South African rugby fans, and especially supporters of the Stormers, have been left frustrated this year that loose forward Evan Roos hasn’t started more often for the Springboks.
The powerful No 8 burst onto the scene for the Cape-based Stormers in 2021 and at the end of the first season of the United Rugby Championship — which the Stormers won, with a victory against the Bulls in the final — Roos was named player of the season.
URC’s best
But it didn’t stop there.
He was also named Next-Gen player of the season, Fans player of the season and was included in the competition’s Dream Team.
And though Roos made the Bok squad for the mid-year Tests against Wales, and started the second game of the series in Bloemfontein when a largely second-string matchday-23 featured and he only got 50 minutes, the fan-favourite and Stormers stalwart hasn’t been able to fully crack the Bok squad.
His only other Bok appearance came last week off the bench against Italy. Roos didn’t feature at all during the Rugby Championship or against Ireland and France on this November tour off Europe.
Now, against England at Twickenham on Saturday, Roos will get just his second Test start and make his third appearance overall.
Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has revealed why it’s taken 10 Tests for the 22-year-old to get another chance from the start of a Test.
‘Pecking order’
“It’s not that that certain guys are not good enough,” said Nienaber on Tuesday when he named his lineup for the England Test.
“There are a lot of guys in the queue … Duane (Vermeulen) isn’t here, there’s Jasper (Wiese) and Kwagga (Smith) … there’s a pecking order.”
Indeed, Vermeulen, Wiese and Smith have all played in the No 8 jersey this year and have been part of the Boks for longer than Roos has been.
On Saturday though, in front of 80,000 fans, the URC’s best player from last season will finally get his chance.
