South Africa's Duane Vermeulen on how Ulster stint helped him

FLEXIBLE: Duane Vermeulen during a South Africa training session. Pic: INPHO/Steve Haag Sports/Steve Haag

Duane Vermeulen sits his 260-plus pounds of South African beef onto an unsuspecting wicker chair in the bowels of the Springboks’ team hotel near Toulon and rearranges the sea of phones before him with a lightness of touch and an air of ease.

The 37-year old back row is in the twilight of a gilded career and he knows it. That he is sitting there at all, in his branded training kit and five days out from a third World Cup, is reason enough for the smiles and the bonhomie.

He didn’t see this coming earlier in the year.

“To be really honest, no. Before I joined Ulster I was in a tough spot, the body was acting up and I was thinking I maybe should have called it [a day] back in 2019. The coaches reassured me, convinced me to play on and said I could still play a role in this squad.

“My time at Ulster was actually really good. They managed me well, on and off the field, and training-wise it was really nice. I had time to readjust and get the body back to where it can be. And since playing my first game this year for the Boks I’ve actually really enjoyed it.” 

His two years in Belfast were a combination of frustrating injuries and some breathtaking performances. Hailed as a ‘coup’ when he was signed ahead of the 2021-22 campaign, there were mutual benefits to the transaction.

Already 16 seasons deep in his professional career by then, Vermeulen had been man of the match in the 2019 World Cup final but he was an athlete that needed handling with care when he joined Ulster and they got that.

Ask him how his two seasons in the URC might help when they face Scotland in Marseille this Sunday and he’ll point out that he never once faced Glasgow because of the synthetic surface at Scotstoun and his own dodgy knees.

He has found what works for him and what doesn’t.

“When you get older it becomes more difficult to bend and move. You see the young guys coming through and they’re flexible and mobile and they can move. You look at yourself on the video reviews and you think, ‘Bloody hell, I need to move and I can’t get there’.

“So mobility was probably the biggest thing,” he explained. “We worked a lot on that and I actually think I’m a bit more flexible than some of the younger boys now. It’s a good position to be in. And the mental space too.” 

The Boks could have gone another way.

Jasper Wiese was named the Premiership’s player of the year for his efforts with Leicester Tigers and former Munster and Ireland star CJ Stander was backing the “explosive” Evan Roos to be the starter at No 8 come the World Cup. Roos didn’t make the squad.

Vermeulen had endured a difficult 2022 because of a knee injury and subsequent surgery and he was left out of the Boks squad for the November tour to Europe. When his stint with Ulster ended, retirement was an obvious candidate in terms of a next step.

Instead, he has started three of South Africa’s six games this year and emerged from the bench in two others. Assistant coach Deon Fourie spoke on Tuesday of a player who has made “massive strides” to force himself into this picture.

His longevity shouldn’t be taken for granted. It’s eight years since he was part of a Springbok team that saw off Scotland in a World Cup pool game in Newcastle. Only five others among the current squad featured that day at St James’ Park.

Scotland will have even fewer again from that occasion. That these are very different teams is self-evident but there is a theory that this Scottish team is different gravy to generations past and Finn Russell is a key figure in that debate.

Vermeulen gushed about a “magician with ball in hand” and a man who can do damage on the front foot but then that’s where most see Scotland’s problems beginning and ending: the Boks will hardly cater for that front foot ball.

“Guys can become frustrated if they don’t get the ball on their terms, and then you have to make changes and find solutions. It’s the same on our side. We’d have to find solutions if they get front foot ball. It’s going to be an interesting game.”