The best part of being a sports presenter, for me, is quite simply that it takes me to places that allow me to experience sport from close quarters. Cricket takes on a new meaning when you watch Herschelle Gibbs strike a full-blooded cover drive from the position of the wicket-keeper, just a meter behind him, and likewise, Super 14 rugby is seen through different eyes when viewed from the touchline alongside the players.
I spent the 80 minutes watching the Stormers playing the Blues from the touchline to shoot images (above), having previously wat! ched games from the media area in the upper level of the stands. What a perspective. You can literally feel the impacts of the tackles, and find youself getting drawn so much deeper into the contest by way of the small things that you see and hear, things which are missed from the main stands. All Black legend Dan Carter told me in a Cape Town hotel last year that it took him until the following Thursday sometimes to recover from the hits of a game. I understood fully on saturday night why he had said that. I'm still feeling it, and I was'nt even in the game.
