Dutch destroyer on a mission

Published on Saturday 1 August 2009 19:54

G ROWING UP as a young kid in the small Dutch town of Hilversum, Tim Visser's bedroom walls were plastered with posters featuring the staple sporting heroes of the Netherlands. Pride of place went to Dennis Bergkamp, but there was also space for Johan Cruyff and Marco Van Basten. So far, so mundane, but then things begin to get a bit extraordinary because on the other wall were Visser's two real sporting heroes: Jonah Lomu and Jonny Wilkinson.

Young Visser's walls weren't run of the mill in the land of windmills. The Netherlands may have 120 clubs, but it doesn't have a rich rugby history. The same can't be said for the Visser household: dad Marc played for the national team 80 times and captained them 15 times, while little brother Sep has just turned 18 and next week will join Newcastle Falcons academy, becoming only the second Dutchman to become a professional rugby player.

The first is, of course, Sep's 22-year-old older brother Tim, the 6ft 4in wing who joined Edinburgh this summer from Newcastle. He took the first unwitting steps on his path to rugby stardom when he agreed to turn out for an invitational side at the Amsterdam Sevens as a 16-year-old and caught the eye of Joe Shaw and James Grindal, two Newcastle players indulging in some rugby-playing R&R.

Within days Visser was at Kingston Park for a trial, which Falcons rugby director John Fletcher says lasted approximately two minutes before he'd made up his mind about the young Dutchman. Visser was in… and the full ramifications soon hit home.

"It all happened very quickly," remembers the Dutchman. "One minute I was asked over for a trial, the next I was at Barnard Castle School, which was a complete shock. We don't have private schools in Holland because the public schools are very good so there's no need. The whole thing with school uniforms and standing in the corner when you're naughty was a real shock because back in Holland we call teachers by their first names; it's very liberal."

Yet if his early days in Britain were a massive culture shock for Visser, it was also a remarkable opportunity. Finally he was in an environment where rugby was the top dog and there was rugby training every day. Barnard Castle is the alma mater of Rob Andrew, the Underwood brothers and Mathew Tait, and the school takes the game very seriously indeed.

It was the perfect grounding for a raw player who was still developing. At that stage no one had yet decided what his best position was. As a club player in the Netherlands his startling pace for a big man had marked him out as a back, at Barnard Castle he played at blindside or No 8, and for England under-18s he played in the second row, a cameo role he has no wish to revisit. The man who took him to Newcastle, John Fletcher, believed he would one day play for England in the back row, but played him on the wing and in the centre. All of that is a distant memory for Visser. "Now that I've got back to the back three I don't have any plans to leave there," he laughs.

And why would he? He scored on his debut for Newcastle, getting the last-minute winner against Worcester, and then scoring in his next two games. In fact every time he got a start he seemed to cross the line. Yet he still struggled to become a first-choice pick in a premiership where there is a huge premium on experience. He accepted that in his first couple of seasons "because I still didn't have quite enough of an edge", but by last season coming on as an impact player had begun to pall. After five years at Kingston Park learning at the feet of hardened pros like Wilkinson and Karl Hayman it was, he decided, time to move on.

"I managed to put in some good performances but I still came off the bench a lot," he says. "I'd get 12-15 starts a season, but I'm trying to get away from that now, and that's one of the reasons I've come to Edinburgh. There had also been a lot of changes at Newcastle, particularly with the coaching staff, so after five years there I felt it was the right time to move on. I was very excited by the set-up here and in the end it was an easy choice to make."

Apart from reaching the final of the Melrose Sevens and also playing sevens at Peebles, Langholm and Hawick – "I was at Hawick three times and it was damned muddy every time" – he knew surprisingly little about Scottish rugby. Most of what he now knows comes from his friend Steve Jones, the Falcons utility back who has also made the journey north from Newcastle.

If Jones filled in all the cultural blanks and told him about Edinburgh the city, Visser had worked out the salient rugby facts all on his own. He knew that the Magners League, with its lack of relegation, would be a more convivial environment for a big-striding wing who likes to play an expansive game. He also knew that Edinburgh are on an upward curve, that they're a team to be a part of. Everything he's found since arriving at Murrayfield has consolidated that impression.

"The fact that Edinburgh did so well last year made a huge difference to me," he says. "It's great to come into a club that's doing so well. When I arrived at training I couldn't believe how young everyone is, which is great because it means that there's so much more potential to be fulfilled."

Yet making the move from Newcastle hasn't come without a price. With the Netherlands unlikely to ever feature in a World Cup, if Visser is to play at a high representative level then he will need to nail his colours to another nation's mast. Two years into his English residency but now ineligible because he no longer lives in England, he must decide whether to try to qualify for Scotland under the three-year residency rule. He spoke expansively on the subject when he first turned up at Edinburgh, but has already toned down the rhetoric. Still, for all the platitudes about nailing down a place in the Edinburgh team before all else, it will come as no surprise were we to see Visser competing for a Scotland jersey in three years' time.

In the meantime, there's much for the big wing to do. He's still getting to know Edinburgh, a city whose cosmopolitan nature he heartily applauds – "it's nice to have a few other foreigners around," he says in his almost accentless English – while he's about to start his second year of a business administration degree. Having moved into a flat in South Queensferry with his girlfriend, he can also indulge his love of sailing and of walking his shaggy "Alsatian-style mongrel" dog.

Not that domestic bliss is his priority just now. Visser has travelled north in search of first-team rugby and tries, and Edinburgh will be hoping he gets plenty of both.

WHITE IMPRESSES

JASON White made a scoring start to life in France with one of Clermont Ferrand's four tries in their friendly against Biarritz.

However, while the former Scotland captain's contribution gave his side a 28-7 interval lead, it was not enough to prevent a 40-28 defeat. White and his new colleagues will be back in action on Thursday against Glasgow Warriors.

White said: "This is a great side particularly in the back row where there are high quality players such as Bonnaire, Audebert, Cudmore, Vermeulen, Lapandry. It's up to me to prove to the coaches and the public that I deserve a place in this side. I'll have to work hard."

Elsewhere, Rory Lamont continued his integration into the star studded Toulon side in the 33-19 win over Racing Metro, while Andrew Henderson was in the starting line up for Montauban in their 27-26 defeat by Brive.

Dan Carter kicked 14 points but it was not enough for Canterbury as the defending champions went down 22-19 to North Harbour in their opening Air New Zealand Cup match. It was the New Zealand fly-half's first major outing since rupturing his Achilles while playing for Perpignan back in January.

His tactical kicking was solid and

he kicked four of his five penalty attempts, including a long-range effort, and converted Sean Maitland's first-half try in his 64 minutes on the park.

There is nothing better than being out there playing again," he said.