Du Preez keen to do his duty
Fourie du Preez seems like a surprising candidate to take over from Jean de Villiers - but he’s ready for action.
|||Newcastle - Having initially turned down the job as Springbok captain four years ago, veteran Springbok scrumhalf Fourie du Preez says he will see action in his first outing as leader of the pack when the Springboks take on Scotland in their crucial Rugby World Cup clash at St James Park in Newcastle on Saturday.
The 33-year-old Du Preez may have been a surprise candidate to take over from the injured Jean de Villiers, who called time on his international career after another jaw fracture, but Du Preez could be the perfect fit to lead the Springboks in their must-win encounter against the Scots.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer’s rabbit-out-of-the-hat selection of Du Preez was also forced by the hamstring injury to vice-captain Victor Matfield, who was the logical successor to De Villiers, and was even more surprising considering Schalk Burger had led the team this year against the All Blacks. Duane Vermeulen and Francois Louw were frontrunners as well.
However, Du Preez stated that his style of leadership will call on the experience of Burger, Vermeulen and Louw who have led their respective provincial teams and he would leave much of the talking on the field to his three lieutenants.
“It is obviously a massive honour and privilege for me to be asked to be captain. I thought about it in the last four years... (In) 2012 I was in a similar situation. I’m very happy to get the opportunity now and very happy that Schalk and Duane, who are good friends of mine, will back me and I will do it with them. I won’t be a big motivational speaker and hopefully I can lead from the front and we have a massive game ahead of us. The coach may have spoken about winning the World Cup, but I’m only thinking about winning against Scotland this weekend,” said a composed Du Preez at the team announcement press conference on Wednesday.
Du Preez has already shown his mental toughness and willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the team as he played the better part of last week’s win against Samoa with a rib injury sustained in the early exchanges of a brutal and bruising encounter played at Villa Park in Birmingham.
“Last week was quite a tough one but I didn’t have a choice, I had to make the step up and play as long as possible. The plan was to originally start this week or next week but I had to make that step up. The rib is feeling a hundred percent and I got through 73 minutes and I could have gone for 80, so I’m happy with that as well,” Du Preez said.
As much as Du Preez’s elevation to the captaincy came from left field, it is his presence at his third World Cup tournament that was a thought that seemed unlikely for Du Preez when he suffered a career-threatening ankle injury last year. That was followed by a freak knee injury three months ago which put his World Cup hopes in jeopardy.
“There was talk between me and the coach (in 2012) but there was a situation there where it couldn’t happen. Luckily Jean took over and he had four wonderful years and credit to him as well. Life is funny, a few weeks back I didn’t think I was going to be here and a few months back I didn’t think that I was going to play rugby again. To sit here as captain for this weekend is unbelievable for me and I’ve worked really hard to be here so I’m happy,” Du Preez added.
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