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The on-field incident 10 years ago that's still a no go for Marcell Coetzee
Ulster scrumhalf John Cooney has described what it is like to play with former Springboks and current Bulls No.8 Marcell Coetzee – branding him ‘an animal’.
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The pair played together for a number of seasons for Irish province Ulster, and while Coetzee has moved on to their United Rugby Championship rivals in South Africa, his love of physicality left an impression on the Irish scrumhalf.
This season Cooney has played with Springboks great Duane Vermuelen, so he’s in a good position to judge South African No.8s and what they can bring to the table.
“Marcell is an animal. I’ve never seen anything like him. He just loves running over people. He absolutely adores it,” Cooney told the RugbyPass Offload podcast.
“I remember the first time I played with him, he just goes: ‘You see me. You play me.’
“I was like ‘Yeah. No problem’. He’d just run across everyone. He was like ‘You give me the ball’ and I was like ‘Yes sir, whatever you want!’. He just loved running into people and killing people.”
Asked to compare Coetzee and Duane Vermuelen and Cooney suggested that they’re quite different players in some regards.
“They’re different. Marcell just loves contact but Duane has played longer and he’d be more facilitating as a No.8.
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“I remember playing Edinburgh and as a No.8, with a left hand scrum, you’re just not picking and going, because you can’t go anywhere.
“But he [Marcell] has seen Simon Hickey, the 10, and he’s small and Marcell goes ‘Just let me go.’
“I was like ‘No Marcell. I can’t. We’re won’t go anywhere here. And he was like ‘No, I have to’ and I said ‘No you don’t have to run him over’. I had to negotiate with him.
“I was like ‘Please. Give me the ball. I’ll find you a carry, I’ll get you a scrum.’ I had to negotiate with him just to get a ball off a scrum, because he just loved it.”
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Cooney suggests that Vermuelen is particularly streetwise when it comes to rugby craft.
“If we have penalty advantage Duane will always give you the ball. It’s small things, subtle things.
“The first time I played with him was Clermont away. A pet peeve of mine is when a No.8 catches a kick off and he decides to over the 22 metre line, he’s run a metre outside the 22. As a nine you then can’t kick it straight out if you want.
“Against Clermont he’d [Vermuelen] catch it and I’d be like ‘Stop, stop, stop’ and he’d just fall on the line and I remember thinking I love you. You make me look so much better here. Basically as a nine you can kick it to the touchline as it might just go out, or it might just stay in, and either way you look good. It was just the subtle smarts that not many eights have.”
Returning to Coetzee, there’s just one incident that no player is advised to bring up with the Bulls No.8. as it’s still a sore point nearly a decade after it happened.
A young Coetzee, playing for the Sharks in Super Rugby in 2011, was fended off by Waratahs forward Dean Mumm. Coetzee face-planted into the turf in spectacular fashion and it’s since become a mainstay of many a Youtube highlights video, with Coetzee on the receiving end of an enormous handoff.
It was rumoured that the clip was played during an Ulster video session and that the 6’3, 115kg forward was not impressed.
“I don’t recall if I was there for that but I know that that hurts him, when it’s brought up. I know I made a joke about it once and he didn’t like it,” said Cooney.
“Marcell’s a legend. He’s one of those infectious types of people. He’s full of energy everyday. He’s like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go.'”
Ulster will face South African opposition this weekend when they take on Cell C Sharks, the first time in history the two sides have met. Vermeulen’s match-up with Phendulani ‘Phepsi’ Buthelezi will make for one of most eagerly anticipated match ups.
Both teams have qualified for the last eight play-offs, but whoever wins at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast this evening will host a home quarter-final and potentially a home semi-final.
Comments on RugbyPass
Don’t pay a blind bit of notice to Lukie… he likes the sound of his own voice and is always looking for something controversial to say. He has been banging on about Leinster's defensive system all season like he knows something Jacques Nienebar doesn’t. Which is the reason why he didn’t apply for the job obviously
14 Go to commentsWho got the benefits out of Schmidt, Lowe, Aki, and Gibson Park?
14 Go to commentsWhat’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
14 Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
1 Go to commentsThose are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
1 Go to commentsHonestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
135 Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
14 Go to commentsSon, whith just " raw athlete “ , you are able to beat “ better rugby players “ by 74 points…. May be England should recruit in athletics….
1 Go to commentsPffft. It’s not a one-way street bud and Irish teams don’t seem to have had an issue taking kiwi players previously.
14 Go to commentsParticularly great to have captain Scott Barrett back after going off last week for the Crusaders. Codie Taylor a real leader and mighty Tamaiti Williams join Fletcher Newell in the front row. Those 2 will make a big difference. Great bench with the likes of Tom Christie, Jamie Hannah etc who are playing well. Should be a great derby.
1 Go to commentsDoes a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
135 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
135 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
5 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
135 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
14 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to comments