The Vodacom URC salutes its
terrific Bok 12
For the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, they
are the terrific 12. For the opposition, they’d be the terrifying 12. Whatever
the description, those 12 Springboks who will play the All Blacks in Saturday’s
World Cup final in Paris are 12 of the most awesome ambassadors of the Vodacom URC.
These 12 emphasise the quality of player
in the Vodacom URC and, except for Willie le Roux, who will make his Vodacom URC debut this
season for the Vodacom Bulls, the rest have all prospered in the first two
seasons of the Vodacom URC.
There are more Vodacom URC survivors in the
Springboks World Cup squad, but the likes of Manie Libbok, Grant Williams,
Jaden Hendrikse, Canan Moodie and Lukanyo Am will watch from the non-playing
seats as the Boks look to defend the title they won in Japan four years ago.
Veteran No 8 Duane Vermeulen stars for the
Springboks after two rejuvenated seasons at Ulster, a side that will welcome
the former DHL Stormers captain Steven Kitshoff for the new season.
The Irish interest remains in Saturday’s
final because of the Irish connection, with Munster’s monster lock pairing of
Jean Kleyn and RG Snyman bound to influence proceedings in the last quarter.
Kleyn and Snyman, monumental in Munster’s
title-winning final against the inaugural Vodacom URC winners, the DHL Stormers, last
season, are part of the famed and feared Bok Bomb Squad, which will feature
seven forwards and Le Roux as the solitary backline substitute.
The loaded forwards substitutes' bench
means there is room for both Kleyn and Snyman, and Kleyn’s journey from South
Africa to Ireland and into a World Cup final reads more like fantasy, but is
all fact.
Ditto, the Springboks coaching headline
duo of Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, who spent 18 months in charge of
Munster and who lured Kleyn from the Stormers to Munster.
Erasmus and Nienaber had coached Kleyn
when in charge of the DHL Stormers and they always believed in his qualities as
a player. The then Ireland coach Joe Schmidt also saw the value of Kleyn and
picked him for Ireland’s 2019 World Cup squad once the player had served his
residency in Ireland.
Kleyn played five times for Ireland under
Schmidt, but in four years never got picked for Andy Farrell’s Ireland. It
opened the door for Erasmus and Nienaber to pick him for the Springboks and the
player, who averaged 70-plus minutes a game for Munster last season, has added
solidity and strength to the Bok lock stocks.
Schmidt and Kleyn’s mission in 2019 would
have been to win the World Cup with Ireland. In a twist, both are in Paris for
the final, and both are with the teams of their birth and upbringing. Schmidt,
a Kiwi, has assisted the All Blacks for the past year and Kleyn, still resident
in Munster, will form part of the Boks match-day challenge for a fourth
Springboks World Cup title.
Snyman’s game time in the Vodacom URC was limited
because of injury and unavailability, but he produced the clutch plays when it
mattered most in last season’s URC grand final in Cape Town.
Winger Kurt Lee Arendse, for the Vodacom
Bulls, and utility back Damian Willemse, for the DHL Stormers, found form in
the Vodacom URC and transferred that form to the Springboks. Neither was the starting
wing and fullback two seasons ago, but both have been first choice starters at
this World Cup.
Ox Nche’s growth as a player has been the
result of an apprenticeship fine-tuned at the Hollywoodbets Sharks in the Vodacom URC.
Veterans Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe, Deon
Fourie, Eben Etzebeth and Bongi Mbonambi will all play in the Vodacom URC this season
for Ulster, the DHL Stormers and Hollywoodbets Sharks respectively.
It is remarkable that a league, still in
its infancy, has produced so many quality players on the global stage and
Saturday’s World Cup final could easily be a final between the Vodacom URC and Super
Rugby Pacific. Internationally, it is an all-southern
hemisphere final, but the make-up of the Bok squad has given the northern
hemisphere an invite to rugby’s biggest dance of the year.
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