Suddenly there is a crop of younger players making an impression on South African rugby – Elton Jantjes (20), Patrick Lambie (19), Nick Köster (20), Jaco Taute (19) and in his second year of Currie Cup rugby, Wandile Mjekevu (19), Gerhard van den Heever (21) and Martin Bezuidenhout (just 21).

When is a player old enough AND good enough?  Paul Dobson looks at what makes a wunderkind in South African rugby…

Frans Steyn is not long past being a wunderkind, Steyn is now 23.

He was only 19 when he played on the wing against Ireland in Dublin and 20 at the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Somehow a young player is so exciting. And many of them become famous.

In 1989 Australia picked two teenagers to play centre against France in Strasbourg. It was their first Test together, Australia won, and Tim Horan and Jason Little became famous. As the saying goes, if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.

The youngest players to play international rugby are two Scots – Ninian Finlay and Charles Reid who were 17 years and 36 days old. If you believe his tombstone Jack Hartley was even younger when he played for South Africa in 1891. Hartley is buried in the cemetery in Muizenberg and his tombstone gives his birth date as 18 August 1876. He played for South Africa’s on 5 September 1891. If the tombstone were right he was 15 years and 18 days old. In fact it seems he was born in 1874, which still means he was the youngest South African Test player of all time. Hartley’s team-mate Barry Heatlie, the man who gave South Africa the green jerseys, At 19 he is the youngest forward to have played for South Africa. (The youngest-ever Springbok prop was Ollie le Roux at the age of 21.)

There have been other particularly young players to represent South Africa.

The first man to score a Test point for South Africa was Davey Cope. He was 19 at the time. He played for Western Province at the age of 17. Sadly he was killed at the age of 21 in a train accident at Mostert’s Hoek. He was on his way to the Currie Cup tournament at Newlands.

Bob Loubser was 19 when he played against the 1903 touring team. His team-mate in the centre, Syd de Melker of Griquas, was also 19, a month and 21 days older than Loubser.

Two of Billy Millar’s 1910 side which played the tourists from the Four Home Unions had two 19-year-olds – Clive van Ryneveld, whose son played rugby for England while a Rhodes Scholar and then captained South Africa at cricket, and Wally Mills, who played for South Africa before he had played for Western Province.

Steve Joubert was the youngest and the smallest of 1906 Springboks, just 19 years of age. He was chosen for the team, withdrew because he was studying for a scholarship to read medicine at Edinburgh University but then there was an injury and he joined the side, playing three Tests.

DO Williams was 18 when chosen for the 1931-32 tour and on that tour was Danie Craven who was 20 and had not yet played for Western Province. Freddie Turner played against the 1933 Wallabies at the age of 19. All of those became great players.

Not all young starters had great careers. Jannie Barnard, the flyhalf with the dancing feet, was 20 in 1965 when he went off to Ireland and Scotland with Avril Malan’s unsuccessful Springboks and then to Australasia with the Dawie de Villiers’s unsuccessful Springboks. He played in five Tests that year and in none after that, sometimes referred to as the youngest ex-Springbok.

Naas Botha, on the other hand, stayed successful.

The All Blacks saw him when he was a schoolboy and marvelled at him. That was 1976 and Botha was 18. The next year he was the in the Northern Transvaal team – a 19-year-old playing flyhalf. The next time South Africa played, in 1980, Botha was in his fourth season of Currie Cup rugby, the captain of Northern Transvaal and the obvious choice at flyhalf for South Africa. He played Test rugby till 1992 and was never dropped. He is one of the greatest players of all time, and he started young.

If you watch them in action and listen to wise men, then you come to the conclusion that EltonJantjies, Patrick Lambie, Nick Köster, Jaco Taute, Wandile Mjekevu, Gerhard van den Heever and Martin Bezuidenhout could all become Springboks, the way Frans Steyn has done.

Perhaps it would be better for them not to become Springboks the way Steyn has done – so talented that he has played fullback, centre, wing and flyhalf for South Africa and may not be sure where he should actually play.

Patrick Lambie has played fullback, centre and flyhalf for the Sharks. Obviously, young players take the chances that present themselves but they need careful management. They are assets needing looking after to give rich dividends for themselves and the teams they represent. They are the big pieces in the chess game, not pawns.

Look at the most successful player we have mentioned – Naas Botha. He played in one position. He played flyhalf. He did not become a jack of all trades.