Frans Steyn has won two World Cups. Ruan Pienaar has won one. They have combined for 159 Test matches and 742 professional first-class matches and they are rocking the Currie Cup at the ages of 35 and 38, respectively.
Okay, Steyn only turns 35 on May 14 but he is a lot closer to 35 than 34 and Pienaar entered his 39th year in March. Steyn is still part of the Springboks squad and Pienaar is good enough to still play for the Springboks.
They are exceptional players but this is not about whether they should be playing for the Springboks but what they are doing to inspire a youthful Cheetahs team in 2022. Consider for a moment: When Pienaar matriculated, some of his teammates in the current Cheetahs squad were not born and when Steyn finished school several were learning to walk.
But here the duo were, on a Friday night, on May 6, 2022, in a near empty Emirates Airline Park Stadium, in deep discussion about whether the Cheetahs — leading 27-26 — should take the easy three points on offer or kick to the corner and ensure victory through a try.
There were just five minutes left to play against the Lions and the duo decided on going for the try, and the try was scored. There was one final penalty and the Cheetahs, table toppers of the Currie Cup, finished with a bonus point 35-26 win and ensured they remained on course for a home final.
For the Cheetahs, this Currie Cup season has been a Cinderella story, but for Steyn and Pienaar nothing in professional rugby seems to stop at midnight. This terrific twosome is playing on long into the early hours of the morning, and doing so better than those kids who were at kindergarten when Pienaar and Steyn were playing Test rugby.
Outside of their Test careers, both are celebrated in France and Ireland, with Pienaar playing 141 matches for Ulster and Steyn playing 92 times for Montpellier after completing 57 matches for Racing 92 in Paris. Steyn would also play in Japan and Pienaar would play 28 times for Montpellier in France.
Domestically, both chose the Sharks after school in Bloemfontein and the two combined for 194 matches. Incredibly, having played for the Cheetahs Under-18 schoolboys, it is only in the past two years that they have ever played professionally for the Cheetahs.
Both, in the twilight of an already extended and celebrated professional career, chose to return to the place they call home to represent the team they had always considered their own, even though they had never played for them professionally.
Both commanded bigger paydays overseas in the past two years, but both opted for Bloemfontein and both insisted their return was about mentoring the next generation, but also about winning matches as players. The two did not return to the city of their schoolboy glory days to relive the past. They wanted to write a new chapter and in 2002 they have done just that in the manner in which they have led the Cheetahs in the Currie Cup.
Their passion is awe-inspiring, as is their professionalism and commitment.
In an era when completing the full 80 minutes is something foreign to many players, these two take it as an insult if they don’t finish 80 minutes after starting.
There has always been something special about Pienaar and Steyn as players, but in that 75th minute on an empty Friday night, there was something magnificent about a moment that was mighty when describing the class and pedigree of Ruan Pienaar and Frans Steyn.
• Mark Keohane is the founder of keo.co.za, a multiple award-winning sports writer and the digital content director at Highbury Media., Twitter @mark_keohane.
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