We are all well aware of the host of South African rugby players who are plying their trade outside of South Africa. For this article we venture into the land of make belief and choose a squad made up entirely of players with South African connections playing in the current season’s RaboDirect Pro12 competition.  – The ‘Raboboks’

The idea first came to mind way back in December when I was posting the teams for one of the rounds of the league stage of the competition. In doing so I had highlighted the South African players in each team and was struck by the amount of players actually around with South African connections.

We have good strength in depth and competition for places in some positions, particularly in the tight five. In the areas where there is some competition for places the player who has the more recent connection to South Africa has been chosen. For example at hooker we have Richardt Strauss, Rob Herring and Ettienne Reynecke. Strauss is arguably the best player of those three but he has already been in Ireland for a while, in fact long enough to have been picked for Ireland.

The backline was a bit more problematic with fewer obvious choices available and so we have had to use a bit of freedom in the choice of players and in some cases have picked players out of their regular position.

Furthermore, we have also listed players who have already been capped by other countries (this is after all our venture into cloud cuckoo land), as well as some players who may be unfamiliar in not having been in South Africa for a long time or even played top rugby there but who were born there.

Basic information is generally provided for most players with the club they currently play for included. However, more detail has been provided on some of the players who may be less familiar.

‘Raboboks’

15 Tonderai Chavanga	Newport Gwent Dragons
Height	1.80m
Weight	85kg
Place of Birth	Masvingo

14 Hanno Dirsken	Ospreys
Height	1.81m
Weight	90kg
Place of Birth	Krugersdorp

13 Danie Poolman	Connacht
Height	1.88m
Weight	98kg
Place of Birth	Pretoria

12 Gideon (Doppies) La Grange	Benetton Treviso
Height	1.83m
Weight	95kg
Place of Birth	Sasolburg

11 DTH vd Merwe	Glasgow Warriors
Height	1.88m
Weight	98kg
Place of Birth	Pretoria

10 Ruan Pienaar	Ulster
Height	1.88m
Weight	94kg
Place of Birth	Bloemfontein

9 Tobias Botes	Benetton Treviso
Height	1.80m
Weight	87kg
Place of Birth	Pretoria

8 Robbie Diack	Ulster
Height	1.96m
Weight	110kg
Place of Birth	Johannesburg

7 Josh Strauss (VC)	Glasgow Warriors
Height	1.93m
Weight	114kg
Place of Birth	Belville

6 CJ Stander	Munster
Height	1.88m
Weight	108kg
Place of Birth	George

5 Quin Roux	Leinster
Height	1.96m
Weight	117kg
Place of Birth	Pretoria

4 Johan Muller (C)	Ulster
Height	2.01m
Weight	112kg
Place of Birth	Mossel Bay

3 WP Nel	Edinburgh
Height	1.83m
Weight	120kg
Place of Birth	Loeriesfontein

2 Rob Herring	Ulster
Height	1.83m
Weight	103kg
Place of Birth	Cape Town

1 Heinke vd Merwe	Leinster
Height	1.83m
Weight	113kg
Place of Birth	Johannesburg

 Replacements:

16 Wian du Preez	Munster
Height	1.85m
Weight	117kg
Place of Birth	Bloemfontein

17 BJ Botha	Munster
Height	1.80m
Weight	115kg
Place of Birth	Pretoria

18 Ettienne Reynecke	Connacht
Height	1.75m
Weight	99kg
Place of Birth	Kempton Park

19 George Earle	Scarlets
Height	1.98m
Weight	110kg
Place of Birth	Durban

20 Andries van Schalkwyk	Zebre
Height	1.91m
Weight	105kg
Place of Birth	Bloemfontein

21 Greig Tonks	Edinburgh
Height	1.85m
Weight	92kg
Place of Birth	Pretoria

TEAMS (11) –  Benetton Treviso 2, Connacht 2, Edinburgh 2, Glasgow Warriors 2, Leinster 2, Munster 3, Newport Gwent Dragons 1, Ospreys 1, Scarlets 1, Ulster 4, Zebre 1.

We are a little short on backline players so it will be good to hear of any possible additions to complete a 23 squad line up.

Captain

In previous seasons at Ulster I have possibly been a bit harsh in my judgement of the captain chosen for this ‘team’ – Johann Muller. He seemed a solid enough player but just didn’t seem to stand out as much as expected. This was possibly as one had very high expectations of a player who had represented the Springboks and also spent a good deal of time at the helm of one of the biggest South African Super Rugby franchises.

During the current season though Johann Muller certainly has established himself in my opinion as one of the really valuable players at Ulster. This both on and off the field. In particular he has done really well to guide the team to be at the top of the table at the end of the league stage and to the upcoming final against Leinster.

Ulster were doing well in the Pro12 early in the season when the tragic events surrounding one of their players Nevin Spence occurred. At the time I thought they would do well for a time getting by on the emotion of it but that eventually this would take its toll and they would tire. However, they proved this to be wrong and one feels it must have taken a strong team effort to get them where they are, and that captain Muller must have had a lot to do with galvanising his team mates. The reports appearing around the time of the sad events regarding Muller’s handling of affairs certainly gave me much admiration for the man as a human being and his leadership stood out.

Coaches

We even have a coach of South African origin, namely Franco Smith, who is currently the head coach of Benetton Treviso in Italy. While he is not strictly speaking a Pro12 coach we will enlist the help of former Springboks and Ireland forwards coach Gert Smal. Smal has afterall been based in Ireland for a while now and should know many of the players quite well.

Extra Players

In addition to the match day squad there are still other options available in the forwards.

Front Row – Richardt Strauss (Leinster, Pretoria), Jacobie Adrianse (Scarlets, Cape Town), Jacobus Roux (Treviso)

Locks – Quinton Geldenhuys (Zebre, Klerksdorp), Johan (Joe) Snyman (Scarlets, Pretoria), Mike van Vuuren (Treviso, East London), Corniel van Zyl (Treviso, Nelspruit), Izak vd Westhuizen (Edinburgh, Kimberley)

Loose Forwards – Andries Pretorius (Cardiff Blues, Nelspruit).

Additional Player Information

Hanno Dirksen  – The Ospreys outside back scored the try of the  2011/12 Pro12 season in February 2012 and qualifies to play for Wales in 2014 on residency grounds . He has scored 4 tries in 10 Pro12 games this season. Dirksen was born in South Africa but grew up in the USA in Nashville Tennesse. Dirkson played at National U17 and U18 level for the USA but subsequently turned down the chance to play for USA in the Rugby World Cup.

Dirksen’s Uncle, Corra Dirksen, played for the Springboks in the 1980’s and his brother Cornelius made his USA debut in 2012.

Rob Herring – The 23 year old plays hooker for Ulster and joined the club in June 2012 from Western Province where he had played in their Vodacom Cup Team. Earlier in his career he had a spell at London Irish, joining the London Irish academy in 2009. He made his debut for the London Irish senior team in May 2010 against Northampton and came up against Brian Mujati and Dylan Hartley amongst others. He played 6 games in total for London Irish and also 9 for London Welsh, who were in the Championship at the time, where he had a spell on loan.

During Herring’s time at London Irish he played alongside fellow South Africans Danie Coetzee and Faan Rautenbach, who seemed to help him along quite a lot in his early years at professional level. Herring returned to Western Province during 2011 and was involved in their U21 team.

As a school boy Herring played first team rugby in 2007 and 2008 at SACS (South African College School). He is also known to be a keen surfer.

Greig Tonks – The Edinburgh Rugby fullback was born in Pretoria but moved to the United Kingdom UK at the age of 2. He had been involved in England age group squads from U16 through U20 (playing in 2008 U20 Six Nations) and also represented England at the 2009 IRB Junior Championship. He signed as youngster for Leicester Tigers then signed for Northampton Saints in 2010 and joined Edinburgh late in 2012 and started in first game of current season.

Tonks is a highly rated fullback who has now been rewarded with a call up to the Scotland squad for the upcoming Castle Tour of South Africa. Had it not been for the prescence of talented Stuart Hogg he may well have got the chance to represent Scotland earlier this year. He is a player who one feels has a great feel for the game with very good positional sense and links up very well at Edinburgh with fellow international Tim Visser. He is a strong runner, quite safe under the high ball and also good at successfully launching and chasing the up and under.

DTH van der Merwe – South African born winger / centre who has represented Canada has been playing for Glasgow Warriors since the summer of 2009. His full name is Daniel Tailliferre Hauman van der Merwe.

He started playing rugby at the age of five and his progression in the game saw him get to represent Boland at U16 level. He emigrated with his family from South Africa to Canada in 2003 and played, amongst others, for Saskatchewan U18 and U21’s. Van der Merwe made his international debut for Canada in 2006 against Barbados as part of the third round of qualification from the Americas group for the 2007 World Cup. He came off the bench and scored two tries. Since then he has gone on to play for Canada at the 2007 and 2011 World Cups as well in various Churchill Cup tournaments.

DTH is a proven try scorer, ending the 2010/11 season as Glasgow Warriors top try scorer and during the current season he surpassed Tom Evans record number of tries for Glasgow. He extended his contract this year at Glasgow until at least 2015.

RaboDirect Pro12 2012-13 Dream Team

The Pro12 dream team for this season, shown below, was announced earlier this month. It is interesting to note that not one of the players picked for the ‘Raboboks’ makes this fifteen. In the backs one concedes that in most positions that player for player the Pro12 dream team has the edge. However, we are confident that in most positions up front the ‘Raboboks’ team is superior and would give them a hard time.

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), 14 George North (Scarlets), 13 Luke Marshall (Ulster Rugby), 12 Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), 11 Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby), 10 Ian Madigan (Leinster Rugby), 9 Nikola Matawalu (Glasgow Warriors), 8 Nick Williams (Ulster Rugby), 7 Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), 6 Alessandro Zanni (Benetton Treviso), 5 Al Kellock (Glasgow Warriors), 4 Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), 3 Adam Jones (Ospreys), 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (Benetton Treviso), 1 Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors).

TEAMS (7) Glasgow Warriors 4, Ospreys 3, Benetton Treviso 2, Ulster Rugby 2, Scarlets 2, Leinster Rugby 1, Edinburgh Rugby 1.

*Sources: Rabodirect Pro12, the various Pro12 teams sites, worldartists, wikipedia and the author’s fading memory