Matt whispered ‘this is for your dad’ – and I cried, says Duane Vermeulen

It was the words of Springbok forward coach Matt Proudfoot that reduced Springbok eighthman Duane Vermeulen to tears just minutes after that famous Rugby World Cup victory.

“Matt just whispered in my ear ‘this was for him’.

“That’s something special to hear from a coach and when he said that, the tears started rolling and I couldn’t stop it,” said Vermeulen.

“As a small kid growing up, my dad passed away when I was eight, and there’s a lot of guys out there and also in the team whose dads died when they were a bit younger,” he said.

Brought up by a single mother in Nelspruit, Vermeulen, who played his 50th Test in the Boks’ opening game in the World Cup, against New Zealand, said that in his earlier years, he had looked up to coach Rassie Erasmus as a father figure.

“I walked up to Matt and we said that’s all the sacrifices we put in and that gives you the Cup,” said Vermeulen.

But he is not following teammate Beast Mtawarira into retirement just yet.

The Boks started their nationwide trophy tour yesterday at SuperSport’s World of Champions before heading to Pretoria, where they were welcomed at the seat of government, the Union Buildings, by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Then, they headed to Johannesburg and Soweto and team sponsor MTN, which extended their deal.

Players who missed the tour parade included flyhalf Handre Pollard, who suffered a broken cheekbone in the final, and lock Lood de Jager, whose shoulder was dislocated.

Bok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk, who had to face much criticism before playing the game of his life in the final, said the sheer joy the South African public had shown had touched the hearts of the entire squad.

“Arriving back on Tuesday night and seeing that massive crowd of supporters, it was a sense of being back home,” he said.

“The wonderful support we have been getting since we returned has been just terrific.

“Winning the World Cup was a way of saying thank you to the people of South Africa for their continued loyalty.”

The trophy tour continues today in Durban.

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