CAPE TOWN - New Stormers recruit Warrick Gelant believes being a part of the Cape side can help him take his game to the next level.
Speaking to the Cape media via Zoom for the first time since touching down in Cape Town, the former Bulls fullback chatted about how ‘at home’ he feels with John Dobson’s side, how training in smaller groups of five has enabled him to get to know some of his new teammates, and how skills coach Labeeb Levy has showed him that sometimes simplicity is key.
“I felt at home the minute I got here. I’ve played with some of the guys before, so it wasn’t all new faces. It’s been lekker so far,” he said.
“I think this is a place I’ve always wanted to be and the fact that they were so openly interested in me was also great,” said Gelant, who will be filling the No 15 spot left vacant by Dillyn Leyds.
“I’ve been wondering how I could take my game to a higher level and I know it can happen here. There hasn’t been a single moment where I’ve sat down and thought ‘this move was a mistake’. So I’m very thankful to be here.
While an expanded Currie Cup competition is set to kick off somewhere in September, there is no clarity as to an exact date yet as South African teams still haven’t resumed full-contact training.
And while there are very few who would have anything positive to say about the lockdown and the repercussions of Covid-19 in general, Gelant focused on the positives as he mentioned how this period of non-contact training has allowed them as players to get back to the basics…and sometimes that’s needed, he explained.
“We’ve seen how the guys in the NFL spend six or seven months just focusing on visual stuff. We’re in a similar situation now, and like Bibba (Levy) also said … now we can fix those things that we can’t normally fix in season, like your catch-and-pass and that kind of stuff. I can’t remember the last time we had six or seven months where we could just work on our game and work on the basics.
“What’s been good about this lockdown is the fact that the four other guys that were with me in a group at the start I didn’t know at all, they’re younger guys.
“We could make jokes to get to know each other, but it was also a chance to carry some knowledge over to them and for us to just talk about the basics. This gives you a chance to realise how far off the basics you are, it gives you a chance to fix it,” the World Cup-winner said.
“What Bibbo has shown me so well is that the further you move from complexity and the closer you move to simplicity … sometimes that’s how you improve, and that’s been key for me. Sometimes you get to a certain level but you can’t properly catch-and-pass, and he’s shown me how you can do the simple things, the basics, really, really well.”