Legacy or Team

It was one day before the final squad for the 1st team at school was announced and everyone was waiting impatiently about it.

It was obvious that Bafana would be the starting fly half for the team and Wikus would have to play fullback.

For both Bafana and Wikus this was important for different reasons because if Bafana got the nod to play 10 he was promised by a big union that he would get a pro contract straight out of high school and well Wikus just wanted to play 10 because he‘s father also played 10 at that school. It would also give Wikus a claim to run for head boy of the school and the only person that stood in his way was Bafana who was a way better 10 in his off day than Wikus was in his best day. Wikus knew this properly and had initially supported and endorsed the coach’s decision , well that is until his father told him that if he gets beaten by a black guy for that position he must forget about asking for anything from him.

Wikus was confused because on the one hand he wanted his team to win and he was comfortable playing from the bench and on the other hand he did not want to disappoint his father and it ate at him.

The urge of impressing his father got the best of Wikus so he came up with a plan as he knew if something happened to Bafana the coach would move him from fullback to fly half and he would be able to get his fathers approval.

Wikus invited all his team mates including Bafana to a park for a braai later that day. It was a rugby thing and it was easy for him to call some girls over too. Bafana was initially reluctant to go but because of team spirit he decided what the hell , he will go there for a few hours and just spend a couple of hours there. Upon arrival Bafana noticed that it wasn’t just any type of braai but a full on party with all the cheerleaders from school also in attendance. Bafana like everyone else mingled and had a few drinks until one of the most beautiful girls at school ,Marie started giving him more attention than he is used to and this made him stay longer than anticipated. Everyone in that rugby team was having a great time , enjoying different type of drinks and some were even smoking cigarettes. Marie kept making sure that Bafana’s cup was full and it could be said that she was flirting and making advances on him but Bafana was having none of it .

Bafana had consistently read about up and coming sportsman especially black ones being jailed for rape after having consensual sex with cheerleaders and he had made it a point that he would never go down that route. He didn’t mind indulging in drinks with them but he had promised himself he would get a pro contract and that was his only goal. Banging Marie was not going to get him that and he knew it . In fact it would bring him quite a lot of resentment from the white players in his team and it would also alienate Marie from her peers. She would be labeled and called names just because she had been with a black guy. Bafana was very conscious of this and was in awe as to why she kept on giving him extra attention. Wikus on the other hand was not even paying attention to them but kept on talking to Marie every time she left Bafans lap.

The park closed at 12 and everybody went to their respective rooms a bit tipsy but with enough energy to wake up in the morning. The following day at school the coach called in all the prospective 1st team players and told them he had an announcement to make . “ well we as a school have decided to first conduct a drug test before we announce the team , everyone will enter the office one by one where the doctor will be waiting for you and take your urine sample“. Everyone entered voluntarily and without hesitation . Two days later the coach called Bafana and told him that he would not make the team as they found high volumes of EPO in his system and there was no ways he would field a doper. Bafana could see his life flashing right in front of his eyes and he knew he had never ever had used performance enhancing drugs ever in his life but the test results were saying otherwise. He couldn’t come up with an explanation to the coach and the coach had no choice but to name Wikus as the starting fly half.

The coach felt pity for Bafana and decided to do an investigation. He called all the boys and none of them except Wikus said they knew anything about Bafana doping.

Wikus even went further by telling the coach he had always been suspicious about Bafana and how he didn’t get tired but the coach knew Bafana played hard because this was his ticket and one day while passing the girls practicing their cheers he overheard Marie telling her friend about how Wikus had promised her money for putting in some substance in Bafana’s drink and the coach instantly put two and two together because it was Wikus’s father who had called him and demanded all boys be tested. He called Marie into his office and she confessed everything to the coach. The coach was caught between a rock and a hard place and the only thing he could do was drop both players and lie about them being injured. The coach knew well that for Bafana rugby was a career and if word came out about his allegedly doping no one would believe that he was spiked and that Wikus was doing it to get ahead in the head boy polls. The coach told them they would get back on the team on condition that Wikus and his father sign a non disclosure agreement about Bafana’s test results and pay for him to attend a rugby academy otherwise he would be expelled from school and it would be known what he did. It was not severe punishment but the coach did this so that Bafana could continue with his promising rugby career