Rassie Erasmus may have found his own Will Skelton

Springbok supremo Rassie Erasmus is no stranger to risk and adventure. Of all the top international coaches in recent times, he has probably experimented the most in selection and tactics. On the evidence of the early season developments in the newly-minted Prem, he could be primed to blow on the dice one more time, and roll a winning seven.

The reason he could be drawn back to the casino for another spell at the craps table is the form of Northampton’s new recruit from Paris, Juan John van der Mescht. The huge 26-year-old Glenwood High School alumnus is beginning to move mountains in the Prem, and he would add an element of size and physicality even the Springboks do not currently possess.

A 2008 survey commissioned by The Journal of American College Health found four out of every five of College football linemen produced BMI results which red-flagged them as clinically obese. Despite far exceeding the typical strength and agility expectations and demonstrating excellent strength endurance for their size, the letter of the law was ready to condemn them for their ‘Dad bod’ physiques. They were big, fit and healthy but the finger of science still wagged forbiddingly.

The Japanese sport of sumo discovered the value of mass unrelated to pure muscle a long time ago, and now it is rugby’s turn to find the same pot of gold at the end of its athletic rainbow. The average size of an NFL offensive tackle is between 6ft 4ins and 6ft feet 9 ins in height, tipping the scales at anywhere between 135kg and 160kg in weight. Perceived ‘puppy fat’ only adds value to the physical stew.

The same type of athlete is beginning to drip steadily into top-flight rugby – think Will Skelton for Australia, Emmanuel Meafou in France and now the 2m, 145kg skyscraper that is Van der Mescht in the Midlands. Wide body size is entirely natural for the ex-Sharks man. As a 13-year old stripling in Pretoria, JJ was not selected for the Bulls’ Craven Week side, despite dwarfing all his classmates at Pierneef Primary School. He was 6ft 5 ins and 100kg at the time, but somehow he was overlooked.

When he was being recruited by Glenwood, the school asked future Sharks teammate Kerron Van Vuuren to give the fresh-faced Van der Mescht a tour of the grounds: “They actually whispered I was the new first-team lock but I was only 13 years old! But Kerron only told me that story afterwards.”

At Glenwood High Van der Mescht was an all-round athletic freak: a champion shot-putter and discus thrower who could run the 100m in 11 seconds, and equally adept at water polo and basketball. Even on a rugby field, he preferred to use his skills and agility to run around people then his sheer size to run them over.

“It’s only now I’ve built into that enforcer role, which is more about hitting rucks, stopping mauls and scrumming,” he said.

By the time he played for the Junior Springboks at the 2019 U20 World Cup, the big kid on the block was capable of burning off future Super Rugby speedsters such as Chiefs wing Etene Nanai-Seturo.

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The key dynamic from the point of view of Northampton, and potentially his point of difference for Rassie, is Van der Mescht was recruited by the Champions Cup runners-up to replace number eight Juarno Augustus. Not to replace ‘Trokkies’ at eighth man, you understand, but to play his role as a ‘hard yards’ inside ball-carrier in the aggregate.

With Saints already able to pick from riches in the back-row – perm any three from England internationals Alex Coles, Callum Chick, Henry Pollock, Tom Pearson, and Wallaby Josh Kemeny – they could afford to look for more power on the carry from the row ahead. That is where Van der Mescht comes in.

Those who still doubt the gaping hole Augustus left at Northampton would do well to mark the evidence of the following table. It describes his carrying value in statistical terms from the 2024-2025 Premiership season.

Augustus stacks up extremely well against all the other major English number eights in the league, and his sheer power on the carry would be impossible for Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson to replace. The Northampton coaching staff smartly accepted they would need to apportion more playing time to their rising stars such as Pollock and Pearson, and look for their brute power outside the back-row. Van der Mescht was more than ready for a change of setting.

“I was [at Stade] for a little while but I really wanted to get back in the Springbok team.

“The way the coaches here coach players – there’s a long list of players who they have helped to improve. They’ve had [Dave] Ribbans, [Courtney] Lawes, now [Tommy] Freeman and all those guys who have come through the system.

“There was Trokkies as well and they helped him get back into the Springbok set-up so I just really wanted to improve my game and become better. It’s definitely one of my goals [to follow Juarno into the Boks] and the culture here definitely helps you as a player to get to the level you need to be at and to be at the highest standard you can be.”

Van der Mescht’s move to the Midlands killed two, or even three birds with one stone. It added the sheer size and power Northampton has been lacking to Dowson’s tight five forwards and an indirect replacement for Augustus, and it made the big man more selectable for South Africa while depriving one of their closest rivals [France] of a like-for-like alternative to Meafou at the 2027 Rugby World Cup. Not for the first time in his coaching career, Erasmus’ luck is most definitely in rather than out.

The impact of Van der Mescht’s unique physical gifts was obvious as early as the second round of the Prem against Gloucester.

The ability to bully opponents at the point of contact is one aspect of the game which the Franklin’s Gardens outfit has not prioritised in the Dowson era, but Van der Mescht more than merely fills a gap, he fills the entire doorway to the room marked ‘physicality’.

To create space for the South African’s unique talents, the coaching staff has made accommodations elsewhere. In Friday’s high-scoring home win over Saracens, all the lineout ball was won from the back-row via either lineout skipper Coles [four takes], open-side Pearson [three] or bench forward Chick [one]. As Northampton lineout guru James Craig put it in a mid-game interview on TNT Sports: “Our job as coaches is to put JJ in positions where he can be effective. He is not a lineout jumper but we can build the lift and the maul around him.”

At shorter lineouts, Northampton did not bother using Van der Mescht in the set-piece at all, they simply dropped him into midfield and gave him the job traditionally reserved for the number eight.

Van der Mescht regularly attracted the attention of three defenders and most of them finished on the wrong side of the tackle after being ‘bounced’ by the big man’s big power. It left Pollock with an easy first cleanout and Saracens looking thoroughly disorganised on the next phase of attack. The following table tells the tale of how many carries by the South African were converted into breaks or tries within two phases of play.

The man from Pretoria carried for the most metres of any forward except Pollock. Strictly speaking, he had no clean breaks or tackle busts but the number of clear attacking advantages gained from his powerful runs is truly eye-watering. His carry in the last of the three screenshots opened up space for a run by full-back George Hendy and the move was duly finished by Pearson in the shadow of the Saracens posts.

The pattern had already been set within the first 25 minutes.

Three defenders are drawn into the tackle on Van der Mescht before Saints add a bit of finesse on the decisive phase, faking left before switching to the undermanned right side of the field for a touch-down by the ever-present Pearson.

More defensive compression around a losing tackle by the North Londoners leaves Hendy and Tommy Freeman with ample space to convert the opportunity on next phase for a try near the right corner flag.

Northampton Saints may just have found the last piece of the puzzle they need to win a Champions Cup, and Erasmus may have unearthed a new Springbok juggernaut in time for Australia 2027.

The South African guru will probably like what he is seeing, and appreciate the quality Jaco Pienaar [the Saints scrum coach] laughingly referred to as “a fly-half trapped in a second-row’s body”. And as usual, Rassie will be more than ready to take tide of his affairs at the flood, and follow the green and gold path to even greater fortune.

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