Where are they now: Former Bok lock Krynauw Otto

Nothing betrays a retiring disposition more than listing Al Bundy, from Married with Children, as the TV character you admire most. But former Bok lock Krynauw Otto emphasises that his choice indicates an ability to take life's vicissitudes in one's stride.

The fictional Bundy dreamt of playing college football, but this ended when he broke a leg.

Similarly, Otto's playing days came to an abrupt end in 2000 when he suffered a subdural haematoma in a Mandela Shield match against the Wallabies in Melbourne.

A scan revealed bleeding on the left front lobe of the brain leaving Otto, with reason, to wonder: "Why me?"

Unlike Bundy, the shoe salesman who can't make a sale, Otto was part of a highly successful Springbok team in the late 1990s. Before being forced into premature retirement at 28, he outlasted four national coaches between 1995 and 2000.

"I had a great time," Otto reflected. "I'm just in the next phase of my life. I really have no regrets. I haven't had any side effects (from the injury) after I stopped. I think maybe it was a blessing. I certainly don't have all the ailments that other players have after they retire.

He admits that his hulking 2m, 115kg frame yearns for the rough and tumble of the sport.

"I do miss the contact. If I get given the chance to play for just one minute, I would really love to get in one proper tackle."

Otto formed half of one of the Springboks' most industrious and celebrated lock pairings. He and Mark Andrews packed down in a record 25 Tests before Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha raised that bar in their ongoing collaboration.

Although he coached after retirement, Otto feels slightly detached from the game.

"It feels weird when I watch matches I played in. It doesn't feel like me on the television. It feels like I'm reading a book with that character in it. It feels like a chapter that played itself out a long time ago.

"I think it's just something I allowed to develop in my subconscious. Maybe it's just my way of blocking things out.

"The game has changed so much. My kids fall asleep when they watch a game I played in."

Today he finds the game barely recognisable.

"There are too many rules. I have to be honest, a lot of them I don't know. While I enjoy watching I don't always understand."

After retirement he coached at Tukkies and the Valke.

"The lack of funds at the Valke was really frustrating. The smaller unions should get more from the SA Rugby Union because they can't generate the same sponsorships as the bigger unions and the result is that an imbalance will continue.

"They (the unions) should all get the same budget and there should be a cap on the number of players you are allowed to contract," Otto advised.

These days he spends much of his working life on the road.

As commercial executive for the New Reclamation Group, a company specialising in recycling, the Pretoria-based Otto has to travel to the northern extremes of the country.

"We recycle paper and plastics, but mainly metals from mines. We melt it down here or it gets shipped to India. I'm very happy with what I'm doing."

Otto and his wife Liza have a son Krynauw, 10, and a daughter Mineke, 5, with the little girl displaying the greater sporting prowess.

"My son isn't mad about sport. He's kind of deep. Maybe he'll become a geologist," said Otto, who also admitted to a love for the outdoors.

"I'm mad about the bush and getting out into the open. I love going to Botswana and Namibia. One cannot spend enough time in the open. I try and spend at least three weeks a year in the bush."

He also sets time aside to go to Loftus Versfeld.

"The Bulls really look after the former players and now that the Bulls are doing so well, my wife has got into it as well."