Jean: A 'long walk' to the World Cup
The Drakenstein Correctional Centre – formerly the Victor Verster Prison and once home to the late President Nelson Mandela – is the unlikely venue for the start of Jean de Villiers' long road back to full match fitness.
While the Springboks, whom he hopes to captain at the World Cup in England in September and October, will hog the headlines and limelight against Australia in Brisbane, De Villiers will appear in a low-key pre-season Curie Cup match.
After making his first appearance on a playing field in almost eight months – following knee reconstruction surgery – in the Boks' 46-10 win over a World XV at Newlands at the weekend, De Villiers will now head to the famous prison ground between Paarl and Franschhoek, where he will start for Western Province against the Nelspruit-based Pumas.
It was always planned that the Bok captain would not travel with the national team for the start of the Rugby Championship.
His return to the national team, apart from the past weekend's 20-minute cameo, was always going to be against Argentina in Durban in the final round of the Championship.
After this week's encounter with the Pumas, where he is expected to get about 50 minutes, De Villiers will also feature in a second pre-season outing for WP, against the EP Kings.
However, his remarkably fast recovery – there was serious doubt he would make it to the World Cup, let alone feature in the build-up – will see him start against the Pumas this week.
"He will start the game at No.12, which is ahead of schedule," WP coach John Dobson told a media briefing on Monday.
"He was going to come off the bench this week and start against the Kings next week," Dobson said, adding: "But he'll start this weekend, because the World XV game went better than expected."
Dobson said De Villiers won't be the captain, because he must focus on his own game.
"However, it's amazing – he's here. He says he hasn't played a proper Western Province warm-up game for 12 years. The last time he played one was against Matthew Proudfoot [former WP forwards coach].
"It's amazing to have the Springbok captain arriving at training and being as keen as mustard."
De Villiers, despite his faster than expected recovery, said there is still a long road to full fitness.
Speaking after his comeback for the Boks at Newlands De Villiers said he was "quite emotional", but happy to just be back and playing after the lengthy lay-off.
"Obviously for me playing at Newlands again was quite special," the Bok skipper said, adding: "It has been many long months."
He admitted he had some doubts about the knee before he took to field.
"There will always be a bit of doubt the first couple of games. The only way you get through that is by playing and taking a few knocks on the knee. You must get used to those situations on a rugby field that you can simulate in training.
"I got through it nicely and once you are in the moment, you tend to forget about the knee."
De Villiers said he does not want to walk into the Bok team on reputation, but want to prove his worth in the next few weeks.
"For me to get to the World Cup is still a very long way, I still have a lot of boxes to tick.
"From a performance point of view I still have to improve a helluvalot.
"If you look at the great performances that Damian [de Allende] and Jesse [Kriel] delivered [against the World XV], I won't just walk into the team.
"I need to deserve my place and I still have a long way to go to be at an elite level and be good enough to form part of that squad.
"I am just happy that I got through the [World XV] game, but I am still far off the final product."
De Villiers, who trained at the Drakenstein Correctional Centre as schoolboy player and visited it with the Stormers backline two years ago, said it will be a nice experience to play at a venue that has so much history.
"It will be a nice box to tick."
By Jan de Koning
@King365ed
@rugby365com
