The Old Diocesan Issue 13 - Magazine - Page 81
SPORT
PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF TRISTAN LEYDS
Tristan is the younger brother
of Dillyn Leyds (2010S), who was
capped by the Springboks in 2017
and is a stalwart of French giants
La Rochelle. Dillyn matriculated in
2010, when Tristan was in Grade 7,
so their time at Bishops didn’t
overlap, but the former’s influence
was huge nonetheless. While still
at Hendrik Louw, Tristan would
come through from Strand on
Saturday mornings to watch the
rugby, culminating in the First XV
match on the Piley Rees, getting
to know the school and eager to
follow in his brother’s footsteps.
Then he’d go home and replay
moments from the game in the
garden. How, he’d ask himself,
might he have done it better?
“I was quite fond of Bishops even
before I got here!” he says. And
by the time Tristan was in matric,
he was watching Dillyn rip it up
at Newlands, alongside the likes
of Gio Aplon and Cheslin Kolbe.
Dillyn took the Wet Pups route
to College, but Tristan came
straight from Hendrik Louw, where
he’d been taught in Afrikaans.
The switch to learning in English
took adjustment. “I was drawn to
Afrikaans-speaking teachers,” he
says, name-checking Jean Nolte,
Ronald Jacobs and Richard Smith
as formative influences.
Some ODs remember remarkably
little of their school days. Tristan
is not one of them. He recalls all
sorts of detail – much of it rugbyrelated, and most of it with a smile
– and as we talk, he seems to be
conjuring up players stepped
and tries scored, the scorelines
and crucial plays imprinted on
his mind.
In Grade 8 his mentor was future
Bulls player Johnny Kotze (2011S),
and throughout his time at Bishops
he played alongside Cornel Smit
(2015W). “Cornel was always
confident in me, even on those
days when I didn’t back myself,”
he says. “At a young age already,
his family was supportive of me,
and they were some of the first
people to congratulate me after
I got the Player of the Year award.”
Tristan started his Grade 11
season in the Third XV but was
playing Firsts by season end. His
matric season was a roller-coaster.
The First XV beat Paarl Gim 35–32
in the opening game, lost to Paul
Tristan dots down in acrobatic style against France in Cape Town, 2025.
Hendrik Louw Primary old boys
Tristan Leyds and Dr Paul Murray
reminisce about days gone by.
Roos by six, shipped 50 against
Rondebosch – and then won the
return fixture.
First XV coach André Jacobs was
the biggest influence on his game:
“Just the freedom he taught us; the
way he made us understand how
to play the game – how Bishops
rugby should be played.” It’s a style
that has stood him in good stead.
“If I look at the rugby I’ve played
throughout my career, the rugby
at Bishops is the closest thing to
sevens. That freedom of playing
heads-up rugby.”
After school, Tristan took the
professional route, aiming for
a career in the 15-man game.
He spent a year training at the
Western Province International
Rugby Institute in Stellenbosch
and played U19 Currie Cup, but
in 2017 his ambitions suffered
a serious setback in the form of
a broken eye socket – an injury
that left him unable to blow his
nose for two months.
From 2018 to 2020 he studied
for a BA at the University of the
THE OLD DIOCESAN | 77
