The Old Diocesan Issue 12 - Magazine - Page 96
WHERE IS HE NOW?
ROB FLECK
Rob Fleck is the new Director of Rugby at Bishops, a position
created in response to the semi-professionalisation of the
game at school level. As he prepares for his first season in
charge, Tim Richman caught up with Rob to look back on his
playing days and get a sense of what’s in store in the new role
B
ack in the early 1990s, the
list of potential Springboks
turning out for the Bishops
First XV on any given
Saturday morning was quite
something. Not for nothing
was Basil Bey, assisted by Tim
Hamilton-Smith, considered
the Solomon of South African
schoolboy rugby, as crowds
congregated at the Piley Rees to
watch rugby as it might have been
played in heaven (to borrow Basil’s
own description). But it takes more
than precocious wizardry to make
it all the way to the top – timing,
a little luck, an added layer of grit
and mental fortitude, perhaps.
Two of the likeliest candidates
back then were Herschelle Gibbs
(1992O) and Hilton Houghton
(1992F). Gibbs, famously, chose
cricket. Houghton, amazingly,
didn’t crack it professionally,
though he is now one of the
country’s most successful agents,
currently representing a new
generation of Boks and potential
Boks, including Sacha FeinbergMngomezulu (2020F), Connor
Evans (2020W), Imad Khan (2021S)
and Suleiman Hartzenberg (2021S).
The three who did make it back
then were Selborne Boome (1992S),
Dave von Hoesslin (1993S post-
92 | THE OLD DIOCESAN
matric) and Rob Fleck (1993O) –
remarkably, in the same match,
when they all debuted against
Italy on 12 June 1999. And it
was Rob who went the furthest,
holding the title of most capped
Bishops Bok for many years,
before Francois Louw (2003W)
assumed that particular mantle.
After school, Rob became
an integral part of the Western
Province and Stormers structures
of the mid- and late-1990s, creating
midfield magic to put away the
likes of Breyton Paulse and Percy
Montgomery on his outside. This
was the “Men in Black” era, led
by Bob Skinstad and Corné Krige.
Known for his pace onto the ball,
elusive swerve and the ability to
get his arms through the tackle –
skills all honed on the Piley – Rob
was, for a time, one of the most
exciting centres in world rugby. He
was a key player in South Africa’s
Rugby World Cup 1999 challenge,
falling agonisingly short in the
semi-finals against Australia, and
he will always be remembered for
his standout performance in one
of the great Springbok-All Blacks
Tests, the 46-40 victory at Ellis Park
in 2000, in which he scored two
tries. Ultimately, Rob earned 31
Test caps between 1999 and 2002.
Following his relatively early
retirement, Rob moved into
coaching in 2008, first with UCT
and then with Western Province.
He served for six seasons as
assistant coach at the Stormers
before taking over as head coach
from 2016 to 2019, a period that
included two South African Super
Rugby conference titles. He then
stepped away from the game
to buy into the Forsyth & Nash
insurance brokerage, partnering
with Richard Neville (1995S).
By this stage, it would be fair to
say that Rob was somewhat jaded
by the professional game, but he
was lured back as a strategist for
the UCT First XV, with the inventive
Tom Dawson-Squibb at the helm.
Fast-forward a few years, and Rob
had in turn stepped into the head
coach role, with the 2023 World
University Rugby Invitational and
2025 Varsity Cup trophies in the
cabinet – and, most importantly,
a renewed love for the game in his
heart. For now, he remains UCT
head coach while assuming the
duties of Bishops’ Director of Rugby.
Sum up your school career
in a sentence.
Well, it was fun, that’s for sure.
I can’t do it in one sentence, but
