No 5 lock candidates for the Bok Dream Team

The leader of the lineout and usually, but not always, the more athletic of the two locks, the No 5 is a crucial position in any rugby team for what the player in that position does on the field. A No 5 lock can win you a game through his defensive lineout capabilities and being a good lineout organiser, or can lose it for you if the organisation falls short on the team’s own ball.

South Africa has been blessed with several great second row forwards, in both positions, and a glance through the list of World Cup winners who wore the No 5 on their back will confirm that.

MARK ANDREWS

It isn’t completely out of the question that many might think twice when recalling the career of the legendary Mark Andrews - was he a No 4 or a No 5? Because the reality is that Andrews was just a very good rugby player who was both athletic, which was why the first Springbok World Cup winning coach Kitch Christie switched him to No 8 for the 1995 RWC semifinal and final, and also hugely physical. He actually played his first games for his country as a tourist in Argentina in 1993, where Ian McIntosh used him as a flank.

He could be the team’s enforcer when he needed to be, and if you ask Bakkies Botha, the Boks’ archetypical No 4 enforcer from a previous era, who his favourite player growing up was he will tell you it was Andrews.

The Sharks stalwart made his debut for the Boks against England in Cape Town in 1994, a game that the Boks won comfortably as they bounced back from a big defeat the previous week, and the then 22-year-old who was brought up in the Eastern Cape farming town of Elliot (now Khowa), was at the heart of a furious rucking display from the Bok forwards.

His second test appearance for the Boks was the first game of the 1994 series against the All Blacks in Dunedin and he was given a hot reception by the All Blacks, who rucked him in the early minutes and tried to intimidate him.

It was a big moment in the youngster’s career as after that he resolved to dish out as much as he received when it came to the rough stuff, something that he wasn’t afraid to do after playing club rugby in France with his cousin Keith at a very young age.

Andrews was at one stage South Africa’s most capped player, a status he swopped with James Small and Joost van der Westhuizen in his early career, and eventually ended with 77 test appearances for his country. In his day he would have been a strong candidate for a World XV and was respected and feared wherever rugby was played.

2. LOOD DE JAGER

A Rugby World Cup winner in 2019, Lodewyk de Jager burst onto the scene initially with the Cheetahs and played a rousing debut game for his country when Scotland visited Gqeberha for a one-off test in 2014. From there his star rose quickly as for a man who is 2.06 metres tall and weighs in at 125 kilograms the product of Hoerskool Hugenote in Springs is surprisingly athletic.

That athleticism makes him an extremely dynamic lineout forward, while his considerable weight contributes hugely to the Boks on the drive.

A year after his debut De Jager was part of Heyneke Meyer’s World Cup squad, with the Boks ending third in a tournament that was hosted by England.

He would have played more for the Boks in his early career had it not been for the presence of the experienced Victor Matfield in the same Bok squad, but those who want to see De Jager at his most effective could do worse than check out a video replay of the 2015 Rugby Championship game against the All Blacks in Johannesburg, when Matfield was injured and watching from the stands.

The Boks eventually lost that game but De Jager was outstanding, as indeed he was when he became the first-choice No 5 later on in the 2019 World Cup campaign in Japan. His introduction brought in extra weight and height to a pack that grew an extra leg with his presence.

He was injured during the final but he played a colossal role in helping get the Boks that far and he would no doubt have been a double World Cup winner, like his second row partner from that RWC Eben Etzebeth, had it not been for the injury that forced him out of the team that won in France two years ago.

Talking of injury, when he returned from injury to the Bok second row in the second game of the 2021 series against the British and Irish Lions it was his addition as a substitute that changed a game that the Boks were losing before his introduction.

He’s made several pivotal contributions to Bok winning causes in big games and is one of several world class players who have worn the Bok No 5.

3. VICTOR MATFIELD

Victor Matfield is widely regarded as one of the finest locks not only to represent South Africa, but arguably one of the best ever players globally in his position. You certainly wouldn’t get too many dissenters if you argued that he was the best lineout technician ever to play the game.

The product of Hoerskool Pietersburg was a World Cup winner in 2007, a winner of a British and Irish Lions series two years later and he was also a pivotal member of the Bok team that whitewashed New Zealand 3-0 on the way to winning the 2009 Tri-Nations. Had it not been for an unfortunate refereeing performance from Bryce Lawrence in the 2011 RWC quarterfinal in Wellington, he may well have ended as a double World Cup winner.

He retired from rugby after that World Cup but completed one of the greatest ever comebacks for a rugby player when later he returned to the field (after a nearly two year break) to be part of the Bok team that finished third in the 2015 World Cup.

By then Matfield was in his late thirties but his athleticism made it possible for him to remain effective. He was also gifted when it came to ball skills, having excelled as a cricketer when he was at school.

Matfield wasn’t as big and physical as Mark Andrews or Lood de Jager but he made up for that with his athleticism and was responsible for a crucial try saving tackle in the 2007 World Cup final in Paris, a game he ended as the man of the match.

Until Eben Etzebeth overtook him in the game against Argentina in Nelspruit last year, Matfield was South Africa’s most capped player, ending with 127 caps in an international career that started in 2000 when he was part of Harry Viljoen’s squad in the tour of Argentina, Ireland and the UK. He played four tour games before graduating to being a test player in 2001.

4. FRANCO MOSTERT

A double World Cup winner, Mostert is one of the most versatile and mobile locks on the planet, with his mobility being underlined by the fact that he has played blindside flank for his country as well as for his former South African franchise team, the Emirates Lions.

It could be argued that Mostert is one of the unsung heroes of the Bok success between 2019 and now because like Pieter-Steph du Toit, he has an incredible work-rate. As it is often described in rugby parlance, he has a big engine.

Mostert started his career playing for Tukkies in the Varsity Cup between 2010 and 2012, and he made his provincial debut for the Bulls in 2012 before moving to Johannesburg, where he was an influential member of the Lions team that played in three successive Super Rugby finals between 2016 and 2018.

An excellent lineout forward, with his ability to get across the ground at pace Mostert was also well suited to the quick tempo Lions playing style, while also being physical enough to contribute and hold his own when it comes to rugby’s dark arts at the contact points. He turns 35 later this year but Mostert may yet still have something to add to a stellar international career if needed.

5. ALBERT VAN DEN BERG

Philippus Albertus van den Berg first became noticed when he was playing for Andre Markgraaff’s Griquas team that won the Vodacom Cup in the 1990s, and from there he was catapulted in the Cats Super 12 team, where he impressed with both his lineout ability and his mobility.

A product of Vryburg High School and born in Hoopstad, Van den Berg played his first senior rugby for Vaal Triangle, for whom he made 15 appearances, but it was off the back of what he did for Griquas and then the Cats that coach Nick Mallett selected him into the Springbok team for a game against Italy at Boet Erasmus Stadium in what was then Port Elizabeth and then into his World Cup squad later that year.

Van den Berg played 51 international games for his country, with several of them being as an impact substitute, but he would have played more had he not been playing at the same time as Victor Matfield. He was part of the Springbok World Cup-winning squad in 2007 and also played 95 games for the Sharks, who he moved to in 2000 after a career at Griquas that saw him play 55 times for them.

He ended his playing career with the Canon Eagles in Yokohama, Japan but has subsequently done well as a coach, filling the assistant roles at the Lions, Scarlets and at the Eagles.