2022 Summer Invictus Games [Kylaris Only | Canon | IC]

by **Nuvania** » Tue Jul 19, 2022 6:41 am

Phoenix Rising: How Saskia Steyn helped turn the women's sevens team around

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Gemma Black (@GemmaBlack)
^{July 19, 2022 (1:10pm)}

Women's sevens team captain Saskia Steyn

VERLOIS, GAULLICA - It did not begin on the field, but inside the changing rooms following their third and final pool match against Garambura at the 2018 Summer Invictus Games in Spálgleann, Caldia. The match, in which Nuvania had lost 36-0, was the final straw for coach Marthinus Venter, who barged into the changing rooms against protocol to verbally and physically abuse the already dejected and upset players.

Saskia Steyn, then aged 21 and considered the baby of the team, heard Venter before she saw him. She had been on the team for less than a year, and while she was aware of Venter's temper and his rage, she had not seen it herself until that afternoon.
"I remember the banging and shouting outside before he came in," she said. "I couldn't hear what he was saying, but I knew he was angry."

Steyn remembers the look on his face. She said she didn't have the words to describe the anger and rage he had, but she remembers the verbal abuse against many of the senior members of the team. She also remembers him picking up a rugby boot from one of the players and threw it at Tania Walters, who was sitting directly opposite where he was standing. Although she put her hands up to protect herself, the boot struck her face just above her left eyebrow, one of the cleats cutting through the skin. The women sat in stunned silence before Venter made a final comment mocking Walters' reflexes before leaving the changing rooms. He would be later found by Nuvanian Invictus staff at Spálgleann International Airport midway through booking a flight to Morwall. Steyn said that she remembered what one of the officials had said to her during an interview for the inquiry into Venter's conduct.
"They were more concerned that he'd 'do or say something he'd later regret'," she said. "I'm not sure if they knew what he was doing to us at the time. If they did, they didn't care."

While Walters would have her physical scars healed, the trauma that was inflicted on her by Venter started to show in the days, months, and weeks after the incident. Steyn said she would start having panic attacks before matches, and this affected how she played. Walters confided in Steyn, who despite being the youngest player, was the only one who had not been silenced by Venter. Steyn didn't have much of a choice in the matter, and to some extent, did not like the situation she found herself in.
"I became a therapist," she said. "I had no idea what to do or what I was doing and here I was, telling my teammates that everything would get better when we had no idea if it would or not."

The weight of the team started to get to Steyn and in the leadup to the 2019 Rugby Sevens World Cup, held in Los Santos in Rizealand, Steyn experienced her first breakdown.
"I just sat there and cried," she said. "That's all I could do. That's all I did. I had to carry all these secrets and all this emotional weight and it just wore me down. I couldn't cope anymore." Steyn would miss the opening pool match of the tournament, before participating in the final two pool matches. Following the third and final match against Satucin, where the team lost 22-0, Venter went on a similar rage in the changing rooms against the team that he had in Spálgleann. This was the tipping point that prompted Steyn to act, where she punched and kicked Venter repeatedly after he made crude sexual jokes about other teammembers during his rant. Steyn had to be pulled off him by other teammates and by coaching staff who had heard the commotion. Venter was treated for cuts and bruises, with police being called to the stadium. Steyn was briefly detained by Los Santos Police before being let go after the staff managed to convince Venter to drop the charges.

Following the incident and the team's return to Nuvania, Steyn was summoned to the Nuvanian Rugby Association headquarters in Pietersburg where she was questioned about the incident by senior officials within the sporting body. For their part, they did not believe that Venter had acted inappropriately or had, indeed, assaulted anyone, and Steyn's actions were considered serious enough to warrant a three year ban from rugby as well as the immediate termination of her contract. Although the NRA tried to keep the questioning and dismissal a secret, it was leaked to the media, and Steyn came under massive media scrutiny. Rather than stand up against both the NRA and Venter, Steyn shied away from the public eye, refusing interviews.
"I didn't want to make the situation any worse than it already was," she said. "I hated the media, the journalists that kept asking questions as though I was the one in the wrong. But according to them, and the NRA, I was." Steyn resented the NRA for what they had done and had initially wanted to walk away from rugby, the game that she loved. But she made a personal promise to try and stay in the game however she could.
"I couldn't let them win," she said. "I wanted to not only tell the truth but to play for Nuvania again, to prove my worth to everyone as a player and as someone who isn't afraid to stand up for themselves."

In the following months, the media interest died down and she watched with some cynicism as a large amount of the team she played with were replaced unceremoniously or left the team for "family reasons". In May 2020, she received a phone call from former team captain and now close personal friend, Tania Walters.
"She called me up one day and she said 'I'm going public'," she said. "And I was like 'public about what?' And that was when she told me that she had made a complaint against Venter for what had happened in 2018." Steyn said that the NRA had actually paid Walters to keep quiet, not only to the public, but also to Steyn.
"She kept apologising," she said. "I told her that I wasn't angry or offended by this because we did what we were forced to do. Neither of us had a choice in the matter."

Walters going public would be preempted by revelations that Venter had been arrested for public indecency in Jindao following a tournament victory in the Jindao Sevens. Venter, heavily intoxicated, had exposed himself to three of the team members while walking back to the hotel. He was spotted by two police officers who promptly arrested him. While the NRA went into damage control, Walters went public with her claims, including the assault against her in 2018. Steyn and other former team members also went public with statements supporting Walters, prompting the announcement of an internal review by the NRA on May 25, which lasted for two days before being handed over to an external review from the Ministry of Tourism, Sports and Recreational Activities. Steyn was called to give evidence in the inquiry.
"It was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders," she said. "I could finally tell my story and bring justice to those who were victims of Venter's abuse."

The final report was released in January last year and several reforms were announced, chiefly the introduction of a much more open and anonymous way for players and other staff within the NRA to made complaints or air concerns about the conduct of superiors. The suspensions and contract terminations were rescinded, with the officials that attempted to cover up the abuse fired from the NRA. But that didn't stop there; Steyn advocated for permanent contracts for female players and pay equity so that they didn't have to take other jobs in order to make a living, something which made large payouts for silence attractive within the NRA. Steyn and many others on the sevens team now play for the women's national team as well as teams in a new Women's Super League, created in November 2021. Since then the women's sevens team has gone on to enjoy success at sevens tournaments around the world, and is on track to win their first Inviuctus medal.

Steyn downplays the prominent role she had in making all of this happen.
"I did what I had to do."

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2022 Summer Invictus Games [Kylaris Only | Canon | IC]

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