Duane Vermeulen, Trevor Nyakane, Kwagga Smith, S’busiso Nkosi and Faf de Klerk are among the 31 Springboks who were chosen to represent the country during the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. What you probably did not know is that all of these players were born in the Lowveld.

S’busiso Nkosi

S’busiso Romeo Nkosi was born on January 21, 1996 in Barberton Hospital. S’bu went to Barberton Primary. After the end of his grade 10 year in Barberton High School, he was offered a full scholarship at Jeppe Boys in Johannesburg.

Duane Vermeulen

Nicknamed ‘Thor’ after the Nordic god of thunder, Vermeulen was born in Nelspruit on July 3, 1986. Duane’s early rugby days saw him barefoot on Laerskool Nelspruit’s sport fields. He went on to play for Hoërskool Nelspruit’s first team. He has played 48 games for the Springboks. He recently became the first ever Lowvelder to captain a Springbok team.

Kwagga Smith
As they say, there is no burger like a Lydenburger. Albertus Stephanus Smith was born in Lydenburg on June 11, 1993. He has only made four appearance for the Boks, but played 138 matches for the Blitzboks. “A group of foreigners visited our family farm in Lydenburg when I was a baby and they asked my two-year-old brother what my name was. He only knew animal names, so he told them my name was Kwagga, and from there it just stuck.” Kwagga finished his school career at HTS

Faf de Klerk

François ‘Faf’ de Klerk was also born in Nelspruit, on October 19, 1991. From an early age (u/9), Faf played for Laerskool Bergland’s A team and also captained Bergland’s first team. He was coached by the his father Tobie, and Nelspruit Rugby Club’s Herklaas du Preez in grade 8 and 9 at Hoërskool Nelspruit before he went to Hoërskool Waterkloof.

Trevor Nyakane

Trevor Ntando Nyakane was born on May 4, 1989 in Bushbuckridge. He, however, attended school in Limpopo top rugby school Ben Vorster, where he played for the first team for two years. He was chosen to represent Limpopo at the Grant Khomo and Craven week tournaments in 2006 and 2007. He has made 40 appearances in the Springbok jersey.

Photos: Johan Orton

Springboks name formidable line-up for Japan clash

Rassie Erasmus named 22 of the Springbok 23 that fought to a last-gasp draw against New Zealand in July, for Friday’s clash with Japan in Kumagaya, which will mark the 50th Test appearance for Pieter-Steph du Toit, SA Rugby’s Player of the Year for 2018.

The return to the starting line-up of Springbok captain Siya Kolisi, now fully recovered from injury, is the only change to the team that drew 16-16 with the All Blacks to open the way to a first Castle Lager Rugby Championship in a decade, in Wellington six weeks ago.

It means there are 18 changes in personnel to the last selection – the team which defeated Argentina, 24-18 – to complete the Springboks’ domestic programme at Loftus Versfeld two weeks ago.

The only survivors of that match – along with Kolisi – are RG Snyman and Jesse Kriel, who drop down to the bench; Faf de Klerk who returns to the starting line-up, and Frans Steyn, who covers several positions from the bench, for a fifth successive time.

Kolisi replaces Kwagga Smith – who drops out of the 23 altogether – in what has become an otherwise settled combination, appearing in essence for the third time this season. This was also the group which clinched the Championship with a resounding 46-13 victory over the Pumas in Salta.

“I hope this selection will send a strong message that we have the utmost respect for Japan,” said Erasmus.

“Perhaps we made the mistake of complacency against them in the past but we’ve been hammering the message all week that we should never do that again against Japan.

“They’re a smart team of great athletes, playing at home, having won a title in the past month and now desperate to prove something.

“This Test is as big a challenge as any we’ve had this season.”

Japan beat Fiji, the USA and Tonga to claim the Pacific Rugby Championship recently and have been in camp lying in wait for the Springboks, said Erasmus.

The Japanese have a 100 percent record against South Africa, having famously won the only meeting between the teams, 34-32, at Brighton in England during the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Also read: SAPS show their soft side with fundraiser

The current Springbok squad has nine survivors of that match-day 23 – Kriel, Handré Pollard, Du Toit, Kolisi, Francois Louw, Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Tendai Mtawarira and Trevor Nyakane – and Erasmus said the 2019 squad had discussed that match. Only De Jager will not re-appear on Friday.

“That kind of result can easily happen again if we don’t learn from the past,” he said.

“Our players who were there have held up their hand and said they totally under-estimated Japan. If our mindset isn’t right and we’re looking beyond this game then we’ll play right into Japan’s hands.

“This is a Springbok Test match against a team ranked in the world’s top ten, in their own backyard, and we’ve got to be full-on if we want to win – anything less and we’ll be in trouble.”

LISTEN: Warrior Ric shares his thoughts on Warrior #5

Japan beat Italy at home a year ago and also led England at halftime at Twickenham in November 2018, during a sequence of six victories in nine matches since the start of that year which has seen them climb the rankings to equal their highest place ever position of ninth.

Friday’s match kicks off at 19:15 local time at the Kumagaya Rugby Stadium – a 26 500 seater venue which will host matches at the subsequent Rugby World Cup. The match is being screened live on SuperSport (kick-off 12:15 SA time).

The Springbok team to face Japan in Kumagaya:
15. Willie le Roux
14. Cheslin Kolbe
13. Lukhanyo Am
12. Damian de Allende
11. Makazole Mapimpi
10. Handré Pollard
9. Faf de Klerk
8. Duane Vermeulen
7. Pieter-Steph du Toit
6. Siya Kolisi
5. Franco Mostert
4. Eben Etzebeth
3. Frans Malherbe
2. Malcolm Marx
1. Steven Kitshoff

Replacements:
16. Bongi Mbonambi
17. Tendai Mtawarira
18. Trevor Nyakane
19. RG Snyman
20. Francois Louw
21. Herschel Jantjies
22. Frans Steyn
23. Jesse Kriel