"Springbok No 8 Duane Vermeulen has set his sights on captaining Springboks.
The 29-year-old, 35-Test capped loose forward currently plies his trade at French club Toulon, but still harbours ambitions of leading his country.
His move to France may hinder his chances of captaining the Boks, but with the retirement of Jean de Villiers and Victor Matfield, and Fourie du Preez also unlikely to play for the Boks again, Vermeulen must surely be considered as a candidate.
“I would give anything to lead the Springboks,” Vermeulen told Rapport. “As I’ve said before, I never thought something so special will come my way, but the more one is placed in such a position, the more you want of it and the more you want to learn. There is nothing better than representing your country as captain. It's definitely something I want to achieve.”
There are a couple of issues here, namely -
* who will be selected as Springbok coach and will the new coach follow the Meyer example by loading the team with foreign-based players;
* wiil a foreign-based player be acceptable as Springbok player; and
* will anybody of substance accept the position if the team is selected on the basis of race causing a substantially weaker team than the country can produce - since constant losses will tarnish the image of the captain as well?
I can see De Jongh being selected as SA captain - even though he is a mediocre player not qualified for team selection on the basis of merit.
