Johan van Deventer - FNB Player of the Week
Player Profile
Johan van Deventer is fast, first, strong and hard and he loves the tough stuff. He is a fetcher flank for Monnas, Golden Lions and South Africa Under-19. He is our FNB Player of the Week.
Last year Johan was a star at the Craven Week, and it came as a surprise that he was chosen for the SA Academy side and not the SA Schools side, but the 17-year-old was the captain of the Academy side and they beat SA Schools 30-24 at Loftus Versfeld. "I enjoyed that," he says, though he admits to being disappointed not to make the SA Schools side.
Hans Coetzee, the highly experienced and shrewd Monument coach, says that Johan is a "strong leader". He captained the Golden Lions at the Grant Khomo Week for Under-16s, then at Craven Week. This year he is again the captain of the Golden Lions' Craven Week side and was the vice-captain of the South African Under-19 side at the IRB World Championship in Dubai. He is, of course, the Monnas captain.
He is also deputy headboy of Monument, though he says that the teaching staff are not at all fond of rugby players despite the good name they have given the school. "But the pupils pick the leaders," he says with glee.
Johan is a straightforward young man. He wants to continue playing rugby in the Golden Lions area and when his playing days are over he wants to farm sheep in the Karroo. He finishes school this year and hopes to go onto the University of Johannesburg though a bit disappointed that the university does not offer agriculture. After all his uncle is a sheep farmer near Pretoria and his best friend a farmer near Randfontein, where Johan lives.
Johan Christiaan van Deventer was born in Johannesburg's on 4 May 1988. His primary school was Rapportryers from where he went to Monument in Krugersdorp for high school. Coetzee says of him: "Loyalty is important for him."
"I started playing rugby in Grade 0," he says with a laugh, the son of a former Western Transvaal eighthman Apart from a season as a scrumhalf in Grade 1, he has been a flank..
Coetzee says "He has gained a lot of experience already. Although a bit on the short side, he has great upperbody strength. He is really fast and amazingly fit."
But then he is a good athlete, specialising in there 400m and the 400m hurdles.
His rugby hero is Richie McCaw. "Did you see how he won that ball against Ireland? That won the Test for the All Blacks."
Fetching is tough but he relishes it. "I like to play to the ball and in the rucks I try to be as irritating as possible. If the opposition hit me., I enjoy it because I know I'm doing my job."
Experience has included the years of provincial schools rugby, the Under -19 tournament in Dubai, which was disappointing from a South African point if view, and a trip to Japan with the Monument side for the Sanix World Youth Rugby Tournament for players under 17 on 31 March.
Johan says: "That was a great experience. The Japanese really play good rugby. In two matches we plated against Japanese teams they dropped the ball only twice – once in each match. Their handling is incredible.
"We came second after losing the final to Christchurch Boys' High. We had their measure in the pack but they were too big and strong for our younger backs. They were more physical than we were."
There he is – an uncomplicated young man whose life now is rugby and his future farming.
Anything you want me to say? "Anything, oom, but just say that I give all honour to the Lord for my talent."
