England’s latest squad announcement saw the inclusion of Bristol Bears South African centre, Benhard Janse Van Rensburg. Whilst he has been an ever-present for the Sharks his qualification to play for England through residency and subsequent selection has raised eyebrows for a number of reasons.
Firstly is the obvious one with former England scrum-halves Danny Care and Ben Youngs both saying that the fact a South African has been selected ahead of a whole stable of English talent doesn’t sit right with them. The residency rule isn’t fit for purpose, five years, that’s all it takes these days.
The Prem is blessed with a lot of international talent there’s Springboks like Thomas du Toit at Bath, Wallabies like Len Ikitau at Exeter, Pumas like Rodrigo Isgro at Harlequins and a whole host of Welsh, Italian, Scottish talent along with stars from less celebrated rugby nations. All of them came here as international players with no designs on representing their new home.
Van Rensburg was never on South Africa’s radar when he pitched up to the Prem originally with London Irish five years ago. And to be honest who wasn’t really at the front of Steve Borthwick’s mind until a few months ago due to the emergence of Fraser Dingwall as an international level centre, the terrific form of Seb Atkinson and the realisation of Max Ojomoh’s potential.
That’s the key difference. Many people will like to highlight the fact World Cup winner Mike Catt was South African, yes he was but his mother was English, that is different, very different. At least when it comes to Catt he has a familial connection to England, Van Rensburg does not.
People also point to the Vunipola brothers who together amassed 154 England caps despite being born to Tongan parents in Sydney, Australia (Billy) and Wellington, New Zealand (Mako). The difference here being they moved to the UK as children, they moved for their father to take up a contract at Pontypool, the Vunipola brothers have lived most of their lives and played all their professional and high level rugby in England.
They again have a much deeper connection with England and held a desire to wear the England shirt. With the second nation rule relaxed in recent years Billy Vunipola has even ruled out wearing the Tonga shirt in the future which speaks volumes.
Another massive reason the Van Rensburg selection is eye raising is not so much his inclusion but the exclusion of Bath pair Max Ojomoh and Ollie Lawrence.
Lawrence is an established England international, 37 England caps and 7 tries. Lawrence despite his injury problems has been a solid if not spectacular player in the white of England, he’s often shown what he can do but has never been given the shirt long enough to replicate his excellent club form that make him a key man for his club.
Max Ojomoh has two England caps, less established than his teammate, his first cap coming against the USA and the second an eye-catching man of the match display against Argentina back in November.
I started with a try for himself which was well taken and certainly a case of right place, right time but what came next was much more than just fortune.
His beautiful cross-field kick landing in Immanuel Fey-Waboso’s hands at full tilt and nobody is catching the Exeter Chiefs flyer running at that speed. Then he rounded off an already impressive display with a clever back-handed offload to send Henry Slade over in what would be the winning score.
The fact that this kind of performance coupled with a fantastic two seasons with Bath, a team that won the league last season (not to mention the Challenge Cup) and are second this season (not to mention a Champions Cup semi-final) is quite frankly astounding.
He has had a few niggles this season but he was back at the weekend against Newcastle Red Bulls and put in one of the best cameos I’ve seen from a centre in months. You could argue it was against perennial cannon fodder, Newcastle but it was still an extremely assured individual performance.
Van Rensburg being picked ahead of Ojomoh and Ollie Lawrence who by the way has had his own eye-catching displays for Bath and England feels strange even if he was English is he a better attacking force than either, does he have the rounded skillset of Ojomoh or the intelligent interplay of Lawrence.
Not to mention Ojomoh and Lawrence play together for Bath. Connections matter.
I think an England side with a table-topping Northampton half back pairing and a current champions centre pairing doesn’t sound too bad.
The inclusion of Benhard Janse Van Rensburg is not the answer to England’s prayers or problems. England have some very tough tests this summer not least of which is their opener against South Africa a nation that have already deemed Van Rensburg not good enough if England are to be world champions next year, Springbok cast-offs are not the way to go.
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