South African imports set to beef up Dundee

MARK Dodson, the incoming chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union, spoke at length earlier this week about his belief that recruiting the right overseas players can add real value to the professional game in this country. This is a sharp change in attitude to his predecessor who tried to make a virtue out of Edinburgh and Glasgow’s reliance on young native talent.

A good import will raise standards, pull in crowds and attract interest from sponsors reasoned Dodson, in his first interview since taking up his current post three weeks ago. If you accept this logic for the pro teams then surely it is just as relevant to the game at club level.

Dundee HSFP coach Ian Rankin has not always been convinced about the merit of filling club sides with imported beef, preferring to give opportunities to young local talent instead. But an exchange programme being driven by the South African government in partnership with UK Sport has captured his imagination, and he expects his club to reap the benefit from signing up to the scheme this afternoon when Blue Bulls and South African under-20 winger Tom Seabela makes his debut off the bench for the Taysiders against Melrose.

A quick search on YouTube reveals that the Borderers should be wary of a winger with plenty of pace and power when Seabela takes his bow. He can be seen scoring a series of spectacular tries in a compilation clip. As a schoolboy he apparently ran the 100 metres in 10.6 seconds.

“They are looking at placing a number of up-and-coming players at clubs across Britain and Ireland. The beauty of it is that this is not being done through agents and it is not about money, it is about player development,” said Rankin.

“The other big upside for me is that it is a two way street, which means we will hopefully be able to send a couple of guys who we believe will benefit from the experience over to South Africa to train with their provincial academies during our close season.”

The SRU has had no direct involvement in the initiative and Rankin points out that is not necessarily a bad thing.

“There are always guys out there who slip through the net, and if this helps one such player from fully realising his potential then it is a success,” he says.

“You can see the impact that this has had on our boys at Dundee. A lot of them are thinking that they would quite like a summer in South Africa, and it has really upped the ante at training.”

The stated aim of the scheme is to give South African players and coaches from less privileged backgrounds the opportunity to experience a new rugby environment, which will hopefully help both their rugby and personal development. Ayr have also signed up to the programme.

“The timing hasn’t been ideal. I only found out about it a few weeks ago and everything has happened really quickly since then, but I don’t have any complaints about the way it has been organised,” says Rankin.

“Our first impression of Tom is that he is a very good rugby player and just as importantly he has a great personality which fits into our team dynamic really well. That is always a concern when you have a player you haven’t met arriving off a plane, but with this scheme they have obviously put a lot of thought into selecting characters who will be able to embrace the experience.”

Seabela’s arrival could not have come at a better time for Rankin and Dundee. After a frustrating defeat to Gala last week they face the reigning champions and current league leaders Melrose at Mayfield this afternoon.

“I think Melrose would say themselves they have not hit their best form yet but they have got this winning habit which is priceless in any competitive sport,” says Rankin. “It looks to me like the strongest team they have managed to field so far in this campaign, with Scott Wight coming back in at stand-off, so it is going to be a huge challenge.”

“But we’re looking forward to it. In years gone by I have gone into games like this thinking that we are going to have to really over-achieve to get anything out of it, but we have a much stronger squad now and we’re confident going up against anyone in this league. We’ve lost two games this season and the galling thing is we should have won both of them – we just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’