Local rugga makes international strides

SUPPORTERS of schoolboy rugby who witnessed Grey College flyhalf, Johan Goosen, at the 2010 Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival would agree with South Africa’s multi-capped rugby referee, Jonathan Kaplan’s statement that the Springbok was one of the country’s best schoolboy players.

The now-retired ref blew the whistle in 70 tests during his record 17-year career, before he called it a day in 2013. He said in a recent interview that he believed Goosen was the best gamebreaker he saw operate at school level.

As a 17-year-old playing at the festival in Botha’s Hill, Johan displayed this talent which currently sees him plying his trade for Montpellier in the top 14 in France.

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A year after leaving school, Johan was a member of the SA U20 team at the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship and was also named in the squad for the 2012 tournament, but had to withdraw due to a shoulder injury. At the time of his injury, Johan was the leading points scorer in his debut season of Super Rugby with 145 points from nine games.

Born in Burgersdorp, the 1.85m flyhalf made his Springbok debut in 2012 against Australia in a 26 – 19 defeat in Perth, coming off the bench as replacement flyhalf for Morné Steyn.

The following two weekends he was in the starting line-up for the Springboks as flyhalf, where he performed well. An unfortunate knee injury during a Cheetahs training session in Sydney forced him to miss the rest of the Springboks’ test matches in 2013.Johan Goosen is currently in the top 14 in France and plays for Montpellier.

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Johan signed a three-year deal with the French side, Racing 92, for its top 14 in the 2014 to 2015 season. Despite later signing a contract extension to remain in Paris until 2020, he subsequently announced his retirement from rugby in December 2016 to take up a role as a commercial director at an agricultural company in South Africa.

Eighteen months later, Johan made his return to competitive rugby and was named in the matchday squad for the Cheetahs’ match against Munster in Round 20 of the Pro14 competition.Later that season, in 2018, he joined Montpellier, where he remains contracted.

The Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival has been praised for providing talented players with an ideal platform to display their ability and hopefully springboard to the next level of the game, whilst also providing talent scouts with three days of focused play from which to discover talent.