Suddenly there is a crop of younger players making an impression on South African rugby – Elton Jantjes (20), Patrick Lambie (19), Nick Köster (20), Jaco Taute (19) and in his second year of Currie Cup rugby, Wandile Mjekevu (19), Gerhard van den Heever (21) and Martin Bezuidenhout (just 21).
When is a player old enough AND good enough? Paul Dobson looks at what makes a wunderkind in South African rugby…
Frans Steyn is not long past being a wunderkind, Steyn is now 23.
He was only 19 when he played on the wing against Ireland in Dublin and 20 at the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Somehow a young player is so exciting. And many of them become famous.
In 1989 Australia picked two teenagers to play centre against France in Strasbourg. It was their first Test together, Australia won, and Tim Horan and Jason Little became famous. As the saying goes, if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.
The youngest players to play international rugby are two Scots – Ninian Finlay and Charles Reid who were 17 years and 36 days old. If you believe his tombstone Jack Hartley was even younger when he played for South Africa in 1891. Hartley is buried in the cemetery in Muizenberg and his tombstone gives his birth date as 18 August 1876. He played for South Africa’s on 5 September 1891. If the tombstone were right he was 15 years and 18 days old. In fact it seems he was born in 1874, which still means he was the youngest South African Test player of all time. Hartley’s team-mate Barry Heatlie, the man who gave South Africa the green jerseys, At 19 he is the youngest forward to have played for South Africa. (The youngest-ever Springbok prop was Ollie le Roux at the age of 21.)
There have been other particularly young players to represent South Africa.
The first man to score a Test point for South Africa was Davey Cope. He was 19 at the time. He played for Western Province at the age of 17. Sadly he was killed at the age of 21 in a train accident at Mostert’s Hoek. He was on his way to the Currie Cup tournament at Newlands.
Bob Loubser was 19 when he played against the 1903 touring team. His team-mate in the centre, Syd de Melker of Griquas, was also 19, a month and 21 days older than Loubser.
Two of Billy Millar’s 1910 side which played the tourists from the Four Home Unions had two 19-year-olds – Clive van Ryneveld, whose son played rugby for England while a Rhodes Scholar and then captained South Africa at cricket, and Wally Mills, who played for South Africa before he had played for Western Province.
Steve Joubert was the youngest and the smallest of 1906 Springboks, just 19 years of age. He was chosen for the team, withdrew because he was studying for a scholarship to read medicine at Edinburgh University but then there was an injury and he joined the side, playing three Tests.
DO Williams was 18 when chosen for the 1931-32 tour and on that tour was Danie Craven who was 20 and had not yet played for Western Province. Freddie Turner played against the 1933 Wallabies at the age of 19. All of those became great players.
Not all young starters had great careers. Jannie Barnard, the flyhalf with the dancing feet, was 20 in 1965 when he went off to Ireland and Scotland with Avril Malan’s unsuccessful Springboks and then to Australasia with the Dawie de Villiers’s unsuccessful Springboks. He played in five Tests that year and in none after that, sometimes referred to as the youngest ex-Springbok.
Naas Botha, on the other hand, stayed successful.
The All Blacks saw him when he was a schoolboy and marvelled at him. That was 1976 and Botha was 18. The next year he was the in the Northern Transvaal team – a 19-year-old playing flyhalf. The next time South Africa played, in 1980, Botha was in his fourth season of Currie Cup rugby, the captain of Northern Transvaal and the obvious choice at flyhalf for South Africa. He played Test rugby till 1992 and was never dropped. He is one of the greatest players of all time, and he started young.
If you watch them in action and listen to wise men, then you come to the conclusion that EltonJantjies, Patrick Lambie, Nick Köster, Jaco Taute, Wandile Mjekevu, Gerhard van den Heever and Martin Bezuidenhout could all become Springboks, the way Frans Steyn has done.
Perhaps it would be better for them not to become Springboks the way Steyn has done – so talented that he has played fullback, centre, wing and flyhalf for South Africa and may not be sure where he should actually play.
Patrick Lambie has played fullback, centre and flyhalf for the Sharks. Obviously, young players take the chances that present themselves but they need careful management. They are assets needing looking after to give rich dividends for themselves and the teams they represent. They are the big pieces in the chess game, not pawns.
Look at the most successful player we have mentioned – Naas Botha. He played in one position. He played flyhalf. He did not become a jack of all trades.
The biggest problem coaches have with young players is to decide when to take the risk. I think this is too conservative, by testing one youngster at a time for 20 minutes and slowly phasing in these young potential stars can only be good for rugby.
We play roughly 8 tests per year against the NH, it is the ideal time to test 8 guys with 20 minutes each, if the guy proves himself in the 20 minutes, he gets 40 minutes the next time, and so on and so on.
@ biltongbek:
Many will disagree, players who played in a full match on debut said afterwards that time flies and before you know the game is over. The main thing with a young player is that he must walk into a settled environment. Senior players must lead by example. Naas Botha was protected by Tommie du Plessis, but he was allowed to play full games.
superBul wrote:
That goes without saying, you can’t expose a young player in a match when the senior players and rest of the squad is in chaos.
I agree if a player is good enough and mentally strong enough play him. Don’t keep him out.
Lambie was thrown in to play in the S14 when Sharks had a injury problem. Lambie was a revelation for us at FB. From the moment he started to play Sharks started to win. Mvovo at that stage should have been playing too. A pity we never started playing him at that stage of the S14. He only played near the end of the S14 and we saw what we had in him too, he was superb. It was to late by then.
Frans Steyn went to the world cup at 19 years of age. Was also thrown into play cause of the injury to JdV. Frans was brilliant.
We will only know what we got if we try them out at the highest level, instead of keeping em in cotton wool the whole time. These youngsters are hungry to play. Play them with a few seniour around them and they will excel.
Play em I say.
@ Puma:4 – typo there. meant – senior
Can you imagine Lambie or Elton with FDP? Or any of the players mentioned in Green and Gold. Wow!! Unknown quantity, hunger for rugby, and a bit of unpredictability. Mouth watering prospect. BTW, how old is Francois Hougaard? He could also potentially be in this group.
@ Lion4ever:6 – Lion4ever, Agree with you. Lambie, Jantjies would be awesome. I would play Lambie at inside centre then and Jantjies at FH.
Hougaard is 21 a youngster himself a superb talent he is too. Mvovo/Basson on at 11 – De Jongh at 13 – JPP/Mapoe at 14 – Taute/ or the Cheetahs FB at 15.
Damn now that is talent.
There are a bucnh of players who are still very young and I hope after the RWC we see these guys exposed to Springbok rugby. This is what a Bok team could look like in the near future.
1. Coenie Oosthuizen age 21
2. Bismarck du Plessis age 26
3. Werner Kruger age 23
4. Flip v d Merwe age 25
5. Andries Bekker age 27
6. Heinrich Brussouw age 24
7. Dewald Porgieter age 24
8. Pierre Spies age 25
9. Francois hougaardt age 23
10. Patrick Lambie age 19, Elton Jantjies 20
11. Lionel Mapoe 22
12. Juan de jongh age 22
13. Stefan watermeyer age 22
14. Gerhard van den Heever age 21
15. Frans Steyn 23
There are even more that I have left out.
@ biltongbek:8 – Bek, Good team that but think De Jongh will play outside centre. Play Lambie inside and leave Jantjies at 10.
Mapoe plays 14. Let Mvovo or Basson play 11.
Vermuelen/Alberts at 8
Deysel at 7
Brussow/Potties at 6
Yip, plenty still missing from that line up. Always forget Frans Steyn at FB. Also we have Taute think he is onlyl 19 years old right now. The Free State FB too is very good.
Let them play if they are better than the rest. But only if they are the better, then age makes no difference.
That is a potent team, Biltongbek. A lot of those players should be sent on the EOYT, and some included in the WC squad. Mix a few of the older and wiser? heads in to the mix and we have a squad that should wreak havoc in years to come.
9@ Puma:
Can’t agree with you on Lambie at inside center. You now want to do what you and others have been complaining about. It is dangerous to make a utility back out of Lambie. He must specialise in one position.
@ biltongbek:12 – Bek, I know but we need to play Jantjies and Lambie and not play one and leave one out. They both far, far too talented for one to be left out.
Lambie has excelled in FB,12 and FH. I have only seen Jantjies play at FH but have seen Lambie in 3 positions. He was great at inside centre so would just play him there. Then not shift him about but leave him there. Though Sharks are doing well with him at FH. Not sure where JLP going to play when he arrives after the CC.
@ Puma:
I would prefer if Lambie and Jantjies compete for the same position, we have had a problem with quality fly halves for a long time now, and have struggled with depth in the position.
We have an opportunity to solve this right here with these two.
I don’t rate JL Potgieter, he is average at best.
I do not understand when people want to shunt players into different positions… I just do NOT get it.
We’ve all seen that it’s counter-productive, the examples are numerous.
@ biltongbek:14 – Bek, They both showing signs of being great FHs right now. But I would like both to be in the team playing. The only way would be to shift Lambie to inside centre.
Then if they both have to compete for the position then let it be but think we would be missing out. See Oz made space for Cooper and Gits by shifting Gits to inside centre. We need to do the same. If we have two stars play em both.
If you want to play both, then rather have Frans Steyn at 12, that is where he was very succesful in the RWC of 2007, and then play Lambie at 15.
But we also need to be realistic and wait until the world cup is over, these guys need to play some more Super 15 next year, and build the experience.
Hopefully by next year we will be able to ascertain how good they really are. It is the same with Brussouw, having one good year does only show potential, only in the second year do you establish yourself once your opponent knows you and you still excell.
@ biltongbek:17 – Bek, Yes meant these players for after wc next year. BUT we can take some on the eoyt and try them out there.
I hate it when we don’t take our best for a test. Then we all know our top players are going to be rested for eoyt. So need to take some of these very talented youngsters that are playing really well right now and see what we have in them.
Maybe one or two make the wc squad but really only thinking of them for after then.
Agree that Lambie was superb at FB and Frans Steyn was just as good at inside centre during wc 2007. So that could be fine too.
Just have to wait and see. Like you say one good season gives us a insight to the player, but the next season you know very well if that player is really up to it. I think both Lambie and Jantjies will be though. Both will be future Boks. My feeling.
@ Puma:
The other thing i really think the Bok adminstration need to change, is this 4 year cycle culminating into one tournament. We hang our hopes on winning the RWC to save face.
A number of guy son here has said in the past that we must play to win all the time, and I fully agree with that.
The situation of wnating to build to a world cup causes you to exclude talented players a year out, becuase you want to stick to experience.
@ biltongbek:19 – Agree totally. We need to win more and start thinking less than just about winning the wc.
I would rather we beat the best (ABs/Wallabies) more often than win another world cup. It is great to win the wc, but beating those two great nations more often is far better.
@ Puma:
Yes, having won 2 world cups in 4 attempts is great, but having only won 3 Tri Nayions in what 15 attempts is pathetic.
@ biltongbek:21 – Bek, Sure is pathetic only winning 3 Tri Nations.
Time to change that. Just too much talent not to win it more often.
@ Puma:
Well, I can tell you that I am simply fedup with playing second fiddle to these All Blacks.
It was the same with test cricket, been playing second fiddle to those Aussies far far too long.
I reckon its “horses for courses” mature heads (Provincial coaches and selectors) should discuss each player and if the consensus is that he is ready, then so be it, play him.
I dont think the comparisons to players of yesteryear bear much relevance, that was during a time of amateurism an the physical conditioning and strength of the players is nothing like today. One of the biggest decisions we must make “is the laatie physically up to the challenge” certainly their hearts and minds will be there, that part wont be a problem, but mentally can he accept failure if this happens.
Percy was played to soon
Dave van Hoeselen was played to soon (and never recovered mentally)
Gaffie du Toit was played to soon, also probably never recovered.
and our under 21 Captain who went to Oz (I forget his name, Westville boy) was played to soon by them, physically he wasnt up to the challenge, where is he now…I dont know but think his body is damaged to the extent that his rugby days are over.
Horse for courses…and it must be an unemotional and logical process.
Clyde Rathbone, the traitor.
@ biltongbek:
Thats right, Clyde Rathbone, him and Dan Vickerman both played SA under 21.
biltongbek wrote:
Imagine the All Blacks fall out of the WC in the semis , losing against South Africa. SA breaks the AB’s streak of 27 wins in a row. Who would cry? Who would be the happiest?
@ superBul:
The pure fact that the All Blacks made 27 wins alone is enough to cry about.
@ biltongbek:
Hell i must admit they are currently on 15 i think, i would love it if they get the WR back from Lithuania. It belongs to the real rugby Nations. But then they must stop. I can not see us getting that far, not even to 15 anymore. We just cant win regularly enough against them.
@ superBul:
Hense why we must stop focusing on holding on to experienced players just to stad a chance to win a world cup.
Particularly this one, it is in NZ. If they don’t win this one, the odds are that the monkey on their back will become KING KONG.
If we want to be realistic, we should dominate the NH, as the All BLacks do.
We should at least win 50% of our matches against NZ, and as far as Australia goes, with their small player numbers, we should beat them more often than not.
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