Schalk van der Merwe is no ordinary rugby player. For he is the only lion tamer amongst the 288 players fronting up at this year's Hong Kong Sevens. For not every one can boast of handling 17 lions every day.
'Yes, you can call me a lion tamer,' he smiles in embarrassment. His Namibian teammates are ribbing him in the locker room. Shouts of 'lion tamer, lion tamer', are heard as we ask Van der Merwe whether he is truly a Lion King. 'My mum and I run an animal orphanage in Namibia. We have 21 different kinds of animals there, everything from baboons, cheetahs, leopards to lions. We have 17 lions, from cubs to full-grown males. I take care of them,' says the unassuming Namibian.
Young cubs left to die after poachers and natural causes claim their parents, or those lions and lionesses which are old and toothless, all end up in the 10,000 acre farm Van der Merwe and his mother operate in Gobabis, 300km from the capital city Windhoek.
'We have very young cubs to old lions. The oldest one is 21 years old, which is a long time to live for a lion. Normally their life span in the wilds is only around 15 years. But they live longer in captivity,' says Van der Merwe. He would have been caring for his pride of lions right now and not trying to be the pride of Namibia if not for the pull-out of France and Italy due to the pneumonia outbreak.
Luckily for Van der Merwe, who has played both at centre and flank in 15s, he was in Windhoek when the call came from the International Rugby Board for a replacement team left organisers scrambling to find numbers. Namibia answered the call, showing they were true lions and not mere pussycats. 'I was lucky that I was in Windhoek. For otherwise I don't know if I would have been able to make it. We were all thrilled to come to Hong Kong. The flu does not bother us. What matters is playing here. We are starved for international competition and we did not have any second thoughts of accepting the invitation,' said Van der Merwe.
This is not the first time Van der Merwe is playing at the Hong Kong Stadium. He appeared at the 1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens when Namibia qualified for the event. 'We only arrived here on Thursday and we are still recovering from jet lag. We are still not at our best and we look a bit unfit,' said the 29-year-old. But that did not prevent Namibia from entering the Plate competition.