![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5d7fb36685bef9cc8601fd453ca435a6acd0c0f2.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cWe were training with the Waratahs from six in the morning until six at night, and I\u2019ve never been so tired,\u201d Burke said. \u201cI\u2019d also never been more bruised on my elbows.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were so tired that you missed the door frames and you\u2019d hit your elbow against them. You\u2019d have a pool session around four times a week, but it was also incredible. I played a hobby for a living and got paid for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second-rower who crossed the Nullarbor<\/p>\n
Two years before Super Rugby was born, John Welborn had driven from his home in Perth to Sydney to pursue his dream of playing rugby at the highest level.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
South Africa captain Francois Pienaar receives the William Webb Ellis Trophy from Nelson Mandela.Credit: Getty<\/p>\n
He set himself the initial goal of making first grade at Eastern Suburbs.<\/p>\n
The physical second-rower went on to become a regular for his adopted state and started in that first match against Transvaal.<\/p>\n
The Waratahs won 32-11, thanks to two tries from Burke. But Welborn\u2019s abiding memory isn\u2019t the result \u2013 it was the speed of the game, which was on another level to what he had been used to.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt [Super Rugby] captured the imagination and I think it was the fact that there was really competitive scoring,\u201d Welborn said. \u201cThere was a lot happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rules had developed after that 1995 World Cup, the lineouts were more competitive and the balls seemed to move a lot more. Instead of training just twice a week, the training had increased and the backlines had developed more sophistication.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d all worked a lot on our attack, but we hadn\u2019t yet done a lot of work on defence, which came later into Super Rugby. So we had a professional attack, but amateur defence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Welborn has carved out a highly successful career in the mining industry since his playing days. But before Super Rugby, the switch to playing professionally for the qualified accountant wasn\u2019t automatic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge risk [moving to professional rugby], but I\u2019d gone to Sydney to see how good I was and I hadn\u2019t answered the question yet,\u201d Welborn said. \u201cSo, it was pretty easy for me to say, \u2018OK, let\u2019s see if I\u2019m good enough to play at this level. I\u2019ll find out pretty quickly\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a ruthless meritocracy … if I was bad in that first game and the second game, I would have been back asking for a job three weeks later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t saying \u2018For the next 10 years of my life, I\u2019m going to be a professional rugby player\u2019. It was much more ruthless and I think that\u2019s why we were so competitive in those days … the uncertainty made it a real challenge, it really brought us all together in a way that is possibly unique.\u201d<\/p>\n
The generational Waratahs<\/p>\n
Mark Bell was the starting NSW hooker against Transvaal and is well qualified to judge how far the organisation has come in the last 30 years.<\/p>\n
Bell\u2019s son Angus has become a mainstay for the Waratahs and the Wallabies. But for Mark, standing on the field and looking over at towering opponents who had fully embraced professionalism was petrifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was intimidating [going into the game],\u201d Bell said. \u201cThe South Africans really became professional trainers, and they were just enormous humans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember, there was a guy called Rudi Visagie that I met the year before in Auckland, and he was the biggest human I\u2019d ever seen [Visagie stood 198cm tall and weighed 139kg]. I shook hands with him, and I felt like I was a kindergarten kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was with one of the boys, I said, \u2018Holy shit, that\u2019s the biggest human I\u2019ve ever seen\u2019. When we played, we played Transvaal, it was just insane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell acquitted himself well before being a clash of heads forced him from the field 14 minutes into the second half.<\/p>\n
![\"Rudi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/e1898df039926a1d958febf013bf75c33d502058.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Rudi Visagie (left) training with South Africa in 1993.Credit: Fairfax<\/p>\n
He now works as a master mariner after a successful career as a professional rugby coach. He was one of the few players to continue his day job as a policeman while playing for the Waratahs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually left the police for six months [to focus on rugby], and I hated it,\u201d Bell said. \u201cI didn\u2019t like the full-time footy stuff, it was too much footy for me. I needed to be busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
Bell would wake up at 5am for weights training, go to work, then return home to continue training late. Like most of his Waratahs teammates, Bell would often back up for his club, Warringah, in the Shute Shield the next day.<\/p>\n
Burke describes that season of Super Rugby as \u201cSydney\u2019s hottest ticket in town\u201d. But Bell points out that the new competition didn\u2019t just capture the city \u2013 crucially, the fast-running rugby against the best sides in South Africa and New Zealand also captured the bush.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was talking to one of my mates out in Moree recently,\u201d Bell said.\u201cThey used to get off the tractor on a Friday afternoon, get in the car, and \u2013 this is from Moree \u2013 drive down [seven hours to Sydney]. They\u2019d make stops on the way, pick people up and be in Sydney for the game, then they\u2019d drive back.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just had to be in Sydney for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe were training with the Waratahs from six in the morning until six at night, and I\u2019ve never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-471237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}