A Former St John's boy who spent a year playing football for Moroka Swallows will be Western Province rugby's new flyhalf on Friday night
Demetri Catrakilis will the sixth flyhalf this season used by Stormers and Province coach Allister Coetzee. Injuries have affected his squad picks.
Catrakilis hails from Johannesburg. His first love was football, but he turned to rugby midway through high school, even though he initially wanted to play soccer professionally.
Rugby eventually won his heart. Since then, he's come through club rugby into the Currie Cup set-up, a path few players travel in the professional era.
"I hadn't played rugby before high school. My first love was soccer," Catrakilis said.
"I thought I wanted to make a career out of the round ball game and played until Grade 11 at club level. At 17, I had a year with Moroka Swallows, but I started really loving rugby in matric and gave up soccer.
"After school I went to France and played for Racing Metro's under- 23s. It was a really good experience. I learnt a lot from Andrew Mehrtens.
"The experience made me hungrier when I returned to South Africa."