Ben Youngs has hailed Springboks coach Duane Vermeulen as “one of the best” he has ever played against.
Youngs is England’s most capped player and therefore has 129 international games worth of experience to draw on.
This conversation came in the latest edition of the For the Love of Rugby South Africa podcast.
What was the context of the comment?
On the For the Love of Rugby Podcast, the panel of Ben Youngs, Dan Cole, Steven Kitshoff, and Trevor Nyakane were choosing a combined Springboks and England 21st-century combined XV.
By the time they reached number eight, the South Africans were dominant in the pack, as you would expect, and there was only one English player and six South Africans,
The English hosts brought up the names Lawrence Dallaglio and Billy Vunipola, but it was Vermeulen who was brought up by the two South Africans without competition.
The English lads added plenty of platitudes but pleaded that England didn’t get completely outnumbered in the pack.
The group gave Dallaglio the place in the team, but all four were urging the quality of Vermeulen, and it was the only position where they said that they needed to put a player on the bench or the “Bomb Squad”.
It was at this point that Youngs piled the love on Vermeulen and said that he was one of the best that he had ever played against in his career.
How good was Duane Vermeulen for the Springboks?
Duane Vermeulen’s legendary status in world rugby requires little validation, but when England’s most-capped scrum-half, Ben Youngs, identifies you as one of the ultimate opponents he ever faced, it highlights a legacy built on sheer physical dominance and tactical brilliance. Affectionately dubbed “Thor,” Vermeulen was the generational anchor of the Springbok pack, famously securing Man of the Match honours in the 2019 Rugby World Cup Final before defying his injury troubles to secure a second consecutive Web Ellis Cup in 2023. His game transcended basic metrics; he combined brutal, momentum-stopping defensive collisions with an elite rugby IQ at the breakdown, making him a nightmare for opposing halfbacks trying to control the tempo of the game.
