Saracens captain looking forward to facing old mate Lukhanyo

The Saracens captain for the day in their pre-season warmup game at Hollywoodbets Kings Park says there were no South Africans who have come through his club in the time he has been playing that he hasn’t liked - and one of the first of those was Springbok World Cup winner Lukhanyo Am.

Nick Tomkins, who started his rugby life as an English registered player and played for the Saxons in South Africa several years ago, has subsequently played several years for Wales.

Friday night’s game will be the first time he leads the club onto the field, and while he won’t know many of the young Hollywoodbets Sharks Invitation team players, he was very interested in whether Am would be featuring off the bench as he comes back from an injury layoff.

“Is Lukhanyo playing off the bench? He did a stint at Sarries many years ago, I mean when he was really young,” said Tomkins, who played in all three test matches in the 2022 series in South Africa.

“I was in the Saracens Academy when I first came across Lukhanyo. He was a really nice guy and I played with him a few times. It would be great to play against him even though I know he is coming back from injury (so might not be at full throttle).”

Am was young when Tomkins was starting out, but some legends of South African and world rugby were in their prime or coming towards the end of their careers at the time, and he says rubbing shoulders some of them was an important part of his growth as a rugby player.

“I have never met a South African player I didn’t like. For me I was also young when I met so many of them, when guys like John Smit, Schalla (Schalk Burger) and Schalk Brits were playing for the club. Having beers with them and socialising with them was amazing. There was also Neil de Kock, Ernst Joubert, all of them legends to me.

“They were always good fun to be around, always class people, and it is probably why Sarries had them. Brad Barritt, a South African who ended up playing for England and who I paired up with in the midfield many times, is coming up on Friday for the game (from Cape Town) and I am looking forward to seeing him again. He was captain for much of the time I played for the club and I learned a lot from him.”

TALENTED PLAYERS IN YOUTHFUL TEAM

Tomkins, as a senior player, is one of the players on this trip who should definitely be back in Durban when Saracens return here in December in a serious mood to face the Sharks in an Investec Champions Cup match.

“I have been here before, but it is nice for the guys to come here and get to know the spots. We know the weather conditions will be very different in December. We have heard it gets incredibly humid and of course it will be a shock to the system for us as it will be very different to what we will be experiencing back home at that time of the year.”

The Saracens team for Friday night’s game is mainly a youthful one but Tomkins warned that the players who will be playing aren’t just in the team because they are young but also because they are talented and have huge potential.

“We have some amazingly talented players, like the Bracken brothers. Jack Bracken has been amazing in the pre-season and Louie Johnson is an amazing flyhalf who has a great kicking boot and is just 22 and we feel has massive potential. He has been in the background for a while but we feel he is very impressive. He has been impressive for a few years now.

“But the main thing about a game like this is that we must feel free and go out and enjoy ourselves. It is an opportunity to play at a venue many of us haven’t played at before and against a team that will also be mostly useful and should have the same attitude as us.”

The game kicks off at Kings Park at 4pm and is a curtain-raiser to the Sharks Currie Cup team’s final fixture of their campaign against the Airlink Pumas.

That game kicks off at 7pm.