[ad_1]
Subscribe here
Up to 25 South Africans participated in the first round of the new English Premiership season. They played a total of 1,641 minutes and occupied all positions on the field except for the winger. Of the 12 teams in the league, only three had no South African representation, though the Exeter Chiefs and Newcastle Falcons each have three Saffas on their books.
London Irish and Bristol Bears are the only top-flight clubs in England without one of our compatriots in their ranks.
It is a disconcerting understatement to say that South Africans have had a forceful impact on the English game. It could easily be argued that, apart from the remaining local nations of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, no other country has left such a large mark on English rugby. It is not incredulous to go further and argue that South Africa surpasses even England’s closest neighbors in this regard.
“South Africa’s contribution to the Premiership has been extremely positive,” says Alan Solomons, the Uitenhage native who has served as the Worcester Warriors director of rugby since 2017. “You can see the huge impact they had on Saracens and you can to see the definite impact they’re having on Sale Sharks today. But they’re scattered and they always have been. It’s been really positive. “
There was a time when Saracens were nicknamed ‘Saffacens’ and it was not a compliment. When Brendan Venter was appointed director of rugby in 2009, he carried out a vicious slaughter of 18 players in 48 hours that some fans dubbed “the night of the long knives.”
In the void he had created, Venter tried to fill it with players whose accents carried the same baritone growl that is only left to servants in the southern tip of Africa.
Not that Venter cared what the critics had to say. After inheriting a team that had finished eighth and ninth in the previous two seasons, he dragged the Saracens to third on the record and finally to the final where they lost to the Leicester Tigers, who were the dominant team on earth, having won six of the last 11. stations.
Alongside scrum-half Neil de Kock and center Brad Barritt, who had already made North West London their home in 2006 and 2008 respectively, Venter would add forward rowers Petrus du Plessis and Schalk Brits, blocking Mouritz Botha, forwards. Ernst Joubert and Justin Melck on the loose, as well as Loftus liefling, Derick Hougaard.
Just in case, he also recruited former Namibia captain Jacques Burger.
“It was an incredible moment,” says the Briton, who solidified his status as a club legend after nine years of service, playing 216 games and scoring 37 attempts.
“Joining Saracens when I did was the best decision I made. It was the first time in my rugby career that I didn’t feel like a commodity or a piece of meat you’d find at the butcher shop. I was skeptical because all teams say things like “We are a family”, but they take you out of the game as soon as you get injured or lose shape. The Saracens accompanied me through the ups and downs and it was an honor to play for them. ”
As if to emphasize the metamorphosis that was taking place, the Saracens beat a touring Springbok team in November 2009 by a single point, courtesy of a late Hougaard drop goal at Wembley.
Venter would not see the end of the 2010-11 season but the team would lift its first Premiership title. That victory, driven in large part by the strength of South African muscle, would set the stage for one of the great dynasties of world rugby.
In the intervening years, the Saracens would claim four league titles, a national cup and three European Cups before the recent salary cap scandal saw them relegated to the second division for the 2020-21 season.
But the saga of South African participation did not end there. Even before the fall of the Saracens, another club had started to corner Saffas. Under coach Steve Diamond, a man who played 351 times for the Sale Sharks over 11 years, a club that had finished no higher than fifth since winning the title in 2006 was taking a sheet out of the Saracens playbook.
“ The best thing about my South African guys, in addition to being quality players who bring that physique that we expect with them, is that we don’t need to wipe their butt when they arrive, ” says Diamond, who recently announced his departure from Sale.
“They get by with houses and cars, they adapt quickly to the culture, they get down to work. Players from other countries need the bottle in their mouth. These guys are rugby people. It’s in their blood. They take care of everything else. ‘
Brian Mujati played 35 times for Sale between 2015 and 2017, but Saffa’s revolution really took off when Jono Ross and Faf de Klerk teamed up before the 2017-18 season. Diamond offered both players a lifeline and promised to help them revive their careers.
“Before coming here, Faf was sitting on the bench or playing on the wing for the Lions,” says Diamond. ‘Jono had become a day laborer. I told Faf that I would be a superstar here and that I wouldn’t have to change anything. I saw that Jono had leadership qualities. It took off from there.
Diamond explains that he chooses the brains of his players when looking for new recruits. ‘Why shouldn’t I?’ he asks, as if it were the most obvious strategy in the world.
‘I don’t need someone to tell me if a player is good. But you need people who know them to tell if they are a good guy and will fit into the culture. ‘
Since Ross and De Klerk, nine more South Africans have signed with Sale. All have been vetted by their predecessors, which partly explains why three Du Preez brothers, Robert, Daniel and Jean-Luc, are regulars.
On the side.
Now there are so many that the occasional cry of “in English, please” can be heard whenever too many calls are made in Afrikaans. It got so bad that the team’s head chef has implemented a ban on the word ‘braai’ insisting that ‘barbecue’ be used in English. Diamond has even learned a few Afrikaans words, but none can be printed here.
Sale’s success has not been immediate. They have yet to make the league playoffs with Diamond, but a Premiership Cup win in September – the club’s first trophy in 14 years – is a step in the right direction.
Of course, not everyone is satisfied with this new normal. South African coaches must stay up at night, fearful that a major player will be lured away by the force of a favorable exchange rate between the rand and the pound. Similarly, young English prospects toiling in the lower echelons must wonder whether a burly biltong eater will swoop down and slow their progress.
Solomons is quick to allay any concerns: “South Africans have personally benefited from playing in the Premiership, which is the toughest domestic competition in the world, but so have many others,” says the former Western Province and Eastern Province coach. . He has helped the Springboks. Look at the impact De Klerk’s kicking game had, which improved dramatically here, in the World Cup victory. ‘
The number of South Africans in England compared to players from other powers such as New Zealand, Australia and France has been contingent on the UK’s relationship with the European Union and simple economics.
Like cricketers, they have been able to circumnavigate the Premiership limit of two foreign players per matchday 23 due to this loophole that explains the comparable shortage of Australians and French. South Africans are also “much cheaper than New Zealanders,” according to Diamond, which partly explains the relative lack of All Blacks in England.
Brexit will change a lot in the United Kingdom, among other things this portal that connects rugby players and clubs from around the world. So if we are in the last vestiges of an era in which South Africans have been ubiquitous in English rugby, it is a good time to reflect on the impact they have had.
[ad_2]
