BEN-JASON FEATURE: From hostel stooge to “the next Pieter-Steph”

When Ben-Jason Dixon produced some refreshing honesty in a social media post after his first taste of playing against the All Blacks, those who know the Springbok flanker and who have worked with him were not surprised.

However, while Dixon has been omitted from the Bok team for the return Castle Lager Rugby Championship game in Cape Town, and he is available to play for Western Province this weekend, those who know him also know that he will bounce back. Bok coach Rassie Erasmus goes even further that, with the mastermind of two winning World Cup efforts leaving nothing unsaid when he was asked about Dixon’s post-match post on instagram.

In that post, the DHL Stormers said he’d been “honoured” to be part of the hard-fought victory over the All Blacks in Johannesburg, but was self-deprecating about his own contribution.

“While the team came out on top, I know I didn’t have my bet game out there - but that’s part of the journey,” he wrote.

“Every match is a chance to learn, grow and come back stronger. Grateful for my teammates, coaches, and all the fans for the unwavering support. Excited to keep pushing forward and giving my all for this incredible team.”

There’s a lot of Dixon’s personality in those few words. First the honesty, then the determination and the work ethic, plus his conviction that he will get it right. And Erasmus agrees with him.

“He shouldn’t be so hard on himself, I have told him that. We had a chat about it,” said Erasmus at the team announcement press conference ahead of the DHL Stadium game.

“The thing about some test matches is that they are different, New Zealand at Ellis Park is difficult. The hype, the crowd… you feel crowd pressure both ways, and I am talking about the Springboks when I say that.

“When the Boks are going well the crowd carries you over the tryline, but when it is not going so well it is very quiet. And that gets to some players.”

WILL PLAY A LOT OF TEST MATCHES

While Dixon won’t be involved in Saturday’s game at his home ground of DHL Stadium, these days it is possibly semantically incorrect to refer to a player as having been dropped, as Erasmus has a plan that incorporates a squad of around 50 into the Bok drive for success rather than a starting team or even a match day squad of 23.

“I think he is going to play a lot of test matches for South Africa. He is definitely in the mix. He is definitely the next No 7 flanker that we think can do it. We wanted to go five/three in the split between forwards and backs in this game and Elrigh Louw did really well when he came on, he made an impact. Ben-Jason will probably play again in the next match.”

It wasn’t as if he played that badly in Johannesburg either. The confidence he exuded in playing the ball off the top of the lineout showed he is comfortable at the highest level of international competition, which a Bok/All Black game is. If there’s an area that requires work it is in the pick-and-go aspect that is important for a player in his position, and something he is working on at the Stormers.

Neither is it correct, as some reports have suggested, that it was poor play that saw him substituted before halftime in the 31-27 victory. It is understood that the switch back to Eben Etzebeth as the No 4 lock and Pieter-Steph du Toit moving back to his usual position on the blindside flank was always timed for around that point of the game. The 26-year-old product of Paul Roos Gimnasium said himself at a press conference ahead of the game that he had license to empty his tank due to him not being expected to be on the field for the entire 80 minutes.

“UNCANNY SIMILARITY TO PSTD” - DOBSON

Mention of Du Toit, the 2019 World Rugby Player of the Year and star of last year’s Bok World Cup triumph introduces a subject that Dixon may have to get used to - his similarity to Du Toit, who is six years his senior, and the fact that he is being groomed to fulfil the Du Toit role when it is time for the decorated incumbent No 7 to hang up his boots.

“BJ has to get used to being ‘the next’, in his case the next Pieter-Steph du Toit,” says his franchise coach John Dobson.

“We always say in sport ‘the next’, as in the cricketing sense it used to be who would be the next Graeme Pollock. That happens when you have a really special player who plays for a long time, and given what Pieter-Steph has done it is only natural that there will be focus on how South African rugby is going to fill that gap when he is no longer there.”

Dixon may be developing later in his career than Du Toit did, but Dobson agrees with the Bok coach that he is another Pieter-Steph, maybe potentially even destined to be better than him, for Dobson reckons he has a better passing game than the double World Cup winner. Which is quite a statement.

“They are uncannily similar. They both have massive engines, they both have an unbelievable disrespect for their own bodies. Maybe BJ doesn’t quite have Pieter-Steph’s unbelievable work-rate just yet, but that will come. They both share similar personalities off the field, including sometimes a tendency to isolate themselves, to be their own thinkers,” said the Stormers coach, who had Du Toit playing for him in the early part of his stint with the franchise and with WP.

“There have been some rough points to BJ’s game, and I have to be honest, I never saw him making it into the Springbok ranks so quickly. He only ran Hacjivah (Dayimani) down to become our first choice blindside flank quite late in last season. For a long time he was one of those Varsity Cup fringers, but once he got some momentum going, he started to progress unbelievably quickly.”

DISARMINGLY DIRECT AND HONEST

Dobson described Dixon as an honest, hard worker, but with some coaches he might well be considered a bit too honest.

“He can be a bit of a weird guy,” Dobson chuckles. “He cares a lot about the team, and is a very deep thinker. Sometimes after a session he will come to me and say ‘Dobbo, that wasn’t your best session’.

“He’s very principled, deeply romantic, and not long ago he was coaching the under-14B team at Paul Roos. He was also what in English we’d refer to as a stooge in one of the koshuis’ (hostels) at that school. How many people go from coaching an under-14 B team to becoming a Springbok, and very quickly too.”

According to Stefan Jordaan, who coached Dixon at both under-14 level and first team at Paul Roos, and was the House Master of the hostel where Dixon was stooging only last year, it was actually the under-15 C and D teams that Dixon was involved in coaching.

“Ben-Jason was the head boy at the school in 2016. He was a guy who always set a good example and had a good value system,” recalls Jordaan.

“I had an approach from one of his friends who was involved at the school who suggested I contact him, as he was interested in being a hostel assistant (stooge). It was quite something. He was getting paid well by the Stormers, he was a professional rugby player already, he didn’t need to come and live at the school and take on the responsibilities that the position entailed. But that is what he did. He lived in the hostel, like other young teachers or students who fulfil that role do.

“At weekends when he was playing for the Stormers he wouldn’t be involved at the school, but on weekday afternoons he’d be there, doing roll call before dinner, and once a week he’d do hostel duty.

“He was involved with another guy in coaching the under-15C and D teams, with BJ doing the forwards and the other the backs, and he was an amazing coach. You can imagine what it must be like for an under-15C player to be taught by a Stormers player how to jump in the lineouts.”

SCHOOL IN THE MORNING, URC FINAL IN AFTERNOON

He was also so passionate about the school and how his players did that he’d sometimes come through on Saturday mornings on the same day as he was playing.

“That was the case before last year’s United Rugby Championship final,” recalled Jordaan.

“The big Paarl Boys derby game was the same day as the URC final, and that morning he was still at the games until quite late. We talked about, I told him he didn’t have to be there, but he said he wanted to look after the team first and then after that he’d go through to Cape Town to take part in the final (he was on the bench for that decider against Munster). He didn’t think twice about it.

“He is very religious and he used to have a Christian group with the boys. I wasn’t involved, but they talk about stuff related to Christianity and they’d do Bible study. He was also quite strict. I remember an occasion when a boy was late for detention and I was keen to let him off and forget about it but BJ was insistent that rules were rules so he had to come back for detention the next day too.

“It must have been an interesting time for BJ, and also an interesting time for us and the boys. We’d watch him play in a Stormers game in Ireland on a Saturday night, and then he’d be back on Tuesday doing hostel duty ticking off names. He has a great sense of duty, something that also marked his school career.”

HARD WORK PAYS OFF

Jordaan’s first exposure to Dixon was when coached him in the same under-14A team that included another future Stormers Springbok in Damian Willemse.

“I met BJ when he was in grade 8 in Paul Roos, when I was the under-14 coach. He was very tall and played mostly lock. When he got to matric I was the first team coach, so I had him then again too. Damian was the captain of the first team, BJ was the school head boy. They both played Craven Week and if I remember correctly they both made SA Schools. As did Jesse Johnson.

“The reason I remember they made it to SA Schools is because that year we lost a very close game to Grey College and none of the three were playing because they were involved with the national schools team. Apart from being a really good rugby player and a very pleasant and decent person, BJ also excelled at swimming, and I think waterpolo too. He was also part of the school choir and also academically very strong. He went on to get an industrial engineering degree at Stellenbosch.”

It was while Dixon was playing for Stellenbosch (Maties) in the Varsity Cup that Dobson first spotted him.

“He was playing for Maties, mostly at lock. When he came through to us we used him mostly as a hybrid lock (lock-cum-flank). The curious thing about him, particularly in light of how tireless he is as a player now, was that while he had a massive engine, he battled with fatigue. We’d often find ourselves unable to choose as he was just exhausted.

“That was just after his Maties career, he has changed now. I thought when we first worked with him that he was good and would do well as a franchise player, but I had no idea how good he would be.”

Jordaan concurs with that assessment from Dixon’s schooldays.

“Although BJ did really well as a school rugby player it was Damian (Willemse) who stood out, not him. Perhaps that was because of the player that BJ is, he has never been afraid of doing the donkey work, doing the hard stuff in the forwards that isn’t always spotted.

“But he was an incredibly hard worker, and a really committed and determined player who was driven towards his goal. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me that he has become a Springbok, and it was what a lot of people involved with the school said when he was announced in the national squad. Everyone said BJ’s hard work has paid off.”

And it has. While he isn’t involved this weekend, you can take Erasmus at his word - unless an as yet untapped youngster rises meteorically through the ranks, he will be “the next” Pieter-Steph du Toit.