‘I don’t have an Irish accent in Afrikaans’ – Connacht’s Shayne Bolton eyes Ireland spot

Andy Friend had spotted the South African winger playing college rugby in Bloemfontein and decided to offer him a route to the pro ranks at Connacht. Bolton's grandmother Noirin Stapleton hailed from Blackrock, Co Dublin and thus he was a player of interest.

After his quarantine, he arrived into a professional set-up for the first time and tried to assimilate in a time of restrictions and face masks.

Three years on, the 24-year-old beams a broad smile and speaks with a broader Irish accent as he considers his progress.

Had a nasty gash to his leg not prevented him from travelling, he'd have gone back to Bloemfontein as part of the Emerging Ireland squad last month and there's a reasonable chance he could make the full squad for November.

An abrasive, powerful winger who has been consistently good for his province for a year now, he would have no doubt caught Andy Farrell's eye when standing up to his son Owen when Connacht played Saracens last season.

​He's come a long way.

"I was so nervous," he says of his initial trip to Ireland. "It was my first time travelling alone too. It was in Covid time, the plane was empty. I had my own row, it was all open. It was crazy, masks on and couldn't really speak to anybody.

"The airports were so quiet, I didn't know where to go or what to do. I was so nervous travelling on my own and then I had to quarantine for 14 days in a hotel in Dublin because I was coming from a red-listed country.

"I was in the hotel for two weeks on my own. At least I had a bit of gym equipment that Connacht sent up.

"That was really tough at the start, I was just on FaceTime all the time talking to family and friends back home. But I made it through that and I was excited to get stuck in and start training and learning.

"It did take a good few months, at the start it wasn't very easy.

"I was struggling to find accommodation and that kind of stuff, but I settled in quite quickly with the lads, the team environment was helpful. Every weekend, every off day there'd be somebody asking me to come for coffee with them.

"Everyone was so inviting and now I feel like one of them. I've made great friends here, I'm enjoying life now."

His Irish accent passes them by back home because it doesn't seep into his native tongue.

"I don't think they know too much because I speak Afrikaans to my friends so I don't have an Irish accent in my Afrikaans language. When I do speak English, I get a few messages, especially from my brothers," he says.

"I'm very close to my gran, she lives close by to my parents in South Africa and I saw her every Sunday or every second Sunday. She comes from Ireland and I was always aware that my family comes from here. It was really exciting when I got the opportunity, a lot of people don't get the opportunity, so I was really happy and was looking forward to trying to make a difference this side.

"My granny's name is Noirin Stapleton from Blackrock in Dublin. I think her parents died when she was young in a car crash, so she was sent to England for a couple of years and then she was sent to Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where she spent most of her life."

The youngest of a family of five, Bolton went to a local school in Pretoria and played underage rugby with the Blue Bulls before joining the Cheetahs academy and attending the Free State University. After two years, he lost his academy spot and remained in Bloemfontein to study.

Adapting to life as a professional in Ireland was tough.

"I came in from college rugby, so I had a lot to learn about professional rugby, a professional set-up and it took longer than I expected when I came over," he says.

"I've had so much help from the players, my friends, the coaches and everyone around.

"They've helped me grow, when I came over I was mostly a centre but I moved to wing then and so I had to learn, not a new position, but one I hadn't played much in.

"I had to learn that quite fast. All credit to the players around me and the coaches."

He's a quick learner and, having switched to wing from centre, has become a key man in a talented Connacht back three. On Saturday, he'll take on Leinster and that represents a real chance to catch Farrell's eye again.

"We scored a good few tries in most games, four or five tries a game, so our attack and everything is working perfectly, we're very positive," he adds. "We'll be looking to take the game with both hands and give it our best."