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'In the last twelve months I've had two shoulder operations, won the World Cup and moved to England - a pretty busy time'

(Photo by Juan Jose Gasparini/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

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.

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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. 

de Jager celebrations
Lood de Jager during South Africa’s World Cup celebrations (Photo by Michael Sheehan/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
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“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. 

Diamond's Sale approach
Springbok scrum-half Faf de Klerk has been a major influence at Steve Diamond’s Sale (Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)

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.”

WATCH: Schalk Brits spoke to RugbyPass about his experiences bringing the William Webb Ellis trophy back to South Africa

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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