Young Embrose Papier has a World Cup dream

With the Bulls now almost certainly out of playoffs contention, coach John Mitchell has the opportunity to work on developing players for next year’s Super Rugby campaign and he has one such future star available in scrumhalf Embrose Papier.

While the 21-year-old has been the Bulls’ third-choice scrumhalf for most of the year behind Ivan van Zyl and Andre Warner, national coach Rassie Erasmus showed how much faith he has in the Clanwilliam product’s talent by fast-tracking him into the Springbok set-up.

For Papier, the challenge is now to stay there and ensure he is on the plane to Japan next year for the World Cup.

The more Super Rugby the lightning-quick halfback plays between now and then, the better.

“It would be very nice to go to the World Cup next year, that’s every player’s dream. I had a few chances in Super Rugby this year against New Zealand sides, I could express myself, but you learn a lot in Super Rugby too and hopefully that will help get me there to the World Cup. I learnt a lot in the pre-season with John Mitchell as well.

“I was very motivated to get into the Springbok team but it was still a really good surprise. Playing there has made me even more hungry. I made my debut coming on at wing and coach Sticks [Mzwandile Stick] said I must just use every second. I had a few nice runs against Wales and then it was quite wet against England but I feel that I used my chances,” Papier said.

Papier is also grateful to his Bulls U21 coach David Manuel for helping to hone the kicking game that is such a vital part of any scrumhalf’s armoury these days.

“My dad says I definitely need to work on my kicking game and I guess every player has his things he has to work on. I learnt a lot in my U21 year about when to kick and when to run from coach David. But my speed I’ve had from when I was small, I did athletics at school, I always ran.

“I started playing rugby at primary school at Lambert’s Bay and Darling, the community are big there with rugby and I went from touch rugby. Francois Hougaard and Dan Carter were my heroes growing up. I am short but I’m not small, I gym hard. I’m 80kg now but I don’t want to lose speed so I won’t go over 90kg,” Papier said.

For more sport your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.