Pure genius
10 Dec 2009
Fourie du Preez has established himself as the finest player on the planet.
Rugby genius. The concept is not easily defined, and should you arrive at a suitable definition, finding players who meet all the criteria is rare. It’s a relative concept, certainly, but there are attributes which are absolute. Fourie du Preez lists some of those when I ask him what he would define as genius.
‘It’s a player who reads the game and makes the right tactical decision 99% of the time after assessing the situation,’ he begins. ‘That said, you get some sharp decision-makers who don’t have the skills to execute what they see in their mind. Geniuses are able to do both, and their ability is amplified by the fact that they’ve studied their opponents.
‘Then there’s the issue of consistency. To be considered a genius you have to be able to deliver high-quality performances week in and week out against high-quality opposition.’
Du Preez has inadvertently described himself. To fully appreciate his genius you have to consider that he’s played at the height of his powers for most of what has been the most taxing season of his career.
Going into the end-of-year Tests, he had played 1 853 minutes of rugby in 2009 – the equivalent of around 23 matches – against the majority of the world’s elite players and teams. Not once has he looked like an impostor in such illustrious company. In fact, seldom have big-name players looked as ordinary as they have when pitted against the irrepressible Du Preez.
He has, however, omitted a couple of absolutes in search of a proper definition.
Geniuses have an aura about them that penetrates the opposition’s psyche, galvanises their team-mates and drives those men to a level of performance they may not have known possible. They also have the ability to change the course of a game, as Du Preez exhibited in the Super 14 and Currie Cup finals.
There were six decisive moments over the course of those 160 minutes. Du Preez was involved in all of them.
It was his try, birthed from a quick tap, against the Chiefs that signalled the start of the most emphatic performance by a team in a final in recent history. He then followed that up with another five-pointer to take his side into the lead, before threading through the most perfectly weighted grubber for Bryan Habana to score and seal the result.
To underline his aptitude for high-pressure matches, he mesmerised the Cheetahs at Loftus, directing the Bulls’ classic symphony with the skill of a master conductor – the build-up featuring an expertly executed cross-kick which sailed to the unmarked Francois Hougaard, a divine piece of handling to scoop the ball off his boot laces and send Habana away for a try, and the crescendo – a deft, looping kick into vacant space which Habana chased down to virtually assure victory.
‘I’ve seen enough talented players fold in finals or high-pressure games to know the difference between the genuine article and a pretender to genius,’ says former Wallabies, Brumbies and Reds coach Eddie Jones, who worked closely with Du Preez during their preparation for the 2007 World Cup and at the tournament itself.
‘Fourie has no equal as a scrumhalf in world rugby. No one is even remotely close. And although it’s hard to say who the best player on the planet is, because roles differ so greatly from position to position, I think if you were to consider a couple of candidates, you’d have to provide some pretty conclusive and strong arguments if you chose anyone but him.
‘The very best players in the world are those who give you an eight out of 10 performance for 80% of your matches in a season. I’d suggest Fourie is probably higher than that percentage-wise. George Gregan had some sensational seasons in the time I coached him, but he never came close to what Fourie has offered the Bulls and Boks in 2009, especially considering the amount of rugby he’s played and the intensity and pressure of those games. Just unbelievable, mate.’
Du Preez has, at times, looked like he was reading the game in a Matrix-type code, not dissimilar to the manner in which Keanu Reeves’s character in the sci-fi blockbuster did, and he seemed to have the ability to supernaturally elevate his spirit and make tactical decisions based on information attained via an aerial view of the action.
‘It’s definitely been my best season ever,’ says Du Preez, confirming what many astute commentators have acknowledged. ‘The 2007 season was a great one for me personally, but this season I’ve felt like my game has shifted to a different level.
‘I’m more mature now, with none of the insecurities I had in the past, and I know my game, my strengths and weaknesses, inside out. It helps that I’ve been playing in winning teams and with great, experienced players around me.
‘Last year wasn’t particularly memorable for me,’ Du Preez continues, lamenting a season where the Bulls and Springboks were infuriatingly mediocre. ‘I struggled for form at some stages, so I appreciate what it’s like to be back in the groove now.
‘Those things that weren’t going for you when you were struggling, suddenly do. You try things that were failing and they come off. You start reading the game better, seeing spaces in the opponents’ defensive line or areas you can kick in to that aren’t marked. It just all fell into place for me this season.’
Du Preez is less analytical than team-mate Victor Matfield, who studies lineouts with religious devotion. He relies more on experience and instinct. In preparing for matches, he spends the bulk of his time looking at how his opposing scrumhalf defends around the scrum and ruck fringe. The rest, he says, comes naturally.
Jones once told the media that former Wallabies flyhalf Stephen Larkham had the ability to read how a passage of play would unfold two phases ahead, and would be prepared when it did. Du Preez humbly denies that he has such foresight, an assertion some would disagree with, but concedes that his positional sense is the facet of play that he has made the biggest strides in.
‘I play more on feel than I do relying on pre-match analysis,’ Du Preez explains. ‘When I’m out on the field I get a sense of what my opponents are likely to do and try to position myself accordingly.
‘It’s not that hard, we play against the same guys every year,’ he adds, again displaying the now familiar trait of self-deprecation. ‘So I wouldn’t make too much of it. I’m just like any other player, really.’
However, with every touch kick fielded and accurate counter-kick launched, every box kick that is suspended in the air just long enough for the chasers to contest and every punt that rolls into touch in an attacking position, every snipe around the blindside that leaves the opposition bewildered and every zinging or popped pass that finds its intended target, Du Preez’s claim to mere mortality is rejected.
‘He’ll never admit to it, but those of us who work with him know that he is a once-in-a- generation player,’ says Bulls backline coach and former Springbok wing, Pieter Rossouw.
‘There’s nothing you can teach him technically because he’s the complete player, and he’s also so strong mentally. When he isn’t around, the Bulls and Springboks don’t have the same threat. That’s not a criticism of the second-choice players in that position, it’s just that Fourie is a special, special player.’
A special player the Bulls and Springboks have to start contemplating life without. Having won all he can with those teams, Du Preez admits that he is thinking about challenging himself afresh.
There is, of course, no shortage of European suitors wanting to ensure that the next phase of his career plays out in their club’s colours. His contract with the Bulls ends in October 2010, and he hasn’t yet made a decision about whether or not he will continue playing in South Africa. Losing a player of his quality would be the equivalent of losing an organ in the human body. Functioning would be adequate for survival, but you wouldn’t be firing at optimal potency.
‘I have a big decision to make in the next couple of months,’ Du Preez says, driving home the possibility that South African rugby could lose one of the jewels in its crown.
‘I have to weigh up whether I want to have a chance of defending the World Cup in 2011 or whether I should move on. I’ve spent my whole life in Pretoria, next year will be my 10th at the Bulls, and I feel like I have to get out of my comfort zone. I don’t want to be stuck in the same routine for the rest of my career.’
Du Preez, however, rejects the suggestion that his departure would see a dramatic capitulation of his teams.
‘If the succession planning is right I don’t think that would be an issue,’ he argues. ‘Sure, there’ll be a rebuilding period for the Bulls and Boks because I don’t think many of the senior players in those sides will continue to play beyond 2011, at least not in South Africa. But we have some special young players in this country.
‘Francois Hougaard [Du Preez’s understudy at the Bulls] is one of those, and I think he’ll be the Springbok scrumhalf for a long time. There are others like him in different positions. So if we plan well, there’s no reason to think it will all fall apart because we have an abundance of class youngsters.’
Class is a widely available commodity in South Africa. The genius that is Du Preez is a scarce one. Let’s appreciate and celebrate that we’ve seen genius in our generation.
By Ryan Vrede
– This article first appeared in the December issue of SA Rugby magazine. The January-February issue goes on sale next week.
411 Comments
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10 Dec 2009, 17:21 pm
@Transformation: Well I better not tell him that my “genius” biltong recipes were given to me by Fourie Du Preez, that will have him jumping off Hangklip.
10 Dec 2009, 17:30 pm
@SodaJoe: lol
, that would really will him over the edge!
10 Dec 2009, 18:45 pm
@SodaJoe:
are you in fact hannibal the cannibal?
10 Dec 2009, 18:54 pm
@gunther: I do like a fine Chianti.
10 Dec 2009, 18:56 pm
Ryan has done FDP a huge disservice by penning his name to this article… FDP now has to go through life with the baggage of having a doos rate him great… This can break a player..
Its the same feeling that many young boys have when their mothers dress them funny and call them wonderful.
10 Dec 2009, 19:04 pm
@Langenhoven: lol…where did that come from? you’re weird
10 Dec 2009, 19:07 pm
I reckon this GRAEME1 guy is a white dude pretending to be a black racist! Sad… His other comments on other threads are pro white. Maybe him and this new “LANGENHOVEN!” is the same guy
10 Dec 2009, 19:14 pm
@Transformation: The genius that is langenhoven is a scarce one…lol
@The Dude: Don’t know much about those about Graeme1 but as for the other twat that try to steal my nick… he obviously wish he was me.. I am flattered.. I’ve got a groupie
10 Dec 2009, 19:18 pm
Now Obama is defending the war in the middle East??
Interesting about face!
10 Dec 2009, 19:23 pm
@Karoolander: and therefore white rugby players are better than black rugby players… ????
10 Dec 2009, 19:29 pm
Chat later… will be back.. moenie skinner nie
10 Dec 2009, 19:31 pm
Waars daai lastige klein liberalis?
10 Dec 2009, 19:43 pm
@The Dude: i picked that up on his 2nd post (rant)…the 1st one was a random one posted all in caps lock. Their website is boring as **** and is a total failure now they cannot get themselves to comeback here and blog they would rather see this place also in disarray admit to the futility that is their blog.
As for graeme1 he’s been found out.
10 Dec 2009, 19:47 pm
Thank goodness, Skop is back……and Ethel!! It has been too long Ethel!
FDP has a very distinctive hairline too….making identification easy, the sun often bounces off his extended brow line!
10 Dec 2009, 19:55 pm
@carol: CAROL! You’re a girl… white top with blue writing or black top with white writing? The black looks very casual… but the blue and white go with Stormers/ WP…
10 Dec 2009, 20:13 pm
all this speculation whether somebody is black or white, pink or blue or who’s who in the zoo, what the hell has that got to do with the price of ostrich eggs. Seems to me the holy white triumpherate is still under some fictitious illusion that this sport belongs to them lock stock and smoking barrel, and any player or supporter not of holy Caucasian blood line with royal European ancestry is still classified as 2nd class citizen or second class rugby supporter or player, and only with the belligerant disdain of the instilled status quo does he get lavished some demeaning kind of compromised acceptance. This snot nosed superiority complex better take another good hard look at itself before it falls foul of its own infatuated self induced delusions of superior aspirated grandeur.
In this country this sport is still regarded as the bastion of white supremacy, just take a good hard look at the posts flying around this place. Players like Heinie Adams should never have hidden their talents under a bushel for the sake of these other overrated self righteous pale faces to collect all the praise and accolades boosting up their over infatuated ego’s to the limits. Adams should have bust loose from under this rock of super delusional demi god infatuation long ago instead of providing them the platform to pose around as some kind of grandiose human rugby genius while he himself goes largely unnoticed and unappreciated.
10 Dec 2009, 20:17 pm
@SpringbokSarah: Sarah, sorry you have lost me there!!
Do you need wardrobe assistance for a ‘Hot Date’ or are you designing a new Stormers kit?
10 Dec 2009, 20:21 pm
@carol: lol no, just designing a t-shirt for a fan page
10 Dec 2009, 20:22 pm
@skopskiet: At least on a par with past classic Skopticisms. Minimum 3 Tshirts in there.
But I must take issue with this: “holy Caucasian blood line with royal European ancestry” – there is only 1 King Joseph Of The Northlands – and I think that I am quite even handed.
10 Dec 2009, 20:27 pm
“superior aspirated grandeur”
sounds like an advert for a rolls royce…
10 Dec 2009, 20:35 pm
@gunther: overrated self righteous pale faces to collect all the praise and accolades boosting up their over infatuated ego’s to the limits.
Sounds like an advert for a Bentley.
10 Dec 2009, 20:36 pm
@skopskiet: well you are just going to have to deal with it. Morne Steyn was interviewed and he could not stop heaping praise at FH and now Fourie du Preez also completely overlooks Heinie Adams, not even a mention, and nominates FH as his likely successor who has all the required attributes.
This is either a coincidence or these players know something that Heinie Adams is not aware of.
10 Dec 2009, 20:37 pm
@SodaJoe: snowstorms?
10 Dec 2009, 20:42 pm
Skop, some of your old friends have returned from exile. Seemingly the promised land has become deserted and barren.
10 Dec 2009, 20:42 pm
belligerant(sp) disdain of the instilled the status quo
sounds like an advert for general motors…
10 Dec 2009, 20:44 pm
Soda, Gunther
10 Dec 2009, 20:46 pm
its a rock spiders broeder bond club simple and klaar no rocket science needed here to eke out the incestuous mode of self preservation of the disenfranchised species.
10 Dec 2009, 20:48 pm
largely unnoticed and unappreciated
I’m thinking toyota…
10 Dec 2009, 20:48 pm
@SpringbokSarah: Black sort of says ‘Sharks’ to me….better stick to the Stormer Blue!!
10 Dec 2009, 20:49 pm
Eish, it seems like Skop used the break to recharge his vocab. Fark me, fickadilly philandering phillistines.
10 Dec 2009, 20:51 pm
@SodaJoe: @gunther:
Evening to the Comedy Duo….
Aspirated is a very ‘Top Gear’ word!!
10 Dec 2009, 20:51 pm
such are the pitfalls of promised lands as soon as you arrive in Valhalla you can’t wait to get your sordid mind all wallowing back in skinner and snot en trane again. Pristine purity ain’t for the faint hearted, pity they didn’t realize it to begin with.
10 Dec 2009, 20:52 pm
@carol:
normally aspirated vs turbo reverse….
which is better…
turbo reverse can be very tricky in traffic…
10 Dec 2009, 20:53 pm
Gunther, and now Grant and JR also resigned temporarily. JR wants to spend time at his business and Grant wants to pluck his hairy back.
10 Dec 2009, 20:55 pm
@Big Hit: Yesterday. Now just fkn cold -20C
10 Dec 2009, 20:56 pm
@gunther: super delusional demi god infatuation – Lamborghini.
10 Dec 2009, 20:57 pm
rock spiders broeder bond club simple and klaar no rocket science – John Deere
10 Dec 2009, 20:57 pm
no rocket science needed here
definitely land rover…
10 Dec 2009, 20:57 pm
Hairy back??
I have been out of circulation because the bloody market picks up and i cant keep up!!
Fantastic i tell you….now my Consultants got me running round like a chicken without a head, but its lekker!!
Tuesday next week doung some presentations in Skops world, Fish Hoek and Simonstownn.
Turn my back for 2 days and i see the Argies and Namibians infiltrate our competetions!! Also lekker.
Now for that announcement that the Bok scrum gonna lose the reverse gear and Xmas will be made!
10 Dec 2009, 20:58 pm
how’s your smoked cow doing hanging in your pantry oh even handed St. Joseph of the Northlands?
10 Dec 2009, 20:59 pm
@gunther: I like just average asperations for road driving….
Turbo reverse saved for when amorous creep staggers over to you at the office party!! Engage turbo reverse as quickly as the high heels will let you and get outta there!!
10 Dec 2009, 20:59 pm
“soon as you arrive in Valhalla you can’t wait to get your sordid mind all wallowing” – definitely a Valiant with that long front seat, navigating the gear-lever with that girl who KNEW 2′nd base was the FURTHEST you were going to get even if you swore undying love.
10 Dec 2009, 21:00 pm
Wheres the Broerderbonders???
Was there trouble in Paradise again???
Aiii….seclusion never works….Long Street last Fri nite….the vibrancy of diversity,,,,,,awesome!
10 Dec 2009, 21:01 pm
Grant,
welcome back! Rather use veet spray for that fur on your back.
10 Dec 2009, 21:01 pm
@grant10: Slappes comment just made me ‘anxious’ all over again!!
Business sounds just great!! Parties kicking in yet?
10 Dec 2009, 21:02 pm
‘Fourie du Preez has established himself as the finest player on the planet’. Where on earth they gorge up these tinsel town hollywood movie scripts?
10 Dec 2009, 21:02 pm
Man….did i have an interesting chat with a Shark yesterday morning…..***** bells….
10 Dec 2009, 21:02 pm
@skopskiet: NO SMOKE. But she be drying, hopefully with enough coriander because she may have too much salt (too long curing) and lotsa pepper (a good thing).
If they invent a veggie biltong I will give it a go. I do like guava roll a lot.
10 Dec 2009, 21:02 pm
Grant, are you a bit hairy?
10 Dec 2009, 21:03 pm
@grant10: Welcome back.
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