Crouch, touch and dominate
Waiting in the Wings | Julian Redelinghuys is ready to make his mark
AT first glance Julian Redelinghuys isn’t an imposing man. He’s only 1.76m tall and weighs a touch over 100kg, which in a sport dominated by two-metre giants almost makes him appear miniature.
But on closer inspection his barrelled chest and head don’t appear to be connected by a neck. He has wide hips and massive thighs. If tighthead props were made in a lab, he might be the prototype.
Because of his lack of height Redelinghuys is able to burrow in under the opposing prop, using his natural strength to unhinge even the best looseheads in the game.
Unlike loose-forwards, locks, centres and hookers, tighthead props simply don’t come off the South African production line with similar frequency, much to the consternation of coaches everywhere.
Whenever Jannie du Plessis stays down there is a collective intake of breath. The good doctor from Bethlehem is often maligned, but when it comes to the dark arts on the right side of the scrum, there are few better.
But Du Plessis can’t be there forever and Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has to plan for the day when he’s gone, or the day he goes down with an injury at a crucial time.
Which is why Du Plessis’s relatively minor knee injury, sustained during last week’s 3128 win over England at Twickenham, came at a fortuitous moment — if an injury can ever be described as such.
It allowed Meyer to give Coenie Oosthuizen a start at tighthead and also the chance to blood the impressive but inexperienced Redelinghuys off the bench against Italy yesterday.
For all Italy’s weaknesses as an elite rugby team, their scrum is not one of them.
Oosthuizen passed a similarly difficult trial against France last November before a neck injury set him back, and he’s had to show he can do it all over again on this tour.
Oosthuizen has played well from the bench on tour, scrumming impressively against England and Ireland and throwing his powerful 127kg frame around the park like a back-rower.
The Bok scrum has a 100% success rate on this tour and Oosthuizen offers an additional menace at the breakdown.
“Coenie is a different kind of prop, one who can run for 80 minutes because he has a fantastic engine,” captain Jean de Villiers said.
But it’s Redelinghuys who is considered the better tight player and the man who might be able to give the Boks the edge where it really counts the most — in the scrum.
The 25-year-old Lions prop has given everyone he has faced this season a fierce working over and he is only just starting to establish himself.
After two frustrating years in Durban, where he was a fringe player, the Golden Lions offered him a chance to play regularly and he has quickly grown into a feared opponent.
The former Monument Hoër
Every rugby player works towards that green and gold and I’m no different
head boy was straining to earn his first cap this week.
“When I heard, I was unbelievably proud and thankful to the people who helped me get here, from Heyneke Meyer to my coaches at the Lions,” Redelinghuys said after he was named on the bench against Italy. “Every rugby player works towards that green and gold and I’m no different.
“It’s been easy to slot into the Springbok side because you have such talent around you. On my left I have Bismarck du Plessis or Adriaan Strauss and behind me Eben Etzebeth or Lood de Jager. That’s a huge boost for a tighthead.”
Redelinghuys, who has an accounts degree after achieving six distinctions in matric, views rugby as part of his career path, but not the beginning and end of it. He has a mature view and understands how quickly fortunes can change.
As little as 18 months ago he was a journeyman with talent but battling for a home, now he is on the brink of a long and successful Springbok career.