He won’t be there next year as he is off to Montpellier once his Springbok commitments are done, but Ruben van Heerden spoke with his typical deep sincerity when he paid tribute to the DHL Stormers for the role they played in rejuvenating his career.
The now 28-year-old may have felt he was going nowhere when he left the Hollywoodbets Sharks, who he had joined after two years at the franchise that spawned him out of the rugby factory that is Affies, the Vodacom Bulls, to start afresh at Exeter Chiefs in 2022.
He’d made a promising start to his career and in his junior years was spoken of as a future Bok, but he struggled to really get noticed in an admittedly deep pool of quality South African locks.
His career at the Chiefs never really took off, and after mentioning his desire to return home to his new bosses, they agreed to a release.
He could have gone anywhere, and his agents were also known to be sounding out the Bulls, but it was the Stormers who jumped as they had a lock crisis at the time.
Initially the deal was a short-term one, but Van Heerden quickly got stuck in and made it known he thrived in his new environment by executing on the field.
After a couple of telling contributions to the Stormers’ drive to a third-place finish on the Vodacom URC log, and then a place in a home final that they lost to Munster, coach John Dobson had no hesitation in signing him to a more permanent deal.
“I have some great memories here of the Sharks from my early years,” said Van Heerden as he battled a slight stomach issue to get through his first media session as a Springbok player at the team hotel in Umhlanga.
“I was quite young when I was playing here. But I think the change of scenery in going to Cape Town definitely helped me. The trust shown to me by the coaching staff there really helped me get to where I am today.”
He’s not the first player to travel from the Sharks to the Stormers who has said that, but circumstance also might have helped him.
For he is wearing the No 5 jersey, in other words middle of the lineout jumper and probably lineout leader, against Wales at his old Hollywoodbets Kings Park stomping ground on Saturday.
That wasn’t a position he played much at the Sharks or even at the Stormers in his initial season, when he had the Bok lineout technician, Marvin Orie, as his company in the second row. It was after Orie left that he started to play more as a No 5, and over a period of time he started to really flourish in the role.
TURNED DOWN A SECOND TASTE OF BARBARIANS
Van Heerden has the rare distinction for a South African-based player of having played against the Boks. That was when he featured in Robbie Deans’ Barbarians team against the Boks in Cape Town last June.
He was up for selection for the Barbarians again - they were very keen to have him as an indicator of how well he fitted in last year - but with his national ambitions in mind, Van Heerden opted to play for the South Africa A side against the Barbarians in the curtain-raiser to the Boks v Barbarians game in Gqeberha.
THANKFUL FOR THE FRUSTRATIONS
He must have impressed coach Rassie Erasmus, who later that night named him in his squad for the Nations Championship, and now Van Heerden is taking the next step by making his international debut, one that he might have never seen coming a few years ago. Not that he’d ever given up hope of his green and gold ship coming in.
“I always felt I could get there and it has always been my goal,” said Van Heerden.
“You just try and do your best as you control the controllables, and if it happens for you then it happens. And now it is happening, and I am very grateful. It all feels very surreal to me. Some guys have to knock hard on the door, others can knock a bit softer, and that is how it is because every player is in his own unique situation.
“I guess because I had to wait so long, it means so much to me and I appreciate it hugely. You set goals for yourself. There are seasons when you are disappointed because you think you have played well but the recognition still doesn’t come.
“But that builds character, and I am thankful for those frustrations because they have helped develop me as a player and made me the player I am. It is an opportunity I want to grab with both hands.”