With a name that evokes images of metrosexual male models or WWE superstars, you might expect to find WP and Stormers rugby player, Brok Harris in the back line rather than in the tight five up with the grunts. And you’d be right. Despite the fact that Brok is selected to play in the tight five, the backline is exactly where you will find this burly fellow showcasing his sensational silky skills.
Brok Harris demonstrating his patented reverse spin torpedo pass. His slippery skills are usually on display in the backs when he is most needed up front at ruck time.
In his mind his selection as part of the tight five is nominal or “symbolic” only – his true calling is to run with the show ponies in the back line.
Wherever there is a ruck that needs a forward to clear it, or wherever a loose maul needs some muscle to be added it to it, Brok can be found far away from where he needs to be, instead preferring to spend his time at “first receiver” in the key playmaker position for the Stormers.
Usually this requires Brok to insert himself between scrumhalf and flyhalf (no small feat when the scrummie in picture is Ricky Januarie) and to take possession of the pill squandering a three man overlap on his outside.
Never one to be discouraged by repeated failure, when the next ruck is formed, he quickly finds his place out where he imagines he is most needed – in space with room to burn.
As to his abilities as a scrummager and at ruck and maul, Stormers fans will never know how he stacks up as a tight forward. But as to his true calling, he yearns, nay aches to hear Hugh Bladen calling his name as “the big fella crossing the whitewash”.
