Damian Willemse of the Stormers, and Benhard Janse van Rensburg during his time with London Irish chase the ball during the Champions Cup match at The Gtech Community Stadium in London. Photo: Danny Loo/PPAUK
Image: PPAUK
At the same time as several Junior Springboks are whetting their appetite for international rugby at an alignment camp in Cape Town, another (former) Baby Bok is in a corresponding camp in Bagshot, Surrey, held by England coach Steve Borthwick.
The player in question is Benhard Janse van Rensburg, a product of Hoërskool Frikkie Meyer in Thabazimbi, and as the English broadsheet The Telegraph put it in a headline, he is as “English as Biltong”.
The 29-year-old’s invitation to the England camp ahead of their Nations Championship matches in July against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina has been greeted with widespread objection in the United Kingdom.
Former players say a South African is robbing an Englishman of the honour of playing for his country; others wonder why Borthwick is happy to pick a player surplus to Springbok requirements; and then there is the very good argument that the Rugby Football Union (RFU) are hypocrites because they refuse to allow Borthwick to pick English players based outside of England.
The way in which Janse van Rensburg qualified for England has been controversial. The Bristol Bears centre has ticked the box for World Rugby’s five-year residency rule, but the problem was that he played 20 minutes for the SA Under-20 team in 2016, which initially meant he was totally tied to South Africa.
However, the RFU were so desperate to gain the South African’s services that they pleaded their case to World Rugby on the grounds of the short period of time Janse van Rensburg was actually on the field in Baby Boks colours.
Almost unbelievably, the world governing found in their favour because it was an “exceptional circumstance”.
Danny Care, the outspoken former England scrumhalf, told the BBC: “I don’t agree with it. There are so many good young English 12s that are dying to play for England and have always wanted to play for England – that’s their dream.
“Benhard is a brilliant player, but he’s not English. It just doesn’t feel right to me that this lad has never once in his wildest dreams wanted to play rugby for England.”
Care added: “Is he good enough to play international rugby? He’s not good enough to play for South Africa, otherwise they’d have picked him.”
The popular publication The Rugby Paper said in a lead story that the RFU’s desperate measures taken to free up the South African to play for England while ignoring top English players based in France, such as Jack and Tom Willis, “is a double-standard disgrace and a restraint of trade.”
Poor Janse van Rensburg is in the middle of the rumpus, but he has one big crumb of comfort — his five-year eligibility is up on July 8, four days after the England match against the Springboks in Johannesburg, ruling him out of a potentially difficult situation.
He is free to be picked for the England games against Fiji and Argentina.