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Exeter bring in well-travelled tighthead Maks van Dyk

By Online Editors
(Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Double winning Exeter Chiefs have bolstered their front row options for 2020/21, adding South African prop Maks van Dyk – who previously played for Sharks, Cheetahs, Griquas, Leinster, Toulouse and, more recently, a short stint at Harlequins – on a one-year deal as cover for Test players Harry Williams and Tomas Francis.

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A product of the Paarl Boys’ High School in South Africa, the 28-year-old tighthead has an option to extend his initial twelve-month deal if things go well at Sandy Park. “It’s a massive honour to join a club of the calibre of Exeter Chiefs,” said van Dyk. 

“As everyone has seen, they are a team who are not only challenging at the very top end of the game, but they are also winning the big trophies.

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Thomas Waldrom on the Exeter dressing room characters and the influence of Rob Baxter

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Thomas Waldrom on the Exeter dressing room characters and the influence of Rob Baxter

“Having watched them, I like what I see and how they play the game. For me, this is a big opportunity for me to not only join a great club but at the same time improve my own game.

“I know the Premiership is a very tough division, much different to what I faced in France, but having been at Harlequins I do have an idea of what to expect. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be physical, but that is what you kind of expect at this level.

“The Chiefs have shown they are a force to be reckoned with for a number of years now, getting into semi-finals and finals, so I’m very much looking forward to being part of things here.”

Baxter, whose front row options were reduced by the departure last season of Australian international Greg Holmes, added: “When we saw the make-up of the new season, particularly with the number of international games on the calendar, we started to look at options around tighthead.

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“It’s not like we are going to lose Tomas and Harry for say three or four weeks, it’s going to be a lot longer than that. We have got some great young talent coming through in the shape of Marcus Street and Alfie Petch, both of whom we will use over the course of the coming season, but we felt it would be a big ask on those guys to play ten plus games on the bounce.

“Having a player like Maks, especially with the experience he has, come into the squad – it will allow us to rotate our options a little easier. Like every player, we’ve had a good look at him and we like what we see.

“He’s a big, strong ball-carrier, he’s quite light on his feet for a prop, and some of those key strengths you crave from a prop, he has a lot of those qualities already. There are areas to his game that we feel we can improve on, but when you look at the whole package he brings, he ticks a lot of boxes.”

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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