CORNELL DU PREEZ, the South African flanker, is the latest foreign player to declare his intention of hanging around long enough to qualify for Scotland on residential grounds.
And it is clear that several more of the uncapped contingent recruited by Scottish clubs in the last few weeks have similar aims, as the men running the national game step up their recruitment drive.
For Du Preez, who played his first match for Edinburgh last weekend, the lure of international rugby once he has served his time, as well as his relationship with Alan Solomons, the Edinburgh head coach who was also in charge when the player was at the Southern Kings in South Africa, was enough to persuade him to turn down an offer from the Western Force in Perth, Australia, and instead throw his lot in with Scotland.
"The chance to play international rugby, that was one of the main factors," was his response to being asked why he rejected Australia and came north. "Alan [Solomons] and Omar [Mouneimne, the defence coach who also came from the Southern Kings] had a big influence on it as well. They made it a bit easier."
He has no Scottish relatives, so is not qualified for Scotland at the moment, but he is only 22, so he has plenty of time to qualify on the three-year residency rule and still have a reasonably long international career.
His ambition puts him in the same boat as players such as Wilem Nel, his Edinburgh front-row colleague, plus Josh Strauss and Mike Cusack at Glasgow, who have all said they hope to play for Scotland after fulfilling the residential qualification. Mike Coman, the captain of the Hawkes Bay team in New Zealand, will arrive in the next few weeks, as will Sam Beard, the Canterbury back. You can safely assume that they too hope to stay long enough to qualify.
While being qualified is by no means a guarantee of a cap, the extension of the so-called "project" players scheme - recruiting players specifically to make them available for the national side after three years - does explain how Edinburgh are as comfortable as they are with the number of foreign recruits they have been bringing into the squad.
Certainly, du Preez looks as though he could become a serious contender by 2016, by which time he will have become eligible. His first start for his new club came when he helped them create a shock win over Munster last weekend. Du Preez produced an outstanding display at openside in that game but is just as comfortable in any of the three back-row berths.
"I had an opportunity to
stay in Super Rugby or try something new. I wanted to
try something new and play in this competition [the Heineken Cup]," du Preez explained as the team started to prepare to face Perpignan in three days.
"I think it is possible to back up that win [over Munster]. We want to show we are not just
a one-hit wonder and can perform week in and week out. If we back our systems and stay composed we have a chance to win the game. It was my first Heineken Cup game and I have always dreamt about playing in the Heineken Cup after watching it as a little boy growing up in South Africa. It was very nice getting my
first taste of it. I expected a physical confrontation and I knew it was going to be quick. Our performance was something to remember."
His experience in South Africa has given him a good idea of what it is like in a squad trying to knit itself together during the season. "At the Kings we also got thrown together a few months before the competition which is basically the same thing that has happened here with the coaches arriving," du Preez pointed out.
"Each game we are showing we are improving and we are getting there. I did not know a lot about what was going on or about Edinburgh. There is a lot of potential here and as long as the guys keep working hard we will get benefits."
For him personally, the benefits could include extending his two-year contract to keep him in Scotland long enough to swap the red and black of his club colours for the blue of his adopted country.
It is a long way in the future, but he has given himself the perfect start.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article