Monsieur Kockott
Monsieur Kockott
Rory Kockott, the perky, individualistic, 28-year-old scrumhalf from East London and Durban appears on the verge of becoming the ninth South African to play for France. His selection would be no surprise as he has been a star, playing for Castres in the Top 14.
And it seems that France likes scrumhalves who can kick goals as Dimitri Yachvili, Frédéric Michalak, Morgan Parra, Jean-Marc Doussain and Maxime Machenaud do. If he is chosen for France Kockott will be just the second South African back to play for Les Bleus. The others were forwards.
The first was Eric Melvill, a vigorous loose forward, born and educated in Cape Town. He played for Villagers and Western Province B and then went over to France at the age of 29 to play for Toulon, then not the glamorous, cosmopolitan outfit it has become. And then he became a Frenchman and the first 'foreigner' to play for France. He played six times for France.
After him came Dries van Heerden, also a loose forward, also born in Cape Town and also in 1961. He went to France in 1986 and played for Tarbes, playing two Tests in 1992. When the Springboks toured France in 1996 he was most helpful to coach André Markgraaff with local knowledge, He was then working at the airport in Lourdes.
On that tour, too, Markgraaff contacted a young prop from Malmesbury whose ability was obvious, but Pieter de Villiers opted to stay in France where he was quite literally a pillar of the French scrum, playing for them 69 times. in a career that stretched from 1999 to 2007 Back in South Africa he is now the Springbok scrumming coach.
Stephen Hall went to school just up the road from Kockott's Selborne for he was at Dale in King William's Town where his dad was in business. He was 25 in 1997 when he went to play for Béziers in France and in 2002 the lock was chosen to play No.8 in two Tests for France. He was in the same French side as Pieter de Villiers.
Also in De Villiers's time was Brian Liebenberg, the strong centre who went to Pretoria Boys High. Unlike most, he went overseas soon after leaving school. He headed for Italy and played for Piacenza before moving up to Paris and Stade Français where he was a team-mate of Pieter de Villiers. In all Liebenberg played 25 times for France between 2003 and 2005.
Three more South Africans made their debuts for France in 2013 – loose forward Bernard le Roux who hails from Moorreesburg and prop Dan Kotze from Frankfort in the Free State. Le Roux plays his club rugby for Métro-Racing, Kotze for Clermont where he went after starting with Aurillac in Pro D2. They each made their debuts against New Zealand in Auckland.
The third 2013 debutant is Antonie Claassen, the son of Springbok captain Wynand. Son Antonie could not get a playing contract with the Blue Bulls and, as his father had done before him, went off to play in France where he settled in at Brive whom he captained. When Brive were relegated he moved to Castres, the same club as Kockott. A loose forward, he has now played five times for France.
Before professionalism there was no prohibition on eligibility. The idea was that you played where you were living and good luck to you. So Jack Gage and John Allan played for South Africa and another country. The great Frank Mellish did that in the same calendar year.
In 1921 he was in England and played for England, but then raced home to South Africa to be chosen to go on tour with the Springboks to Australia and New Zealand.
The first South African to play for an overseas country was possibly Jimmy MacDonald who was chosen on the wing for Scotland in 1903 while reading medicine at Edinburgh University. Several players played for overseas countries while Rhodes Scholars – Reggie Hands, Tuppy Owen-Smith and Clive van Ryneveld all played rugby for England and cricket for South Africa. Mike Dickson and Beak Steyn played for Scotland and Mickey Davies for Wales. Owen-Smith captained England art Rugby as Deon O'Cuinneagain of Cape Town captained Ireland at rugby.
As professionalism spreads its rugby wings and loyalties become more tenuous, South Africans have increasingly played more and more abroad. You have South Africans playing for all six of the Six Nations countries, for Australia and New Zealand, for the USA and Canada, and for Germany, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka when it was still Ceylon, Spain and Portugal, distant Russia and next-door neighbours Namibia. When you see a Botha playing for England, a Geldenhuys for Italy and a Van der Merwe for Canada it no longer looks strange.
