The oldest man to wear a Springbok jersey in the modern era, Johan Ackermann, has given Victor Matfield’s comeback his seal of approval.
Sport24
The former Springbok and current Lions coach said “age is relative” and wouldn’t be a stumbling block for the former Springbok and Bulls legend.
Six and a half years ago, on 7 July 2007 against the Wallabies, Ackermann, at 37 years and 34 days played his last game for the Springboks and became the oldest player to ever don the Green and Gold.
“Matfield is fit, athletic and his experience will add great value to the Springboks. I believe he is definitely still in Heyneke Meyer’s Springbok plans.
“He offers Heyneke security going into next year’s World Cup and is an ideal player to fall back on,” Ackermann said.
Ackermann said Jake White had called on him in 2007 as a support player, and said he believed Matfield could fill the same role in Meyer’s team.
But Ackermann hoped that Matfield’s apparent return wouldn’t unsettle other contenders in the lock position.
“I think Pieter-Steph du Toit is an unbelievable talent and I was very impressed with the combination formed by Eben Etzebeth and Flip van der Merwe last year.”
Ackermann also cautioned that Meyer would have to be careful to avoid a “John Smit / Bismarck du Plessis dilemma”, where a more experienced player was favoured over a player in superior form.
I see this is how Matfield will be used:
Brenden Nel – Sport24
Former Springbok captain Victor Matfield will play for the Bulls in this year’s Vodacom Super Rugby series – but don’t expect him to arrive back in the competition with a bang.
Accoridng to the supersport.com website, the Bok lock has been practising with the Bulls since early December, alternating between a player and coaching roles as the team prepares for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere season.
But while neither Matfield nor the Bulls want to publicly confirm his return yet, he has been given a green light by the coaching staff and fitness experts to resume his career, but still has to wait for an administrative clearance.
As SuperSport.com reported back in November, Matfield is seen by Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer as his answer to the lack of a quality number five lock at national level, and the Bok coach has wanted him back in the Springbok fold for a while now.
Matfield initially wanted to concentrate on a coaching role, mentoring young locks, but with no number five lock establishing himself in the first two years that Meyer has been in charge of the Boks, he was apparently convinced to make the comeback.
The Bok lock is only awaiting the clearance on both the Bulls and SARU side to restart his career, with this expected within days.
But once he gets back on the field, sources close to the Bulls have told supersport.com he will be used “sparingly” to ensure he is ready for international rugby and not specifically Super Rugby.
The Bulls plan to use him off the bench at first, and then to start him more in the latter part of the season, but he isn’t likely to be part of every single team during a vigorous Super Rugby season, and will likely fall back into a mentoring and coaching role in the weeks he doesn’t play.
The plan has been designed to give Matfield a chance to ease back into rugby, and ensure that he is at his peak when the Springboks play.
It is likely that he will be used sparingly at first by the Boks as well, brought in rather in a mentoring role, and that everything will be done to ensure he can play until after the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The Bulls have been talking with their Springbok counterparts on how to ease him back into rugby for a while now, but have instructed Matfield to keep quiet until all the boxes have been ticked.
Having kept up his fitness levels through mountain-biking and various other activities, Matfield then started training under current Bok conditioning coach Basil Carzis before training further with current Bulls conditioning coach Andre Volsteedt in Pretoria.
Matfield’s fitness is certainly not under question – he runs in front when the Bulls do their fitness sessions and kept a remarkable fitness level for a 36-year old player. As possibly the finest lineout forward ever in the game, his technical levels are also good and the move into coaching will only have benefitted the way he sees the game and the decisions he takes on the field.
But the real question is how quickly he will adapt to the modern game, with rugby moving on since he last played in 2011.
If he can adapt fast, and the Bulls manage him well, the Boks could well use him in a similar role to the one that Bob Skinstad fulfilled for Jake White at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Skinstad, also two seasons out of rugby, returned and played his way into the Bok squad, and was instrumental in squad morale, mentoring the younger players and gave much experience to the dirt trackers at the Rugby World Cup.
And experience is something the Bok coach Meyer values very highly.
Matfield will play for the Bulls this season, that much is true. It is understandable that the public are sceptical given his age and the young stars that are coming through the ranks.
But that will only motivate Matfield further, as already those close to him tell of how his friends have told him he shouldn’t be playing again.
Matfield now sees this as a challenge and like so many before him, he won’t let age stand in his way as he tries to achieve another milestone.
This is how Mark Andrews and Kobus Wiese sees it:
Sport24
Former Springboks Mark Andrews and Kobus Wiese have offered Bok coach Heyneke Meyer advice in the wake of Victor Matfield’s rumoured return.
Speaking to Die Burger’s website Andrews, said he hoped that sentimental reason would not factor in Meyer’s decision whether or not to include Victor Matfield in the Springbok squad.
“If (Victor) can play as he has in the past, it will be good news for South African rugby, but at his age it just gets harder and harder to compete at the same level and the 2015 Rugby World Cup is a long way away.
“It will be very unfortunate if he is picked on the basis of his past achievements whilst promising players are coming through.”
Andrews said there would be high expectations of Matfield, and said he would have the added pressure of knowing his reputation was on the line.
Former Springbok lock Wiese was also sceptical about Matfield’s return and believed it would be short-sighted to pick him again for the Springboks.
“Once a player retires, he should stay retired. In addition, the Springboks don’t have a crisis at lock. It is important that a player like Pieter-Steph du Toit gets as much playing time as possible now.”
Fcuk this grebo shit. Play Etzebth and Elstadt / PSDT and move on. Why not just bring Liefling out of retirement? Oh wait…………………..
If he can still dominate the lineouts he must play. psdt and Etzebeth doesn’t put enough pressure on the opposition lineout.
If he’s good enough, he’s young enough.
4 @ leon:
Agree fully
@ Loosehead:
To have a guy the calibre of Matfield around to mentor the guys you mentioned would be brilliant, however, I am worried that he will not be the same force as he was when he retired. But maybe he did retire a year or two too soon.
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