'In the last twelve months I've had two shoulder operations, won the World Cup and moved to England - a pretty busy time'
Sale have unleashed some big South African beasts on the Gallagher Premiership this season, but they will all be dwarfed when World Cup-winning lock Lood de Jager – standing at 6ft 9ins and weighing in at 19st 6lbs – makes his long-awaited debut against London Irish at the AJ Bell Stadium on Friday night.
De Jager has joined a Sale squad specifically built on South African power and helping the giant lock get used to the Manchester weather have been fellow Springbok World Cup winner Faf de Klerk, club captain Jono Ross, Coenie Oosthuizen, Akker van der Merwe, Rohan Janse van Rensburg and the three du Preez brothers Rob, Dan and Jan-Luc.
With four more signings about to be announced by Sale, it looks certain that de Jager will be joined by a third World Cup winner in Vincent Koch, the Saracens tighthead. The deal to bring de Jager to Sale was originally signed last April when he was recovering from surgery to repair the right shoulder he damaged captaining the Bulls against the Jaguares in Super Rugby.
The 27-year-old battled back in time to take his place in the World Cup squad only to seriously damage his left shoulder making a tackle on England No8 Billy Vunipola in the 21st minute of the November final which South Africa won 32-12 in Yokohama.
Despite posting a video of his ‘moving’ shoulder joint as he lay in the medical room of the Yokohama Stadium, he was able to join his Springbok team-mates on the podium to receive his winner’s medal with his left arm in a sling.
He then took part in the post-match celebrations and the subsequent trophy bus tour around South Africa before putting all of his efforts into yet more rehabilitation work which meant a delayed start to his career in England with Sale.
The long period of rehab required mental as well as physical commitment, particularly when facing the same recovery challenge for the second time in less than a year.
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De Jager told RugbyPass: “In the last twelve months I have had two shoulder operations, won the World Cup and moved to England, a pretty busy time. There have been lots of ups and downs, a bit of a rollercoaster. Let’s hope the injuries stay away now. I haven’t got another shoulder to injure – just the two.
“It has been worth it and the World Cup win is something I will never forget. They gave me some pretty strong pain killers so I could celebrate the win and the surgery took place after the trophy tour, which was an incredible experience.
“I will never forget seeing what it meant to so many people and it still gives me goosebumps. I have never seen so many people in my life and Rassie (Erasmus, the Springbok coach) spoke during the tournament that we were doing it for our country.”
De Jager made an immediate impact at Test level, winning the SA Rugby player of the year award in 2015, and his all-round game made him an obvious target for Steve Diamond, the Sale director of rugby who has put together a squad capable of winning the Premiership for the first time since their 2005/06 triumph.
Sale’s lineout has revolved around the excellence and consistency of All Black Bryn Evans, who is second in the Premiership with 56 wins, and now de Jager will offer another target.
With de Jager’s delayed arrival and Josh Beaumont’s serious knee injury affecting the club’s second row options, Sale have been forced to ask the du Preez brothers Jean-Luc and Dan to take on more of the heavy work as well as their natural foraging and tackling.
But now the very large cavalry is arriving. De Jager added: “I have known some of the South African guys for a very long time and it has made the transition for myself and my wife much easier. “We have a great spirit at the club and we have managed to beat Leicester and Gloucester despite guys away or injured. Hopefully, when we get the full strength squad together we can really dominate.
“Bryn puts a lot of work into the lineout and hopefully I can ease the burden on him a bit – we are both passionate about lineouts. The Premiership is becoming the most competitive domestic league in the world and every team has quality right across the pitch.
“I’m really excited about playing my first game for Sale. After my injury, Steve said I could have a couple of weeks off and I took time to recharge the batteries having been in a race against time to be fit for the World Cup.
“Mentally it was very tough and now I’m looking forward to getting stuck in. I spoke to Steve a lot before I signed and we all want to achieve something special over the next couple of years.”
Sale captain Ross goes into Friday night’s game needing just five tackles to bring up 200 for the Premiership season. De Jager is full of admiration, stating: “Jono has been leading from the front on the tackle count and it really inspires the rest of the guys.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments