Mbonambi | The Springboks ‘Iron’ man

PARIS – Bongi Mbonambi, alleged to have addressed a racial slur at England’s Tom Curry, is regarded as key to South Africa retaining their world title on Saturday — not bad for someone once told he was too small to play the game.

The remark made by a rugby coach when he was a junior player is even odder given the 32-year-old Springbok hooker’s nickname is ‘Iron’, like his grandfather who was a body builder, his father Mpinda said in August.

Mbonambi would not be the most physically imposing hooker, he is 5 feet 9 inches (1.77 metres) and weighs less than 16 stone (98 kilogrammes), but he makes up for it with his combativity and his leadership on the pitch.

This combativity is borne out by his motto: “When people tell me I can’t do something it makes me try even harder.”

The coach who called him out for being too small was neither the first nor the last to eat humble pie due to Mbonambi’s determination to prove them wrong.

Outstanding in the 2src19 World Cup winnin