Judaism helps Stormer navigate life and injury

Stormers’ loose-forward Hacjivah Dayimani is a lucky man. He knows he’s a lucky man because he makes two references to it in our interview, telling me that when he compares where he is to where some of his former classmates at Jeppe Boys now find themselves, he has no cause for complaint. 

He attended about 10 high schools (his own count) before ending up at Jeppe High School for Boys in eastern Johannesburg. There he told a rugby master that he wanted to play on the wing because he’d seen Bryan Habana slide over the wet tryline in the 2007 World Cup and it looked cool. His master just looked at him and said, “You’re far too big to be a wing, Hacjivah.” 

So, no Life of Bryan for him. 

“Rugby has been good to me,” he said. “The chances of me being where I am today are a million to one compared with some of the people I grew up with. I wouldn’t be where I am today without it.” 

Despite having had an impressive start to the season, scoring two tries against the Sharks in the United Rugby Championship (URC) in the Stormers’ 39-22 home victory, and one in the week before that against Edinburgh, this season has been somewhat darker for Dayimani. He injured his head during the Stormers’ victory over the Sharks, and, having sat out for the mandatory period, looked set to return for the URC match against the Scarlets in the second half of October. 

Still suffering from headaches, the 29-year-old missed the Scarlets match, no bad thing, as the Stormers scrambled to a late 52-40 win in a helter-skelter encounter that showed them far from their best. As a precaution, he also missed the following week’s home game against Ulster, which is when I spoke with him at half-time. “The headaches have continued,” he said. “We need to be careful.” 

He added that the recess for the Stormers in November – because of the international window during which time the Springboks are in Europe – came at a good time because it allowed him to rest. He hoped to be back for the return match against the Sharks in Durban in early December. 

“Getting the headaches means I’ve got to limit screen time,” he said. “I’ve been doing a lot of walking and cycling [at the upmarket estate in Bloubergstrand north of Cape Town] where I live. I’ve been concentrating on my lawn, watering it every day. My water bill has doubled, but I want it to look as slick as Twickenham.” 

Dayimani has also taken up golf in the last three months. He’s bought himself a set of clubs and recently became a member at King David in Mowbray. He politely brushes aside a question about his handicap, but adds that there’s another reason he wants a really nice green lawn in Bloubergstrand – and he tilts his head ever so slightly – “because I think it will help with my chipping”. 

He also spends time every day in his prayer room at home. His late father, Frank, an Igbo from Nigeria, was a practising Jew and Dayimani inherited his religion, rather than that of his isiXhosa sangoma mother, Lushabowang. 

“I have a copy of the Torah in the prayer room and observe Jewish holy days and Shabbat,” he said, noting that religion has provided him with a template for understanding his position in the world. “Religion has helped me navigate my life. It has given me a purpose. Being where I find myself today can’t just be luck. There has to be a higher power.” 

If Dayimani resumes his season against the Sharks early next month as he hopes, it will be the beginning of wall-to-wall rugby for the Stormers for the next six, the season ending only in May. The Stormers play in two parallel competitions, the Champions Cup and the URC. The Champions Cup, which used to be called the European Cup, is the more prestigious and lucrative tournament because, unlike the URC, it features French and English club teams and attracts larger broadcast revenue for the clubs as a result. 

Having spoken to Stormers staff about their ambitions for the season, it’s clear that they’d dearly like to make an impression on the Champions Cup, a competition no South African team has won and which therefore looms as a kind of final frontier for South African franchises. 

Dayimani might not always be first-choice eighth man, that honour falling to Evan Roos when he is fit, but the season is long and tortuous. Dayimani’s opportunity will present itself sooner rather than later. 

First, though, the Sharks away. While the Stormers were compelling in their defeat of the Sharks in Cape Town in early October, their form in the local derbies last season was abysmal, so it’s clearly a case of wait and see. Indeed, since the Sharks lost to the Stormers, their form has been excellent, and includes a tough away victory against difficult-to-beat Munster in Limerick. 

Dayimani is limiting the screen time as he waits for his headaches to dissipate, but you can be sure he’s been watching from afar as he counts his blessings.