The crush and the rush for places in the Springbok back row in this World Cup year gathers pace. It is starting to look like a very intense field of competitors indeed.
The likes of Schalk Burger, Pierre Spies, Heinrich Brussouw, Dewald Potgieter, Francois Louw and Ryan Kankowski all have aims and ambitions in that direction, never mind others such as Keegan Daniel and Juan Smith who is a big doubt after tearing his Archilles tendon. And then there’s the man who starts to look as though he simply cannot be left out.
You don’t judge anyone on the first serious game of their season, especially when you know they will still be playing the game eight long months later. But anyone watching Willem Alberts perform for the Sharks against the Cheetahs in last weekend’s Super 15 opener in Durban must have realised that the big back row man starts to look a shoe-in for a Springbok place.
Alberts is the type of player coaches love. Big, strong, tough and durable, his powerful, no-nonsense type of play makes him a key ingredient in any side. He drives the ball up into the opposition with serious intent, his low body position ensuring he is always hard to stop or put to ground.
Alberts excels in so many areas – tackling, ball carrying, running the ball back from the re-start kick and of course, the close quarter work. He is industrious and highly committed. Yet he is also a thinking player, a man with a rugby brain. He can step and ride tackles, off-load and read the play. In one example against the Cheetahs, he picked up a kick dribbled through on a wet ground with a slippery ball, as though he was a cricketer at third slip pocketing the ball with his eyes shut.
These are highly valuable qualities in so strong a loose forward.
But of course it is in defence where Alberts impresses most of all. As former Springbok back row man Bob Skinstad said last weekend during the clash with the Cheetahs “Alberts’ defence is absolutely superb. The number of tackles he makes and the sheer brutality of the tackles he executes is such an asset to any side”.
It certainly is. And now here is another piece of good news about Alberts for Springbok fans. His style makes him an ideal player in New Zealand conditions. The All Blacks have always loved the Willem Alberts type of back row forward – hard driving, no nonsense and strong in the tackle. New Zealanders see that sort of player as essential to the balance of a back row and they have had any number of similar type players down the years just to prove the point.
Willem Alberts could hardly have made a better start to this important rugby year.