Today’s article about northern hemisphere players who may be less well known, at this stage, focuses on the 2011/2012 RaboDirect Pro12 Players player of the season, winger Tim Visser. He is currently touring Australasia with the rest of his Scotland team mates.
Tim “Mc” Visser was included in the Scotland touring party for the tour of Australasia on the grounds of residency but was unable to play in the first test against Australia last week as his 3 year’s residency period had not yet been met.
However, this requirement was met yesterday (12th June) and he was swiftly included by Andy Robinson in the starting line up for his adopted country in the upcoming test against Fiji.
The match against Fiji is set to played at Churchill Park, Lautoka, on Saturday 16 June, kick off at 4.00 SA time.
Personal stats
. Age – 25
. Date and place of birth – 29th May 1987, Zeewolde Netherlands
. Height – 1.93m
. Weight – 109kg
. Number of appearances for country – 0
. Current club – Edinburgh
He is a big strong lad whose all round play is very good. Visser does not only finish off moves and score lots of tries but he also gets himself involved so much at other times.
He seems to be quite a quick winger and apparently has a personal best of 10.8 seconds for the 100m, recorded on grass.
Visser has not always played on the wing. He started out as a youngster at flyhalf and fullback, while he has also played in the centres in his youth as well as at flank and eighthman at school.
Tim Visser is no flash in the pan either and his consistency in the try scoring stakes is remarkable. He has been the top try scorer in the RaboDirect Pro12 for 3 years in a row.
Visser is currently in third place on the list of all time try scorers in this competition with 36 tries in 56 games.
His overall try scoring record for Edinburgh stands at 43 tries in 74 games over the last 3 seasons.
His consistency is further underlined by the fact that he was included in the RaboDirect Pro12 ‘dream team’ for the third succesive season this year.
Visser carries the ball strongly and has been used byEdinburgh to set up phase posession quite a lot as well. He also has a good boot and is very good in employing the up and under, using his height to great effect to beat opponents and gather the ball.
In an interview in around May 2011 Visser mentioned that defence had been one of the weak parts of his game, but felt he was getting better by doing a lot of work under Edinburgh defence coach.
A testament to his work ethic was a further remark that he thought in spite of the improvement he still felt he had a quite a long way to go.
I have already seen him make some big tackles even before that time so if that is a man who thought he still needed to improve on his defence then opposition players are going to be in for a tough time.
It thus comes as no surpise that Edinburgh were delighted in February when he signed an extension to his contract with them, committing himself to the club until 2015.
He sounds like a really good team man saying the following at the time of his contract extension :
“I’ve loved my time at Edinburgh Rugby, I feel right at home in the city and have had three great years of playing the rugby of my life.
“I couldn’t do any of that without the support of the coaching, strength and conditioning staff and fellow players who have transformed me as a rugby player since I arrived, both physically and mentally.
“I’m delighted to have secured this extension which will now allow me to focus on improving my game for another three years at a club on the up.”
Rugby runs in the family as his father also played the game, representing the Netherlands in his time. He has a younger brother Sepp, 21, who also plays on the wing and currently is contracted along with Tim at Edinburgh.
There is a lot of footage out there highlighting Tim Visser’s abilities on a rugby field, below we have a few clips of some of the tries he has scored
In this first clip he scores a try against Ospreys.
Visser can be seen to be involved early on in the move in setting up/keeping possession alive then shows good hands to take a high pass and jinks in and out a few times and shows great strength to score.
Tim Visser’s try against Ospreys
For this try against Ulster he runs from well inside his half and shows great strength handing off players.
The commentators can even be heard saying at start of the move that it looked like he was limping, yet he still scored a super try.
Tim Visser’s try against Ulster
Finally his double against Glasgow on boxing day last year further highlights his talents.
The 1st try starts from around 45 second mark of clip when he was on hand to finish a good backline move.
The second try Try against Glasgow can be seen from around the 1 minute 10 second mark.
Visser received the ball just about on the half way line and showed great nimbleness to keep inside the field of play with very little of field, with a run right on the touchline.
Towards the end of the run he shows a good ability to keep his balance after a last ditch ankle tap.
Visser’s double against Glasgow
Scotland fans will be hoping that he can replicate his try scoring feats for the national team.
By the time the British and Irish Lions squad for the tour to Australia is announced next year Visser could have played around 10 games for Scotland.
It will be interesting to see if he is eventually included in that squad and would be take a brave person to bet against it.