Ben-Jason Dixon has opened up about how he has embraced the Springbok culture fostered under Rassie Erasmus in the bruiser’s debut Test season.
Dixon enjoyed a dream start to his international career, making his debut at Twickenham – one of rugby’s hallowed grounds – and dotting down in his first Test start against Portugal in Bloemfontein.
The 26-year-old followed that up with a sensational 80-minute effort in the Rugby Championship opener against the Wallabies, helping the Boks banish their Brisbane hoodoo.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with RugbyPass, Dixon opened up on how he immediately embraced the openness of the Bok culture under Rassie Erasmus.
“I thought it would be a lot more tense, but you are quite free to be yourself,” Dixon told RugbyPass.
“From what I’ve heard from some of the senior players it hasn’t always been like that – it’s been heavily seniority-based, they are the bosses and the rest are servants. It’s not like that. There’s a good lead-by-example culture, but also a friendliness.
“It’s not about you, it’s about the team, it’s about the performance, about South Africa. There’d be enough reason to complain but in the team environment, who are you to complain? No, everybody deals with that on their own because they don’t want to bring [negativity] to the team. That’s really different from some of the experiences I’ve had with rugby teams.
“It’s next-level, I would say. People put the main thing first.”
Having been ruled out of the year-end tour after suffering a knee injury playing for the DHL Stormers, Dixon is taking the lessons from his first dip into the brutal Test rugby arena.
His most recent Test on home soil came against the All Blacks at Ellis Park, where he was substituted after 37 minutes.
“For some reason I got it wrong a little bit in the prep,” Dixon explained. “I found it difficult to get into that nice competitive zone where it’s you vs them, you’re ready to give it everything.
“That game, I found difficult to just show the quality of player I am. It wasn’t that I played poorly, I knew I didn’t perform to my best ability which was obviously a little bit disappointing afterwards. It was such a big occasion and for some reason I didn’t get up for it the way I wanted.”
Erasmus did recall Dixon for the clash with Argentina in Santiago in the penultimate round of the Rugby Championship, where he gave a timely reminder of his ability, even though the Boks suffered a late loss in tough conditions.
Photo: Paul Harding/Gallo Images
The post Dixon embraces ‘next-level’ Bok culture appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
