Rampant Roos must keep on knocking on Rassie’s door

Evan Roos is doing the only thing he can control, which is deliver Player of the Match performances for the Stormers. If he does it enough, he will bang down Rassie’s selection door to the Springboks squad, writes Mark Keohane.

Jacques Nienaber, the 2023 Springboks World Cup-winning coach, picked Roos for his debut Test against Wales in Bloemfontein in 2022.

Wales won through the last kick of the game, a Gareth Anscombe conversion.

Stormers No 8 Roos, in the four seasons that has followed, has added just seven more caps to his international collection. He has not lost a Bok Test in those seven, although his game time has been limited. His Boks career total is 287 minutes for an average of 36 minutes a Test.

Erasmus has included Roos in extended squads and played him sparingly, but he has considered Roos outside of his Top 5 No 8 options in the country and when the Boks played Georgia he picked specialist lock Cobus Wiese at No 8. Wiese had never played No 8 and has not played for Erasmus’s Boks since.

Erasmus has consistently denied there is a personal issue with him and Roos. Others suggest there is a personal issue, but it is with Roos’s father and not necessarily with Roos. Whispers that turned to screams in the corridors suggested parental interference.

All parties dismiss there is an issue, but to believe that is to believe the fat guy with the big white beard in the red suit rides a reindeer and makes it down the slimmest of chimneys.

Erasmus has consistently said there is no place for Roos in his current squad.

‘Who do I leave out?’ has been a popular retort, and the rugby public have agreed.

Never doubt the man who has masterminded two successive World Cup titles, two successive Castle Rugby Championship titles and a British and Irish Lions home series win.

For me, it is not so much a doubt but a question because, for me, it is not a case of leaving out Jasper Wiese, Cameron Hanekom, Elrigh Louw, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jean-Luc du Preez, Cobus Wiese, Siya Kolisi or Kwagga Smith. It is picking one less winger or one less utility back.

Roos is playing well enough to make any international touring squad, and Erasmus has never been rigid to the point of saying six does not fit into five. He has turned five into six by tweaking elsewhere.

Roos, in this season’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship, has played 297 minutes, at an average of 74 minutes a match, scored four tries and led the statistics in most areas as the Stormers have won all four matches and topped the table on points differential.

If Roos’s Boks game time has been limited, the opposite is true at the Stormers. He has played 68 matches for a total of 4991 minutes since 2021, scored twenty seven tries and averaged 73 minutes a game.

In the URC, he has played 58 matches, scored 25 tries and averaged 75 minutes a game.

He should be the best paid player at the Stormers, given his work ethic and game time returns.

Erasmus named Roos among the 10 standby players for November’s five Bok Test matches, but then he also named Neethling Fouche in that group and he currently has a broken arm.

On Monday’s Keo & Zels Rugby Podcast, I asked Zels for an opinion on Roos, given he (Zels) is the Stormers data specialist.

‘With a guy like Evan, the big things that he adds are the things you see because he is on the ball in those moments. And then his physicality around the tackle points and again with ball in hand are the key drivers to his performance. He’s dominant and he maturing. People forget he’s still in his mid-twenties,’ said Nel.

For me, Roos has on-field presence and what I have liked about him this season is he seems to have kind of  mentally toughened in not reacting to niggle and provocation, which doesn’t mean he doesn’t react. He has learned how to react and when to react.

What I enjoyed about the Zebre and Scarlets matches, in which he was Player of the Match on both occasions, is that there was so much directness to his play. He has the soft skills, but physically he was carrying strong and creating momentum because of effective carries.

‘He was outstanding last season and he really stood out in the URC’s inaugural year, when the Stormers won the title,’ said Nel. ‘

His athleticism, you talk about him being more direct now, but his athleticism, his ability to beat people with his feet is another sort of string in his bow. He  can beat you with his feet, he can power over you and then he’s got the speed and burst to get away from you. He’s a proper threat around the breakdown and in space. And  like you just mentioned,  that athleticism comes to the fore with things like the kick chase. He can support line breaks.’