No sooner had I pleaded in a column with SA’s national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus to commit to Gloucester’s South African-born and raised loose-forward Ruan Ackermann and the social media mob were out in full force.
“For what?”
“England can have him.”
“We have better players in SA.”
“He is overrated.”
“He wouldn’t make my team.”
“What has he done?”
“Who would you drop?”
Then the insults came, as they do from the keyboard warriors.
To suggest SA doesn’t need a player of Ackermann’s quality is to combine that ugly narcissistic cocktail of arrogance and ignorance.
I am saying that Ackermann this season has been the in-form No.8 in the toughest club league in the game, the English Premiership. He has won three of the last six player of the match awards and he consistently excels.
SA rugby will always be stronger for players like Ackermann. SA rugby would have been stronger for the presence of 50-Test Irish icon and British and Irish Lions loose-forward CJ Stander. SA rugby would have had the most enviable second-row depth had France’s Paul Willemse not committed a senior career to French club rugby, which resulted in his selection for the national team the month he was eligible.
Ackermann, formerly of the Lions and the son of former Lions and Gloucester coach and Springbok lock Johan Ackermann, has green and gold in his DNA. It would be a travesty if his continued form was dismissed at SA Rugby’s headquarters with the ease at which the lay South African rugby followers on social media have done.
I am not suggesting Ackermann should be picked ahead of any of the existing Test loose-forwards, who include captain Siya Kolisi and veteran World Cup winner Duane Vermeulen. I am not saying Ackermann is better than Leicester’s Jasper Wiese or would be a better option than some of the locally-based No.8s Phepsi Buthelezi or Evan Roos.
What I am saying is that Ackermann this season has been the in-form No.8 in the toughest club league in the game, the English Premiership. He has won three of the last six player of the match awards and he consistently excels. He is also equally comfortable playing No.8 and blindside flank and has the versatility to play lock. He adds so much depth to a position with a high attrition rate.
Ackermann, on residency, qualifies for England selection, but in a recent interview with SA Rugby Magazinehe stated that he has never given up on his dream of succeeding his father as a Springbok.
There was a qualifier from Ackermann. He said it would be an honour to play international rugby and represent England, if selected, but was emphatic the call-up that would get the pulse racing most would be for the Springboks.
A national coaching set-up can never have too many options in positions. The attrition rate among locks, loose-forwards and front-rankers is so high that the Boks’ 2021 international season was something of a miracle given how many players made it through the 13-Test international season from start to finish.
The 2023 World Cup Springbok squad will rely heavily on those from the 2019 World Cup, and veterans like Vermeulen will have to be wrapped in cotton wool in the next 18 months to ensure there is still value in their legs when the Boks defend the title they won so magnificently in Japan in 2019.
SA’s domestic rugby will always produce quality players good enough to be internationals, be it for SA or for other countries. The production line should never be questioned; not with the schools, clubs and Varsity Cup feeder systems.
But to ignore the claims of the best South Africans playing overseas would be Test rugby suicide for the Springboks.
There was a time, not too long ago, when the Boks were globally ranked seventh and taking regular beatings from everyone, including Argentina and even once Italy. This period coincided with a ruling that prevented overseas-based South Africans playing for the Boks.
The madness to that rule was ended with Rassie Erasmus’s appointment as Bok coach in 2018, and the results were instant in how the Boks were transformed from chumps to champs.
I’d estimate that 60% of the 2023 Springbok World Cup squad will be players based in Europe, the UK or Japan, and that it will be among the tournament favourites.
It should never be an either/or situation when it comes to Bok selection, especially at World Cup tournaments. The best must play and it is a reality that the bulk of the best South Africans no longer play their rugby in SA because commercially it is more attractive to be based overseas.
These players, like Ackermann, are excelling in the toughest competitions in the world, and do so against the best players.
For this reason alone, I’d want them to be wearing Bok green and gold and not Irish green, English white, Scottish blue, French blue, Italian blue or Welsh red.
Mark Keohane is the founder of Keo.co.za, a multiple award-winning sports writer and the digital content director at Highbury Media.
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