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Jamie George hails double RWC-winning Bok as greatest ever opponent
By Josh Raisey
England captain Jamie George has named former South Africa No 8 Duane Vermeulen as the best player he has ever faced.
The 76-cap Springbok went head-to-head with the Englishman numerous times during his career, coming out on top in some of the biggest occasions - notably the 2019 World Cup final and the semi-final four years later.
Now a member of Rassie Erasmus' South Africa coaching staff following his retirement after winning his second World Cup last year, Vermeulen has been praised for having an "unbelievable understanding of the game" as well as being a "freak".
Joining his former England team-mate and good friend Danny Care on the Hits Different podcast, George overlooked the likes of Brian O'Driscoll and Jonny Wilkinson when picking his toughest-ever opponent.
George will lead an England team coached by the legendary No 8 for the first time in November when England host the Springboks at Twickenham's Allianz Stadium.
“It was really cool when I was younger to play against some of the GOATS,” the England hooker said.
“I played against O’Driscoll and Wilkinson, all those boys were the guys I grew up supporting, but I think the best player that I played against was Duane Vermeulen.
“That guy honestly, he hits different. Talk about physicality, he is ridiculous but also his game feel, his understanding. However many kilos he is and he still jumps in the lineout, he’s got everything.
“He genuinely has everything, a bit mind-blowing really.
“He wasn’t overly outspoken on the field but he let his rugby do the talking and he’s a freak.”
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Soccer on a rugby forum…
“Experience is strongly correlated with age, at least among the managers that I named”…
Slot and Arteta are among the youngest you named. They have the least experience as a manager (6 years each). Espírito Santo and Pep are the oldest and have the most (12 years + each). Pep is pushing 17 years experience, all at elite level. There are plenty around his age that won’t have the same level of experience. Plenty.
The younger breed you mentioned (Arteta in particular) may not coach at elite level beyond the next few years if they continue to not win trophies. Age and experience is not always a nice, steady gradient.
The only trend in English soccer is that managers don’t stay on as long with the same club. Due to the nature of the game and the assumed, immediate performance bounce of replacing them at the first sign of trouble. Knee-jerk style. Test rugby has no clear pattern of that.
Why would you dismiss a paradox? Contradictions are often revealing. Or is that too incoherent?
Go to commentsYou can’t compare the “quality”of competitions till they play against each other … what we do know is that nz teams filled with ABs and ABs can go at it with anyone in the world and these other teams and players are competing so would say the quality is high wouldn’t you? How are you determining that URC or top 14 is higher quality than Super I’m guessing you mean in the quality of players and execution ? Are you just assuming that it is because…. I would say it’s much of a muchness and the only indicator for that is international rugby and that is hella even
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