FNB Player of the Week - Jean Rossouw of Paarl Gimnasium
Player profile
Our first FNB Player of the Week for 2006 is Jean Rossouw of Paarl Gim, one of South Africa's greatest rugby schools.
It is often said of prop forwards nowadays that they are athletic. This is literally the case with Jean Rossouw, the captain of the Paarl Gimnasium 1st XV for the 2006 season. Jean represented Western Province at the SA National Junior Athletic Championships last year and won a bronze medal in the Under-17 hammer throw. Jean has put his athletics on the backburner in 2006. His focus is firmly on rugby, and on keeping Paarl Gim as the No.1 school in the Western Cape and in the Top-5 in the country.
Jean was born in George on 6 April 1988 and attended Laerskool Panorama in Welgelegen, just north of Cape Town. He played lock until Standard 4, but has campaigned successfully in the front row ever since. His parents, neither of whom played any representative sport, are now resident in Stellenbosch. He has a sister though who represents Boland at netball.
Jean played Craven Week for Western Province at Under-13 and Under-16 level, and was the first-choice loosehead for the Western Province Craven Week team last year. He made the squad for the SA Under-19 team this year but didn't make the final cut for Dubai – a situation neither he nor his coach Nico Momsen is too upset about as he is still Under-19 next year. The experience gained just by attending the SA Under-19 training camp has helped improve not only his game, but also more importantly his confidence.
Anyone who saw him destroy the man Paul Roos like to call “Os” at Newlands recently will attest to that. Jean spent the off-season working hard on his conditioning and coach Momsen is very happy with the physical shape his captain is in. Jean is not only an exceptionally strong scrummager but also has very good ball skills and ability with ball in hand. Coach Nico Momsen cites "school politics" as the only reason Jean is not a school prefect but he has full faith in his choice of captain, whom he calls an “outstanding leader”.
Not surprisingly Jean’s rugby hero is the legendary Bok loosehead Pieter “Os” du Randt. Watching Jean play it is immediately apparent that he is doing a very good job in emulating almost every aspect of his hero's play, controlling things up front at scrum time while contributing more that adequately in all other aspects of play, be it cleaning rucks, ball carrying or cover defence.
Paarl Gim have a reasonably young team this year with only three players back from last season. Jean says it is a huge privilege to captain Gim and he has no doubt that despite their relative youth his team will show the necessary guts and determination required to win all their games.
Gim have yet to play a full fixture this season but have amongst others beaten Paul Roos and drawn with the highly rated Strand High in shortened games. They head for the St. Stithians Easter Festival where they are to play Kearsney, Glenwood and then Affies on the Saturday in a televised encounter. It will be a tough week but nothing but a clean sweep will suffice for a rugby school of Gim’s stature.
Gim have produced so many Springboks of late that they are almost too many to mention but it would be remiss not to mention that arguably South Africa’s two most popular players at present, Jean de Villiers and Schalk Burger, are both alumni.
Jean Rossouw hopes to study Sports Psychology when he leaves school, something that may come in very handy if he goes all the way and represents his country at the highest level. Understanding South Africa’s rugby-psyche has never been easy! Judging by how Jean’s career has gone to date though he may have to put any further studies on hold. Rugby commitments will no doubt keep him busy for many years to come.
