Forever rugby — Naas Botha’s boots find a home in a Karoo pub

We’re off to see a rugby fanatic who lives at the end of a long dirt road in the Karoo, somewhere between the Upside-Down Cow Sign and the teasing promise of a distant raincloud.

We drive through truly timeless landscapes made up of silent veld and typical flat-topped hills interspersed with rows of garingboom (agave), fencelines and sheep, lots of sheep.

Barry Naude, who farms by day and thinks elliptical-ball thoughts non-stop, has opened The Waterhole Rugby Museum and Private Pub at his home on Driekoppen, roughly equidistant from Noupoort, Middelburg and Hanover in the Northern Cape. 

I cannot resist a passionate packrat of a collector: this is how history is curated and safeguarded by ordinary people. 

Thunderstruck in the museum

We knock on the door of the neat farmhouse, hear a barrage of barks and in quick succession meet Barry’s sons Tjaart and Guy, wife Thea, daughter Jade and then Barry himself, all beaming despite this rude Sunday-morning invasion. Followed by eight nosey dogs, we are led down into the largest man cave this writer has ever seen.

On the soundtrack is Thunderstruck by AC/DC, played at joyous top volume. 

On every wall there are cabinets and in every cabinet there are rugby jerseys in a blaze of colour, rugby caps, signed rugby balls, flags, badges, brochures, mugs, jackets, commemorative clocks, posters, photographs, trophies and books, lots of books. Along one wall stretches a long and inviting bar. On tables there are more jerseys and books awaiting filing.

This is where you’ll find a pair of Naas Botha’s famous kicking boots, a blazer from Solomon Mhlaba, the tiny boots worn by the mascot who led the Springboks onto the field in 1949, De Wet Barry’s jersey used when he played in the 2003 World Cup.

Leather, mothballs and a touch of testosterone

“It was actually Thea’s idea to put it all together in one place. My collection was starting to take over the house,” Barry smiles shyly.  

This large place that smells of leather and mothballs with a top note of testosterone, is formally named The Waterhole Rugby Museum and Private Pub. 

From the age of 10, thanks to his rugby-fan mother, Barry has been completely entranced by the game, the characters and the memorabilia.  He also played on the wing for Union High in Graaff-Reinet until he broke his fifth vertebra.

His collection started with scrapbooks, then books, rugby jerseys and eventually everything else.

“There are plenty of rugby collectors. It’s quite competitive. But I’ve got the biggest collection in the Karoo. A lot of it actually comes from donations, guys just giving me an autograph or a jersey. Everything here has got a story.”

Barry’s particular area of interest covers those incubators of talent, the district unions and town clubs. 

Decades ago, nearly every institution and the tiniest dorps had rugby clubs and regular championships. De Aar used to have five rugby clubs, as did Graaff-Reinet. Tiny Richmond had a club, as did Hanover. 

Kanniedood Rugby

His particular passion is for the old North Eastern Cape (Noord Oos Kaap or NOK) Rugby Union with its distinctive Kanniedood logo. It included the towns of Burgersdorp, Aliwal North, Colesberg, De Aar, Britstown, Victoria West, Richmond, Graaff-Reinet, Murraysburg, Somerset East, Jansenville, Steytlerville, Adelaide, Bedford, Grahamstown (now Makhanda), Middelburg, Hofmeyr and, of course, the club’s traditional headquarters, Cradock (now Nxuba).

In fact, there is a whole separate alcove for his beloved NOK collection.

Not surprisingly, Barry also collects rugby facts. He can tell you – perhaps over an ice-cold beer at his pub – how to spot a fake World Cup rugby jersey, all about legendary Leopards players Solomon and Heinz Mhlaba, local brothers Maeder and Antony Osler and their famous Springbok uncle Bennie, when the eight-panelled leather ball gave way to the four-panelled one and much more besides. 

He remembers bits of rugby trivia, obscure facts and statistics with a passion more often seen in Wisden-quoting cricket buffs. 

The Waterhole Rugby Museum and Private Pub has, naturally, been visited by some famous rugby players, including Chester Williams, Corné Krige, Pieter Rossouw, Adri Badenhorst, Thys Lourens and Gus Theron. 

But Barry has found that rugby players’ interests are quite different from the altogether more feverish rugby fans when it comes to trivia and memorabilia.

“Oh, ja, the players will look around and admire stuff, but then they’ll come over to the bar, have a beer and chat about the latest match. It’s the true fans who spend hours looking at the badges, caps and jerseys.”

Barry has a regularly updated Facebook page for his Waterhole Rugby Museum. To organise a special tour of his collection, call him or Thea on 082 112 3114 or email barrynaude@webmail.co.za. DM

For an insider’s view on life in the South African Heartland, get the Karoo Quartet set of books (Karoo Roads I-IV with black and white photographs) for only R960, including taxes and courier costs in South Africa. For more details, contact Julie at julie@karoospace.co.za