Gio Aplon, who played with Kurt-Lee Arendse at the Bulls, told Behind the Ruck what the wing said on the morning of his first Test.
Kurt-Lee Arendse did not answer Gio Aplon’s text in the week of his first Test. On the morning of the match, he rang. “I’m not giving this jersey back,” he told him. What happened in Bloemfontein that afternoon makes the line better still.
Aplon won 17 Tests on the wing and at fullback between 2010 and 2012. He told the story on Behind the Ruck, the podcast hosted by the former Springboks Rudy Paige and Juan de Jongh, in a review of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry published on Thursday 17 September.
He told it because de Jongh had just called Arendse quiet. Paige disagreed.
Quiet wing, or a wing the Springboks hardly give the ball to? Say which in the comments, then read the numbers.
“Why would this guy phone me?”
“I don’t know if I’m supposed to mention this,” Aplon said on episode 166 of the show, and told it anyway.
“The first time he played a test, I sent him a text in the week and he didn’t come back… And the morning of the test, he actually phoned me. I’m like, why would this guy phone me? And he told me, I’m not giving this jersey back. And that’s the mentality that people don’t understand about him.”
Aplon took the silence in the week for focus. The call told him what the focus was for.
The two overlapped at the Bulls. Aplon signed there in May 2020 after three seasons in Japan, and Arendse arrived from the Blitzboks that August, once the sevens circuit had stopped.
Debutants tend to go quiet on the morning of a first Test. Arendse picked up the phone.
Aplon’s reading answers de Jongh: “he’ll be there, he’ll do the dirty work, but when it’s his time to shine… he can play.” On that reading, quiet is what the dirty work looks like from the sofa.
Kurt-Lee Arendse was “too quiet”, says Juan de Jongh
De Jongh, 19 Tests at centre, pointed at the Nations Championship in July and at the start of the series. “For me it felt just a little bit he was too quiet in a couple of games,” he said.
The start of the series explains itself. Arendse failed a head injury assessment inside 14 minutes at Ellis Park and missed Cape Town.
July is harder to square with the word.
| Date | Opponent | Ground | Try |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday 4 July | England | Ellis Park | 13th minute, for 17-0 |
| Saturday 18 July | Wales | Kings Park, Durban | 68th minute, for 36-0 |
| Saturday 5 September | New Zealand | FNB Stadium | 21st minute |
| Saturday 12 September | New Zealand | M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore | 72nd minute |
Arendse’s Test tries since the start of July. Sources: SA Rugby’s report on the England Test and its Wales report; WeTalkRugby’s ratings for the two September Tests.
Four tries since July, two of them against the All Blacks. Against England he swerved outside Marcus Smith in the corner, and he finished a floated pass from Manie Libbok against Wales. He also spent ten minutes in the sin bin at Ellis Park in July for a deliberate knock-down.
Two touches for the match
Paige, 13 Tests at scrum-half, came at it from the game plan. “I don’t want to challenge you regarding [Kurt-Lee’s] form,” he told de Jongh, and then did.
“We don’t give our wings 20 opportunities like a [Will] Jordan. We play completely different. If we’re not kicking to your side and there’s no transition on that side of the field happening, you might only have two touches for the match.”
His example was his try in Soweto: “When you look at Soccer City, one opportunity, one try, finished it.”
It starts with the kicking game. The Springboks kick to compete, so their wings spend long spells chasing and contesting, and the ball tends to reach them after a contest or a turnover.
Will Jordan’s New Zealand hand their wings the ball. South Africa’s wings have to be standing in the right place when it breaks loose.
Baltimore put numbers on it. Arendse carried seven times for 169 metres and four line breaks, according to WeTalkRugby’s ratings from the fourth Test. Seven carries in 80 minutes. The last one settled a series.
“So I don’t want to say he was quiet,” Paige said. “Maybe that’s the standard he’s created.”
Watch him the next time the Springboks kick. The work de Jongh missed happens there, before the ball ever reaches him.
What happened in Bloemfontein
The Test Arendse rang about was on Saturday 9 July 2022, at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. He started on the right wing.
Wales won 13-12. It was their first Test win in South Africa.
So the line about the jersey was spoken on the morning of a defeat, and a historic one.
He kept it. He went into Baltimore on 34 caps and 26 Test tries, by the United Rugby Championship’s match preview, and came out on 35 and 27.
Sensational, and still not man of the match
Aplon’s view of the fourth Test was that Arendse was “sensational” and unlucky to miss the man-of-the-match award, which went to Morné van den Berg. He credited the scrum-half too.
The try made his case. A loose ball inside South Africa’s half on 72 minutes, two defenders stepped, nobody left in front of him under the posts. A TMO check on Cameron Hanekom’s tackle in the build-up came first, and the try stood.
Read also: the tackle the TMO checked before Arendse’s try stood, and why John Kirwan still calls it a yellow card.
WeTalkRugby’s ratings sided with the award: van den Berg 9.5, Arendse 8.5, with a spilled high ball on 44 the only mark against the wing. Aplon would have it the other way round.
Read next: WeTalkRugby named Malcolm Marx the player of the series, and the case for the hooker over the wing starts with a 6.5 at Ellis Park.
Your turn: quiet, or starved of the ball?
De Jongh saw a wing go quiet in a couple of games before Baltimore. Paige saw a game plan that gives a wing two touches, and a wing who finishes them.
So which is it: was Arendse quiet, or do the Springboks just not give him the ball? Say which below.
Frequently asked
When did Kurt-Lee Arendse make his Springboks debut?
On Saturday 9 July 2022, against Wales at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. He started on the right wing, and Wales won 13-12, their first Test win in South Africa.
How many tries has Kurt-Lee Arendse scored for the Springboks?
27 in 35 Tests, after his try in Baltimore on Saturday 12 September. Four of them have come since the start of July, two in the Nations Championship and two against New Zealand.
Who is Gio Aplon?
A former Springboks wing and fullback with 17 Tests between 2010 and 2012. He spent most of his career at Western Province and the Stormers and finished it at the Bulls, where he and Arendse were teammates.
