Rugby
South African-born Stars Set To Spice Up Six Nations
A quartet of South African-born players will add extra spice to this year’s Six Nations, which gets underway on Friday, writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.
Of the many South African players who have headed north in search of greener pastures, the following four will showcase their skills for their adopted nations in the 2025 edition of the Northern Hemisphere championship:
IRELAND:
Rob Herring
Herring was born in the Mother City but started his professional career abroad, where he’s played all of his rugby aside from a two-match spell at Western Province in 2012.
The hard-nosed hooker broke in at London Irish in 2009 but it’s at Ulster where he eventually came through as legendary Rory Best’s understudy and is now most-capped player in the club’s history. The SACS product debuted for Ireland in 2014 and has made 42 appearances for his adopted nation.
ITALY:
Ross Vintcent
Born in Johannesburg, the explosive Exeter Chiefs back-rower represented the Italian Under-20s in 2021 and 2022 and made his full-fledged Azzurri debut in last year’s Six Nations.
A product of Bishops before joining the F.I.R Academy in 2020, Vintcent played for Zebre before moving to England where the 22-year-old is flourishing at the Chiefs. He’s looking to add to his four Test caps in this year’s championship.
SCOTLAND:
Pierre Schoeman
A human tank, Schoeman has become a cult figure since joining Edinburgh from the Bulls in 2018. The powerful and mobile prop was named the club’s Player of the Year in 2019 and has gone on to make over 100 appearances for the team.
He made a try-scoring debut for Scotland against Tonga in 2021 and made his beastly presence felt in the three subsequent Six Nations campaigns. ‘Schoooo’ as he is affectionately called by Edinburgh and Scotland fans alike, featured in Scotland’s 2023 Rugby World Cup games against South Africa, Tonga and Ireland as well.
Duhan van der Merwe
The 1.93m, 106kg George-born giant is a freak athlete. He, more so than any other player on this list, is the one who got away from a Springbok perspective.
He made a try-scoring Scotland debut against Georgia in 2020 before going on to score a tournament-leading five tries in the 2021 Six Nations and being selected for the British & Irish Lions that same year. His prolific international form has continued since and he stands tall as Scotland’s all-time top try-scorer with 30 touchdowns in 44 Tests.
Utility forward Dylan Richardson was also included in the Scottish squad but has been ruled out of the championship due to a shoulder injury he sustained in the Sharks’ Investec Champions Cup loss to Bordeaux-Begles.