Former Springbok Duane Vermeulen played his first rugby game barefoot in the snow of De Doorns when he was seven. The story appears in an IOL column based on Mike Greenaway’s book, The Fireside Springbok.
Vermeulen had just moved to the Western Cape from Nelspruit. He was much younger than the other players, and his legs were shaking at half-time. He rubbed Deep Heat on the soles of his feet and carried on playing.
“When my dad died, it was difficult for my mom,” Vermeulen said in an interview quoted in the column. “She worked two jobs to support us. She left home early in the morning, and I had to help my sister. I did her hair. She went to school with some strange-looking ponytails, but we got by.”
His father died of illness when Vermeulen was seven. The father had played club rugby and a few games for Boland.
“I remember he loved his rugby, and when he died, I decided to go as far as I could in the sport to please him,” Vermeulen said. “I also wanted to make my mom proud.”
The column looks closely at his return at the 2015 World Cup. Vermeulen, the 2014 SA Player of the Year, had played no rugby that year. He had badly hurt his neck playing for the Stormers in Super Rugby.
His neck vertebrae were fused in a Durban hospital, and three months of rehabilitation followed. He was left out of the opening game against Japan to give him one more week of recovery. Japan beat the Springboks.
Coach Heyneke Meyer said the next day that picking Vermeulen for that game was what he most wished he could change. Vermeulen then played all 84 minutes against Samoa in Birmingham. The Springboks won 46-6, and he was named Man of the Match.
The team also gave a private award, a hunting knife, to the player with the most presence on defence. Vermeulen won that too. He won so many during Meyer’s time as coach that Schalk Burger joked he could stock a hunting store.
Vermeulen was also Man of the Match when the Springboks beat England 32-12 in the 2019 World Cup final. He later wrote about that squad in the book Stronger Together.
“In our squad of 33 players, there might have been four who grew up in a ‘normal’ family environment, without experiencing daily strife,” he wrote.
Vermeulen said coach Rassie picks players for character, which the coach calls the warrior gene. “A coach can teach you how to kick and pass the ball, but the warrior gene cannot be instilled in somebody who doesn’t have it,” Vermeulen said.
The column also compares him with England youngster Henry Pollock, who was in a half-time scuffle with Leicester players. Vermeulen, now retired, made a tongue-in-cheek offer earlier in the year to return for five minutes to play against Pollock in July.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL Sport. Image: IOL Sport. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Sports desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Tiyani Mathebula writes about sport for Tzaneen Voice. Tiyani covers Bafana Bafana, the Springboks, the Proteas and the PSL, along with athletics, tennis and local club sport. Match reports and previews focus on results, team news, fixtures and what each game means for South African teams and fans.