Johan van Deventer - FNB Player of the Week
Player Profile
Johan van Deventer, Monument's industrious flank is our FNB Player of the Week this week.
Controversially left out of the South African Schools side after leading the Gauteng Lions to "victory" at the 43rd Craven Week held last month at Grey College in Bloemfontein, Johan van Deventer is doing what every good sportsman should, letting his playing do the talking.
Johan van Deventer plays for, but does not captain, South Africa’s top-ranked school, Monument High. Although only in Grade 11 (Std 9) he was selected to skipper the Lions at this year’s Craven Week tournament. Johan was undaunted by having to captain players older then himself and many Grade 12s. He admits to discussing the issue with a few of his players, before deciding just to let his play do the talking and to lead from the front. And that is just what he did as to many he was the player of the tournament. Johan’s strength is his ability to play to the ball, and it comes as no surprise that his rugby idol is the best exponent of "fetching" in the world at present, New Zealand’s Richie McCaw. Johan admires McCaw’s work rate and is clearly in awe of the New Zealander who often manages up to 26 tackles a game.
What did surprise many at Craven Week though was Johan’s ball carrying ability. When he ran aggressively in tandem with fellow flanker Johan van der Westhuizen, the Lions were able to regularly take the ball beyond the advantage line, which allowed their backs to score the tries that eventually won them the tournament.
Johan says he was very disappointed but accepted not been selected for the SA Schools team. He obviously was disappointed though and to that end he described the SA Schools/SA Academy XV game played at Loftus as a curtain-raiser to South Africa’s Tri-Nations opener against Australia a bit of a "grudge match". Also, despite playing week-in-week-out for South Africa’s top ranked school and having captained the Lions to victory at Craven Week in his Grade 11 year, he lists that SA Academy team victory as his best rugby memory to date. Johan captained the Academy XV, which contained seven Lions players as opposed to the one who was selected for SA Schools. They, virtually the B side, beat the SA Schools (the A side),
Johan van Deventer was born in Randfontein on 5 April 1988. (He is 17 years old). He is already contracted by the Gauteng Lions, which means that his immediate rugby future is destined to continue in the province of his birth. It cannot be long though before the world is forced to sit up and take notice of his prodigious talents.
Spoken to him on the eve of another huge game for South Africa’s top-ranked school, against Affies in Pretoria, he made it evident that like so many disappointed sportsmen before him he is focussing on the game itself. His play will do his talking.