In 2018 Embrose Papier was going to be the next big thing among South African scrumhalves. He was already a Springbok at just 21 years of age.
He has not played a Test in seven years and if ever there is an opportunity to make a Springbok rugby statement, it is in Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) final in Dublin.
Papier will start at scrumhalf for Jake White’s Bulls against Ireland’s most powerful club Leinster at Croke Park in Dublin.
Leinster, despite being Ireland’s most successful club in Europe and in the domestic competition that preceded the URC, have failed to win the URC title since its inception in the 2021/22 season.
In fact, this is the first time they have made it to the final, having fallen in the semifinals in 21/22 to the Bulls in Dublin, at home again the next season to rivals Munster in the semifinals, and last season they were well beaten by the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
Leinster have one win from their last five against the Bulls, but that statistic is skewed because of how seldom Leinster plays their full-strength match 23 in the URC. This 23 is laden with Irish internationals and the dynamic foreign duo of Springboks lock RG Snyman and All Blacks centre Jordie Barrett.
Leinster, a year ago, brought the very best to Pretoria and lost to the Bulls. This is the first time that the best available Leinster will play the Bulls in Dublin. They are overwhelming favourites to win their first title in four years.
Leinster’s star-studded 23 includes scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park, the former New Zealander and Maori All Black, who has been brilliant at Leinster and as good for Ireland, and is arguably second only to Toulouse and France’s Antoine Dupont as the best No 9 up north.
Papier, now 28, would be a beneficiary, in terms of national selection, if he delivers an inspirational and world-class performance that stuns the locals and a team that is Ireland’s national team in all but jersey colour.
Rassie Erasmus, in his first tenure as Bok coach in 2018 and 2019, picked Papier for eight Tests, seven of which he played in, but since then the Bulls No 9 has not been on the national radar.
Erasmus, the national director of rugby when Jacques Nienaber was the head coach between 2020 and 2023, is back as Bok coach and while he did include Papier in a alignment camp earlier this season, the No 9 did not make the 55-strong cut named a week ago to prepare for the Barbarians non-international in Cape Town on June 28 and the July Tests against Italy and Georgia.
In the four seasons of URC, Papier has played 73 matches, and in the last three seasons averages 21 matches a season in the URC and 25 matches for the Bulls in all competitions
A big day in Dublin could see him added to the Bok mix and leapfrog those selected. Among the Bok incumbents is Sharks scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse, who was second to Papier in last Saturday’s URC semifinal, won by the Bulls.
Papier broke the game open early on in setting up winger Sebastian de Klerk and was electric for much of the match.
His form for the Bulls since the URC started has been consistently good and he has been outstanding this season in starting 16 of 18 URC matches, in which he has beaten 18 defenders, made seven clean breaks, seven offloads and kicked 138 times for 3,630 metres.
His discipline has been exceptional, conceding just four penalties in those 18 matches.
Papier’s conditioning has been superb, as has been his desire to play. In the Bulls 82-match history in the four seasons of URC, Papier has played 73 matches, and in the last three seasons averages 21 matches a season in the URC and 25 matches for the Bulls in all competitions.
His commitment to the Bulls is massive and his loyalty is to a province he adopted when moving from Darling, up the Cape’s west coast, to Garsfontein in Pretoria as a 15-year-old.
He played SA under-18 and SA under-20, made his Super Rugby debut in 2017 as a teenager, was a Springbok at 21 and played for Sale Sharks (on loan in 2019) before returning to the Bulls to be the first-choice No 9 over the past five years.
Papier’s athleticism allows for him to play wing, but it is at scrumhalf where he has done it all for the Bulls — and while first prize in Dublin will be winning a first-ever URC title, he knows that another performance on par with his semifinal effort against the Sharks will have Erasmus smiling at him like he did in 2018 when making him a Springbok.
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