Venter focuses on game being well-rounded
When Boan Venter joined Edinburgh last month, he expected he would have to bide his time before getting a run in the team.
Instead, a knee injury that has ruled out Pierre Schoeman for more than a month means that, after just a couple of appearances off the bench, the 23-year-old should be able to call the No. 1 jersey his own over the next few weeks – starting tomorrow night against Cardiff.
Schoeman qualifies to play for Scotland on residence grounds later this year, and Edinburgh coach Richard Cockerill signed Venter primarily as back-up for his fellowSouth African. But the new man’s two outings as a replacement have shown that he is more than ready to take over as the starting loosehead prop, as he has proven that there is a lot more to his game than just brute force in the scrum.
“With the way the game is moving, it’s important for a prop not to be just scrum-orientated,” Venter said.
“You should have a well-rounded game – being a threat with the ball in hand and making an impact on the defence as well.
“That’s really a focus for me. I don’t want to be known for just one or two aspects of the game.”
Willem Nel, Duhan van der Merwe and Jaco van der Walt have all taken the path of moving from South Africa to Edinburgh, then playing for Scotland once they have been here for three years, and Schoeman is set to follow.
However, the residence qualification has now been changed to five years, and Venter thinks that is too far in the future to waste time thinking about now.
He said: “I have thought about it, but I’m not someone who looks too far ahead. It’s not something that I’m ruling out but there’s still a lot of water that has to run to the ocean before any such decisions can be made.”
Cockerill will name his team for the PRO14 game against the Blues at lunchtime today. It is a match that Edinburgh need to win to keep their hopes alive of a top-three finish in Conference B.