TRYING TIMES
JJ's on a roll for the Boks
THE Eastern Cape gave South African rugby Danie Gerber, the greatest centre to play for the Springboks, and the region has now produced a man whose strike rate early in his test career is comparable to Gerber’s extraordinary scoring ability.
Centre JJ Engelbrecht has scored four of the Springboks’ 25 tries this season and is central to the backline’s newfound cutting edge. He has lighting speed, good hands and vision that has created space and tries for his teammates.
Comparisons with Gerber are difficult as the former was able to change pace and direction with an effortless swerve or subtle acceleration and, as a result, scored 19 tries in only 24 tests. Engelbrecht is all about speed, but the results are equally destructive for opponents with four tries in five tests.
“If you have pace it’s easier to get on the outside of a defender,” Engelbrecht, who clocked 13.9sec for the 110m hurdles at school, says. “But you have to use speed wisely because you don’t just want to beat a man on the outside and at the same time kill space for your support runners.
“This year, the difference in the team’s try-scoring success is that we’ve probably managed to play the situation better. The key is to keep executing well.”
Engelbrecht, who is arguably the most improved rugby player in SA in the past 12 months, has cemented his place in the No 13 jersey less than a year after
If you have pace it’s easier to get on the outside of a defender
returning to playing centre following four years as a wing at Western Province.
He made his Test debut off the bench against Argentina at Newlands in 2012, was an unused sub against the same opponents in Mendoza a week later and was then dropped for the remainder of the Rugby Championship without really doing much wrong. Now he’s a fixture in the team.
“It was disappointing to be dropped after only having a few minutes and I spent time thinking: ‘Why was I dropped, what did I do wrong?’ ” the 24-yearold Engelbrecht says.
“But [coach] Heyneke Meyer is very honest and open and said I didn’t fit into his immediate plans at that time. He told me to go back to Currie Cup and prove myself there and I would get another chance in the squad. He was true to his word.”
Meyer was a key figure in recruiting Engelbrecht for the Bulls in late 2011. And the carrot the coach used to attract the flyer to Pretoria was the promise of playing centre — a position he occupied with distinction at schoolboy level at Grey High in Port Elizabeth.
“Growing up I was a huge WP supporter and after being there for four years I was never given the chance to play for the Stormers,” he says. “That was one of the main reasons I left.
“The guarantee of playing centre at the Bulls excited me because WP had been using me on the wing, even though I had played almost all of my schoolboy rugby at 13.
“I enjoy being involved in the game and at wing you’re reliant on the inside backs getting the ball to you, or you have to do a lot of chasing kicks. At 13 you’re in a decision-making position. I want to do more than get the ball and run as fast as I can.”
Engelbrecht found the transition back to centre tricky and while his tackle completion during Super Rugby was an impressive 91%, he felt his defence was weak at the beginning of the season.
“There were reasons for that, though, and the main one was I needed to become comfortable at centre again after not playing there for four years.
“It was also a matter of becoming familiar with the defensive system and understanding when to make a tackle or when to hold back.
“Defending at 13 is one of the hardest positions in the game and if the inside defenders are too tight, or too slow in coming out, then the outside centre can find himself having to look after two runners.”
But it’s great for men of attacking instinct. Engelbrecht, in that sense at least, is worthy of comparison with Gerber.