller. But the travel bug
took hold and she spent the next few years living abroad in the
United States, United Kingdom and Europe.
Megan laughs when she remembers being in London during both the
Cricket and Rugby World Cups. She and a friend went to Edinburgh
to watch one of South Africa's games and decided to wait
outside the change-rooms for the Springbok team. The first one
out was Pieter Muller, who remembered her from Colour Sport
Management.
She contacted him later that week to try and organise tickets for
the semi-final against Australia. She was to meet him in the
foyer of the Springboks' hotel and because she was looking
after a friend's baby, took the child with her. A number of
Springboks and their girlfriends were in the lounge when he
walked over to meet her. And the whispers started. As Muller sat
and chatted, he played with the little girl. And the whispers
grew louder. As Muller left, Percy Montgomery's girlfriend
muttered: "I bet you that's the mother of his
love-child."
Megan just grinned and left the hotel, the baby on her hip.
A few days later she was sitting at Twickenham Stadium, eight
rows from the front watching the Springboks versus Wallabies
semi-final. Springbok coach Nick Mallett was two rows behind her
and when he kept Jannie de Beer in the game despite repeated
missed kicks, she yelled loudly for Henry Honiball to be
substituted.
Megan returned to South Africa and settled into an information
technology job. Invited to the NRU Season Ticket Association AGM,
not a mean feat considering she did not even have a season
ticket, she saw her opportunity to chat to CEO Brian van Zyl
about his stance on women's rugby - a passion close to her
heart. Confronting him she asked her question. He looked at her
and asked her surname adding that her CV was sitting on his
desk.
"Well, it must have been there a long time, because I sent
it two years ago," was her retort.
But BJ liked what he saw and when a position opened up in the
communications department a few weeks later, Megan was
interviewed. "I was a bit nervous, considering how
confrontational I was, but it went okay, and I was called back
for a second interview," she added.
Asked what she likes most about her job, Megan smiled:
"Working with the rugby players!" she said.
Megan admits that there are players close to her heart, but she
was not prepared to name them. "But certain players stand
out for different reasons," she added |