The Springboks great that England have likened Alex Dombrandt to
England coach Eddie Jones has claimed that Alex Dombrandt, his team’s No8 for Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations match away to Italy, reminds him greatly of Bobby Skinstad, the famed Springboks back-rower who retired as a World Cup winner in 2007.
Jones was part of the backroom staff when Jake White’s South Africans went all the way in France 15 years ago, a campaign that brought the curtain down on the stellar 42-cap career of Skinstad, who burst onto the Test rugby scene with a win over England in November 1997.
The 24-year-old Dombrandt made his England Test debut when starting versus Canada last July and has since added four more caps as a replacement coming off the bench in the Autumn Series wins over Tonga, Australia and South Africa and again in last weekend’s Six Nations lost to Scotland.
Dombrant is now one of six players from the England bench at Murrayfield to earn promotion into the starting XV that will take the field at Stadio Olimpico, getting the jump on last week’s No8 Sam Simmonds to start his first-ever Six Nations match.
It is an exciting development given that he will line out with Harlequins teammate Marcus Smith pulling the England strings from the No10 position and head coach Jones is expecting Dombrandt to thrive against an opposition that is on a 33-game losing streak in the championship that stretches back to 2015.
ICYMI: "It was two incidents that should never have happened on a rugby pitch and rarely happens on a rugby pitch"
– It was January when new England No8 Alex Dombrandt told RugbyPass his compelling story from uni rugby to the pro ranks #ENGvUSAhttps://t.co/PxmwYDAJOx
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 8, 2021
“He is not an orthodox eight,” said Jones when asked to explain what type of player Dombrandt is. “He is a free-running eight who reminds me a lot of Bobby Skinstad the way he used to play. Gets himself in good positions to attack but he needs space and this game is going to have a fair bit of space so it will really suit him.”
Jones added that he hasn’t had to put any added emphasis on the Dombrandt-Smith combination on the England training ground this past week, outlining that their link play is something that already comes naturally to them having been a part of last year’s Premiership title-winning Harlequins side.
“They naturally do it on the field. I don’t think we need to do it tap into it. We see that certain styles of players suit each other and they have certainly got that understanding of Alex runs very good inside balls from Marcus. He has got that understanding of when to do it and they will do it on the field. At training on Friday, they did it again and I’m sure that is going to happen on Sunday.”
The inclusion of Dombrandt as a first-time England Six Nations starter will be seen as a feather in the cap for the universities pathway into professional rugby as opposed to coming through a Premiership club academy. The Londoner earned his stripes on the BUCS rugby circuit with Cardiff Metropolitan before getting signed by Harlequins in 2018 and Jones believes the more diversity in rugby the better.
“That is the great thing about rugby. When I first started playing rugby I was a physical education teacher and I remember my tighthead prop was a chartered accountant and the loosehead prop was a doctor and then both the second rows were labourers.
“The beauty of rugby has been the diversity of the people that play the game, the size and the shape, and I still think there is even more of a need for great diversity for players to go through the academic stream first and then go into professional rugby or for some players it is better to go into the professional stream first.
“I don’t think there is one right or wrong way but I think you should encourage diversity and encourage young men who want to study and go down the academic stream not to be discouraged by the fact that they can’t make it to play top-level rugby.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments