Heyneke Meyer hasn’t made too much secret of the scrutiny the leadership duo of Jean de Villiers and Victor Matfield are under after last week’s misfire against Japan in Brighton, where it was clear the players carried out a completely different plan to what was envisaged and instructed by the coach.
And neither did he make too much secret of his admiration for Vermeulen’s mental strength, and the value he can bring, when asked about the selection of the No 8 straight into the starting team for the Samoa match at Villa Park after several months on the sidelines.
“If everyone had the mental attitude and the desire to play for South Africa that Duane has, we probably wouldn’t lose any games,” said Meyer.
Indeed, the Boks don’t lose many games when Vermeulen is present. He hasn’t played any part in the Bok matches in 2015 because of his injury, and it has been this year that the team has slipped from the impressive win percentages that Meyer boasted before that.
Take away a difficult 2014 end of year tour where fatigue and slow adaptation to what was required in northern hemisphere conditions contributed to defeats to Wales and Ireland, Vermeulen’s stint as a Bok starting No 8 that started during the 2012 Castle Lager Rugby Championship has mostly been a successful one.
The Boks lost the first two test matches played after his initial selection, away to Australia and then New Zealand, but in the 27 matches he has played since then he has been on the winning side on 21 occasions and on the losing side just six times. Overall he boasts a win percentage of nearly 75percent. Both his visits to Twickenham, where the Boks will be hoping to play knock-out games later in the tournament, have been successful ones, and he was the man of the match against England there in 2012.
Last year was his best as an international player and his value was underlined when Meyer selected him half crocked to play against the All Blacks at Emirates Airlines Park. Vermeulen made a massive contribution to an epic Bok win, was man of the match, and was every bit the talisman that the Boks have been lacking at a time when their team leaders are mostly having to lead through words rather than by example.
When Vermeulen was landed with the Stormers captaincy at the start of this year he said he wasn’t crazy about the role. But no-one quibbled with his view that he could lead by example, and that was what he did during a campaign that proved much better than would have been anticipated.
He can do that job for the Boks – wear the figurative captaincy armband - if both De Villiers and Matfield fail to come through the examination at Villa Park on Saturday. With Schalk Burger probably not a certainty for the starting team if the equally important figure of Willem Alberts returns from injury, he would be a logical choice to lead the side. (CRAZY COMMENT - BURGER BEFORE ALBERTS ANYDAY. MADNESS!!)
But even if it doesn’t turn out like that, and let’s face it most South Africans will be hoping that the old guard do well against Samoa and thus make changes less necessary, Vermeulen will play an important leadership role as the man that others will automatically follow and who raises the efforts of those around him through his onfield deeds.
Perhaps it would be wrong to expect too much of him on Saturday. Playing against Samoa in your first game since June is a massive ask. There again, the fact that he is doing it underlines his determination, and that determination should translate into a rapid return to his best form.
He is adamant that he is fit enough. Although unable to play, he was able to take a full part in the Bok conditioning program during the build-up to the World Cup.
“I don’t think I have ever been this fit. We have been running around the field like Kenyans,” said Vermeulen after the Umhlanga Rocks training camp.
He said then that he didn’t care what the doctors said, he felt he was ready to take contact again, and clearly Meyer was in no mood to argue against that.
“Our plan was actually to let him play 20 minutes and then put him into the next game but he insisted he wanted to play,” said Meyer.
Of course Vermeulen would insist. He is just that kind of person. He is a strong character who knows his own mind and knows what he wants. He told us after the team announcement that it had been a frustrating time for him watching the team lose from the sidelines. He would want to change the momentum and is equipped to do so.
“I have still been involved over the last few months as because I am the leader of the defence I have still been deployed to help the coaches with that aspect of the game. But that is not the same as playing. I can’t wait to get back into the game and I want to play as many World Cup games as possible and live every minute of it as it will be the first and possibly only one I will be involved in.”
Vermeulen’s no-nonsense approach is something the Boks need right now and was neatly summed up by something he said before leading the Stormers in their first game of the Super Rugby season. Cape rugby people tend to have an airy fairy attitude to the sport driven by romantic notions built around a different era when it was possible to win Currie Cups playing touch rugby, and you get the impression that even if the team doesn’t follow a running rugby strategy, they like to at least pay lip service to it in order to sell the game.
But Vermeulen, in his typical straight talking style, was not going to fit into the Cape Town media’s desire to hear him say “We are going to run the ball”. Instead he said something that pronounced himself as a pragmatist.
“We will do whatever it takes to win,” said Vermeulen.
And his team did. At Loftus. Against the Bulls. Against the odds. No wonder Meyer thinks so highly of him.
“He said ‘I’m going to play 80 minutes if that’s what it’s going to take to win’. The whole team needs that mentality if we are going to go forward. It’s great to have him back,” said Meyer.
Vermeulen’s fighting spirt and determination was also exemplified by how easily he won his race against time to recover from a neck operation that put his participation in this World Cup in serious doubt.
“It’s been an amazing journey until now. My goal was always to make it to the Rugby World Cup and the doctors told me that I could make it if I worked hard,” he said.
“That moment has now arrived and I can’t wait to play on Saturday. It’s been wonderful to be back training again with my teammates. I got sick of running on my own on the side of the field. But now the next step is to get back into the game. I put a lot of very hard work in over the last three months, and our medical staff deserve a lot of credit for helping me with my rehabilitation. It’s been tough but I can’t wait to get out on the pitch, where I belong. All I want to do is make the guys around me proud, pay to the best of my ability and contribute to a winning team effort.
Whilst Dr Mozz, cerundunce windpomp and Dessert Fox got it all wrong arguing everything was as best it could be and have been found out; I would caution ou maaaike, snapster , wee cc and others not to get too pessimistic. O maaaikies believing we have, was it, a 30% chance of wining is too pessimistic. Yes I do know we have a passsenger in the tight five but we have carried wee matfiled before and won.
Been the balanced one at work.
