SA’s URC players are out of this world
United Rugby Championship (URC) form does not necessarily translate into Springboks selection, but that does not lessen the impact so many South African players have had in the league this season.
The players are consistently in the top tier of every individual discipline and the Bulls have been among the most impressive and dominant, statistically, when assessing their overall returns as a team.
Points scorers — be it those back-three try-scoring wizards or those players who convert off the kicking tee — tend to get the headlines, but within a squad context those are specialist areas in which a try-scoring wing is just doing his job and a goalkicker is also being true to his playing portfolio.
France’s head coach Fabian Galthie, during the 2023 World Cup, was asked if winger Damian Penaud was the best rugby player in the world. Galthie asked the reporter why he had asked the question. The reporter responded that Penaud was a tryscoring machine.
Galthie rejected the accolade on that basis: “He is at the end of our playing system. It is his job to ground the ball. There are 14 players inside getting that ball to him.”
When looking at this season’s URC league performers, the Stormers lock Ruben van Heerden is a standout for me — and that has nothing to do with his height. It is his desire to be on the field.
He hates not playing, and before yesterday’s match against Connacht in Galway, he had started in 20 out of 21 matches in all competitions and clocked 1,465 minutes at an average of 70 minutes a game. Van Heerden ranks in the top five for offloads made and in the top 10 for lineout steals. He is also the only player to have made 200 tackles in the URC this season. He is a soldier and consistently on the frontline. Is he a Springbok lock?
I don’t know, but he is most definitely one of the best signings John Dobson has made
Ruben Van Heerden (for Stormers), Elrigh Louw (Bulls), Marius Louw (Lions) and Werner Kok (Sharks) are four of the unsung heroes in the URC this season
at the Stormers, and he is significantly influential for the Stormers.
Van Heerden, originally from Alberton, and another off the SA under-18 and under20 national team production line, started his professional career at the Bulls, then played for the Sharks before spending the 2022/23 season with England’s Exeter Chiefs.
Van Heerden for the Stormers, Elrigh Louw for the Bulls, Lions captain and centre Marius Louw and Sharks winger Werner
Kok are four of the unsung heroes in the
URC this season. This quartet grafts and have been invaluable assets.
(Marius) Louw is unlikely to play for the Springboks and Kok, a Sevens sensation, is also unlikely to play for the Springboks, but that isn’t the only measurement of a player’s quality. Players like Louw and Kok add immense value at club level.
Bulls hooker Akker van der Merwe is another who has thrived since returning from a lengthy spell at Sales Sharks in Manchester, and Warrick Gelant’s all-round contribution at fullback for the Stormers since his return from Racing 92, sees him consistently among the leaders in all the attacking disciplines.
Sharks fullback Aphelele Fassi’s impact on attack has been big, as has his game time, with 1,629 minutes played, and Stormers loose-forward Evan Roos’ name is prominent in nearly every facet of the game.
The Lions Horn duo, fullback/wing Quan and No 8 Francke, feature in several of the top 10 lists, and even those SA-born and raised wingers Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh) and Rhyno Smith (Benetton) are among the biggest contributors in the league. (Duhan) Van der Merwe (with 52) is the only player to have beaten more than 50 defenders.
Collectively, the Bulls have been the most balanced in approach, with their outside backs in the top 10 in tries scored and metres made and No 10 Johan Goosen, despite just 729 minutes of action in the league, is one of just four players to gain more than 3,000 metres with line kicks.