Jacques Southey - Captain of Paul Roos
Player Profile
Paul Roos play their final game of the season on Saturday against Grey College from Bloemfontein, an FNB Classic Clash. Jacques Southey is the third player to captain Paul Roos Gimnasium 1stXV this season.
Cameron Peverett, captain in 2004 and captain of the Western Province Craven Week side is on the bench. The second captain, Johan Stofberg, Theuns Stofberg’s son is also out, with a broken ankle. As is so often the case though is sport, the misfortune of others has given him an opportunity, one he intends to grasp with both hands!
Jacques Southey was born in Cape Town on 11 June 1987 and attended Panorama Primary School in the northern suburbs of Cape Town. He captained the Under-13A team there and after making the WP Under-13 Craven Week team it was suggested to him that he further is education at one of the traditional rugby schools, namely Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch. His parents still stay in Panorama, and so Jacques is in the hostel and is a hostel prefect. He played for the WP Academy XV this season and hopes to continue his education and rugby career in the town that has been so good to him. He has applied to Maties to study B.Comm. (Accounting) in 2006.
Jacques has played loosehead prop and models his play on Bok icon Os du Randt. Having played prop his whole life he is technically very sound, while coach Frans van Niekerk also describes Jacques as a good leader. That he must be as the team’s results have improved markedly under his leadership. In addition, he captained Paul Roos to their biggest win of the season thus far, against Paarl Gim last week.
Jacques himself appears to enjoy fulfilling the classic prop roles as he cites rucking and mauling as his other main strengths. Clearly he is leading from the front in this department, as both those areas have become team strengths over the last few weeks. The improvement up front has given the quality Paul Roos backs more time and space to manoeuvre.
Interschools against Grey College is always a very special occasion, and Jacques says this game means everything to him. He knows as well as anybody that the result on Saturday will go a long way towards determining how the 2005 season is remembered!
For a profile of the Paul Roos team. click here.