Former Springbok Bob Skinstad was a fan favourite during his playing days as a roaming expansive backrow.
This popularity has continued to his post-playing days as a superb pundit offering unbiased and insightful analysis on all things rugby.
Speaking to Rugbypass as he chose his Ultimate XV, an exercise he did without picking any South Africans to avoid offending any former teammates! Bob revealed a brilliant rugby story about his father and the Twickenham security.
Having selected his ultimate XV, which you can see here. Skinstad was asked to choose his favourite stadium.
Opting for the home of English Rugby Twickenham Stadium, Bob explained a unique reason for his choice.
Discussing his late father, Bob chuckled as he recalled a time when he took a rather ugly hit that resulted in an injury.
Being a doctor as well as a parent, Bob's father, who was in attendance that day, felt there would be no better person to assist his son than himself.
"The reason I pick it is in memory of my old man, who passed away, but he was a doctor, and I got him some tickets to my last game at Twickenham.
"I hurt my shoulder, and I was lying on my back, and I had been knocked out, and I dislocated my shoulder.
"There was a circle of people around me, as you can imagine, some of the players and the ref and one of the team doctors and a linesman.
"And I looked up, and there was this familiar face, and it was my dad," Bob said with a smile.
"I think he thought because he had been a doctor for thirty to forty years that he had the right to jump over the fence, sidestep the guy in the yellow jacket and make it across to the circle to see if I was okay." Skinstad said.
"I think the ref actually said to him, what are you doing here? And he was about to signal for the security when my dad said no, just relax, that's my son.
Replying to the caring father, the ref said, "Ok, you can go and see him".
In his current state, Bob said he wasn't best pleased with his dad at that moment, "I swore at him and said, what are you doing here? Leave me alone type of thing.
"He then got kicked out of the Stadium, you know, handcuffs type thing, etc.
"And he then found a little old lady at the security and told her the whole story, and she let him back in.
"So all of that conspired to be a great memory for me and my family at Twickenham," Skinstad concluded with a smile.
Going into more depth about the lengths his father went to, Skinstad said, "Amazingly though he had seen the collision and had to get down from his seat as quick if not quicker than those people because they blew up (the whistle).
"But he had seen it and run before the ref had blown the whistle.
"So he was obviously watching to see if anyone was going to whack me; he knew that I avoided tackles for most of my career, so he probably knew when I went into one, it was a problem." Skinstad joked.
Truly a fantastic rugby story from a legend of South African Rugby. You can join Bob by picking your Ultimate Rugby World Cup XV right here on Rugbypass.
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