The Journeyman Prophecies

 

In the last week or so Edinburgh have announced that Jamie Bhatti has joined Bath with Immediate effect. There have also been unconfirmed (by the club) rumours that they have signed Cheetahs loosehead prop Boan Venter who is, according to those reports, set to join the club in February on a 2-and-a-half-year deal.

Of course, those two separate but linked stories have attracted the usual ‘outraged of Morningside’ comments across the web.

 From The Offside Line BTL comments on Venter, “Guessing the idea of using Super 6 as a development platform for young Scottish talent hasn’t exactly worked out as planned.”

From Edinburgh Rugby Supporters club Facebook page, “Where’s the home-grown talent and how would they get into a team of SA journeymen???”

From The Offside Line Facebook page, “Another Journeyman saffer is not going to interest Edinburgh supporters.”

And in connection with the Bhatti transfer,

“so our best players are being moved on for South African imports”, Edinburgh Rugby Facebook page.

“Not South African enough I’m afraid”, Edinburgh Rugby Supporters club Facebook page.

Let’s deal with that last accusation first. I’m of the opinion that Bhatti just wasn’t good enough as opposed to not being a saffer. Firstly, he dropped down the order at Glasgow, and then at Edinburgh he was firstly unable to dislodge Schoeman and then when Rory Sutherland’s injury woes settled down, Suzz arguably pushed Schoeman to second choice. That left Bhatti still languishing third in line. Is there anyone out there who would say that Bhatti is better than either Schoeman or Sutherland?

It’s not that he hasn’t had game time because he has. He played some part in 9/16 PRO14 games in season 2019-2020 and on one occasion against Cardiff started the match only to be subbed after 42 minutes for Schoeman who went on to be awarded man of the match.

It seems that it’s not just Richard Cockerill who thinks this way. Bhatti was in the Scotland squad for the Autumn games but played only 13 minutes against France with the game all but decided.

I don’t think he was comfortable at Edinburgh and frankly it showed. I wish him well at Bath and hope he can turn his career around there but like Darryl Marfo, getting a few games for Scotland can’t dictate selection at club level.

For me, this situation drives a coach and horses through the pick only native Scots argument. Sutherland is top of the tree at Edinburgh through talent closely followed by Schoeman for the same reason yet there are those who say we should pick Bhatti because of where he was born.

There lies the road to mediocrity.

Journeyman

This is a recurring accusation. Edinburgh have signed journeymen saffers rather than give homegrown players a chance. I think this is inaccurate on both counts.

To answer that accusation here’s my assessment of the journeyman status of each of Edinburgh’s South African contingent along with a list of Scots who have played a significant part in the same positions in the last few months.

Pierre Schoeman’s progress has probably stalled a little in his third season at Edinburgh but so has the teams'.  He has however improved his discipline on the field after being the player who gave away the most penalties in the PRO14 in 2019-2020. He will have a fight on his hands for a Scotland spot when he qualifies in 2021 but if the three Looseheads in the Scotland squad aren’t Sutherland, Kebble and Schoeman thereafter I’ll be hugely surprised.  That selection doesn’t preclude him being a journeyman as others who have fitted that description have been selected for Scotland, but I’d put him at being only 15% journeyman with the ability and game on his side to become an even better player.

For Edinburgh so far this season Schoeman, Sutherland, Grahamslaw and the now departed Bhatti have all played loosehead so that’s a 75/25 split in favour of Scots. That may alter now if the Boan Venter rumour is true. 

 Mike Willemse is on balance a journeyman. He is at his 6^th Professional club in 7 years and will be 28 in February 2021 so won’t be troubling the Scotland selectors even if he was in that class. Clearly signed as back up for Rambo’s frequent Scotland absences he is also having to fight with the more reliable Dave Cherry for that second spot. I was surprised to see that he topped the PRO14 stats in 2019-2020 for lineout success but he did play 1028 minutes for the club, so I suspect that’s more about the number of throws and Edinburgh’s style of play than anything else. He was also the most penalised hooker in the PRO14 last year. That doesn’t surprise me one bit. On the positive side he did score more tries than any other Edinburgh forward in the same season.

Edinburgh have used 3 hookers this season. McInally, Willemse and Cherry. 2/3 are Scots. Their 4^th choice is Sam Kitchen who is not.

Andries Ferreira joined Edinburgh in October 2020 on a one-year contract as second row cover in the wake of long term injuries to Lewis Carmichael, Fraser McKenzie and then Grant Gilchrist. With Ben Toolis also being absent for a considerable period with the national squad the engine room was looking a little light on experience. Ferreira has come in and done a job there alongside several young exciting (and Scottish) seconds rows such as Andrew Davidson, Jamie Hodgson, and Marshall Sykes.

Ferreira has played for around 8 senior clubs and only spells at Cheetahs and Lions have yielded appearances in double figures. His time at Toulon was as a medical joker. He is very much a journeyman but an experienced head to play alongside the young guys I’ve mentioned at a time when that was badly needed.

Seven players have represented Edinburgh in the second row this season. Ferreira is the only non-Scot.

Notwithstanding his inclusion in the recent Scotland squad Jaco van Der Walt is probably the hardest of the current South African contingent to assess on the journeyman scale. He was brought in to apparently be back up to Simon Hickey but has seen him off. The New Zealander now playing provincial rugby back in his homeland. Van Der Walt was also preferred to Duncan Weir in Scotland’s last Autumn match against Ireland and although there was a sneaking suspicion that cap was merely to tie him to Scotland, he had a fine debut (first half anyway).

 He has an excellent kicking game off the tee too but there remains a nagging doubt about his ability to mix up the play in attack. I should say that that opinion is filtered through a Finn Russell coloured lens and everyone looks one dimensional compared to him.

I think he is a good fit for Edinburgh but may struggle to impose himself elsewhere if he left. His journeyman status is therefore directly linked to Edinburgh’s success more so than any other player.

 

Edinburgh tried to bring another journeyman fly half into the club in the summer, but it failed to happen. It has given Nathan Chamberlain some useful game time though. This is one area where a Stephen Myler type character might have been useful. If for no other reason than he helped Ospreys  to an opening day win against Edinburgh at Murrayfield.

Duhan van Der Merwe is not someone who can be even remotely labelled a journeyman. We can argue about how effective he is as an all-round rugby player but if he is a one trick pony as someone suggested to me on Facebook then scoring all those tries is a pretty handy trick. Bit like Ally McCoist in his day for Rangers. He’s just a poacher they said as he scored even more goals. The similarities don’t end there though. You had to mark McCoist so even if he didn’t score his very presence made opportunities for others. Duhan makes those chances by also requiring close supervision and sometimes 3 men to tackle him.

He’s already a star and his stock will rise and take him further, although hopefully that’s not to Worcester.

With his inclusion in the Scotland squad, it has mostly been Jamie Farndale that has been filling the left-wing spot. It could be argued that at least as far as fifteens is concerned that he is a journeyman but he’s Scottish so apparently that doesn’t count.

 

In the squad at large only Eroni Sau of the back 3 options is not Scots qualified. Rookie of the year so far, Jack Blain, has impressed both at fullback and on the wing.

I’m not even going to get into this with regards to WP Nel. If you’ve been around long enough to earn almost 40 Scotland caps and nigh on 150 club appearances surely, you’ve earned the right to sidestep the journeyman argument.

Jordan Venter has arrived in Scotland and as well as the aforementioned Boan Venter there are also rumours of a tighthead prop, Loan De Bruin incoming at some point and it remains to be seen if these guys are talents to improve the team or merely rand refugees to fill a berth when injuries and call ups dictate. 

I know the argument isn’t just about how good they are.  For some its more about heritage and opportunity. I can’t buy in to the heritage thing. It smacks too much of “bloody foreigners coming here and taking our jobs”. The opportunity argument I understand but would merely point out that the Edinburgh squad is currently 78% Scots qualified and in this disrupted season which is only 9 games old, the club has given debuts to at least 9 young players all of which fill the criteria of knowing what a deep fried mars bar looks like.