Imagine playing a knockout game of musical chairs, only to find out that the music stopped playing way back when you were a teen. That’s pretty much the scenario Jacques Vermeulen finds himself in. Despite ticking all the boxes of World Rugby’s five-year residency rule and suiting up for a potential run with England, the flanker’s fleeting dance at the 2015 World Rugby U20 Championship has body-checked his Test match dreams into the boards.
Now 30 and freshly inked with Sale Sharks after a dazzling stint at Exeter Chiefs, Vermeulen was all set for an England call-up, courtesy of coach Steve Borthwick's interest. But alas, a single cap for the Junior Springboks—who were then considered South Africa’s second team—means Vermeulen is officially tethered to the Springboks, despite never having played in a Test match for them.
World Rugby's eligibility fortress is pretty clear: switch sides only if you were born there, or have a lineage dripping with the blood of that land. Unfortunately for Vermeulen, his roots and routes offer no such pass.
"It’s very frustrating," Vermeulen aired out on BBC Radio Devon. "I don’t know why they’re stopping it. How can they say that because you played for the U20s when you were 19 or 20, you’re capped for a country?"
The bitterness is palpable, especially as Vermeulen had nestled into the English rugby scene, even starting the process of becoming a British citizen. Adding salt to his wounds is the seemingly slapdash way these rules are slapped on. He pointed out the irony of players like Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman, who slipped through the net and now play for Scotland despite also being Junior Bok alumni—albeit during a time when the U20 team wasn’t the official B-side.
"I get really angry about it because I’m like, how can you stop a guy after they played 10 years ago for a country?" he questioned, the frustration echoing across the rugby fields.
So, as the rugby world turns, Vermeulen finds himself a spectator in the game of international eligibility—a game that sometimes feels as if the rules are being made up as it goes along. Meanwhile, the Sale Sharks will reap the benefits of having a player whose international-level talent is undoubted, but sadly, capped by circumstances beyond his control.