Some will tell you he’ll burn out, others will say he was born to play Test rugby.
But all that matters right now, and for the next 12 months ahead of the World Cup in France, is that Pierre Spies stays fit and gains as much experience as he can. The Boks are going to need him at the World Cup.
It’s not that he’s the most dynamic loose forward to emerge on the South African rugby scene for many a year, or the fact he has all the skills and pace to make him a Springbok legend in years to come; it’s that Spies has that something extra — flair and game-breaking ability — that will make him one of the first players Bok coach Jake White pencils in for any Test.
That the 21-year-old has had a meteoric rise in international rugby is no fluke. He represented his country at every level in the junior ranks and for the last two years was earmarked for greater things. Whether that was going to be among the loose forwards or on the wing was all that had to be decided.
Spies’s provincial team, the Blue Bulls, dabbled with the idea of playing him as a winger last season, but common sense prevailed and this year he returned to his favourite position on the side of the scrum.
He shone in the Super 14 and White didn’t hesitate to include such a prolific talent in his Tri-Nations squad.
He made his debut for the Boks in Brisbane against a slick Australian team and as first outings go, it was simply a disaster for Spies and the Boks. The Wallabies ran the South Africans ragged, eventually recording a 49-0 win.
It was one of the Springboks’ biggest defeats in history. But as the saying goes, true talent will always rise above adversity, and Spies came out of the experience a better player.
He learned from the mistakes he and his team made that day in Brisbane and, not surprisingly, dominated South Africa’s home leg of the competition.
He was the standout flanker in the Bok victories over New Zealand (in Rustenburg) and Australia (in Johannesburg) and continued his good form in the domestic Currie Cup competition, picking up numerous man-of-the-match awards.
At 1,95m tall and weighing a hefty 106kg, Spies is the perfect flank forward White wants in his team. He also runs the 100m under 11 seconds, has great skills and power and is one of the better defenders in the Bok set-up.
And he can be used as a line-out option, something that pleases White immensely. Spies has played all four of his Tests on good surfaces, but now he has to adapt to the wet, cold and heavy conditions the northern hemisphere will present when the Boks take on Ireland and England over the next month.
It is a challenge any youngster will relish and, in Spies’s case, something that won’t stand in his way. He has already made his mark against Australia and New Zealand; now it’s the turn of Ireland and England. — AFP
