How good is Os?
Jake White has so far ignored Os du Randt this season. The former Bok strongman failed to ignite even the smallest flames in the Super 14. Are we facing a future without him?
English rugby writer Stephen Jones wrote a great piece for the Times Online:
The nerves of his supporters and of scrum-obsessed, history-loving South Africans everywhere are shredding. Will the Springboks do the unthinkable and finally discard Jacobus Petrus du Randt? And here is another question, which Springbok fans may find penetrating or even sacrilegious. Was he ever any good, or just a committed, vast, lard bottom, revered by a nation which cannot differentiate between huge blokes and great props?
Os du Randt is a sporting icon. Last year he was SA Sports Illustrated’s sportsman of the year, due testimony to his legend rather than his performances - because of a knee problem, because he is now 34, he didn’t actually give many performances. But there he was on the front cover, smiling, massive, swept and garnished and gleaming in his Springbok blazer.
There are those who say he is slowing down (and those who say he never moved fast enough to have the capacity to slow down). Johan le Roux, another in an endless line of Bok prop legends, roared his way in part-lunatic fashion through matches and once bit the ear of New Zealand’s Sean Fitzpatrick. Le Roux said of a recent du Randt special in the Super-14: “Os did nothing. He walked around the field.
