He’s got something of the giraffe about him, all loping legs and unrestrained power beneath an ungainly body.

But looks can be deceiving and in becoming South Africa’s most effective World Cup player, Lood de Jager has added steel and sass to the Springbok pack.

Few would admit it, but De Jager was seen by most as a standby player until the next Victor Matfield came along, presumably Pieter Steph du Toit. Too bad De Jager never played along – he’s become the Boks’ best ball carrier, doing duty alongside fellow heavyweights Eben Etzebeth and Duane Vermeulen.

De Jager may have cherubic looks and a gentle personality, but he’s a man transformed when he is in Test-match mode. He’s a ferocious defender, often making tackles in double digits, and he attacks the gainline with a fury that belies his 22 years (although being on the right side of 120kg helps). He’s also that most important of things: a team man. Known as much for his sense of humour as his rugby smarts, he has become a vital cog in the Springbok engine.

De Jager comes from solid East Rand stock – he attended Hugenote in Springs – but might not have been vying for the World Cup had it not been for a fortuitous meeting with an ex-Amanzimtoti schoolboy.

Rugby scout Andre Tredoux was at a big schoolboy derby in Johannesburg and sent his wife Janesia to keep an eye on a rugby day in Potchefstroom where he was in charge of the Pukke u-19s.

On his way out, Andre joked to his wife that should she spot a useful two-metre-plus lock, she should give him a call.

(Janesia had once advised him to sign Jaco Taute, who she saw play at a St John’s Festival, but Andre, to his eternal regret, did not).

Five minutes into Hugenote’s match, Andre’s phone rang. “I’ve just seen the next Andries Bekker,” his wife told him.

Andre had his doubts, but a few minutes later, he took a call from friend Hendrik Truter, the former Transvaal fullback. “You’ve got to see this laatie,” Truter enthused.

On the Monday, Tredoux called De Jager’s father. Father and son were in his office on the Tuesday and a Pukke contract was signed on the Thursday.

“We never got the first choices at Pukke, so we tended to focus on the smaller schools,” said Tredoux, who played for College Rovers before leaving Durban aged 19 to study for a sports science degree in Potchefstroom.

Playing for the Leopards u-19s, De Jager helped engineer a 21-20 defeat of the Sharks, at which point Tredoux realised his wife was bang on the money. “Not many men would trust their wives about rugby, but she was right,” he quipped.

De Jager hadn’t even played for a Craven Week Academy team, but Tredoux could sense he was special. Indeed, when Tredoux was appointed chief scout of the Cheetahs juniors in 2013, De Jager was the first player he signed. There was no messing about either – De Jager went straight into the Super Rugby line-up, settling in quickly and formidably.

Tredoux hasn’t been surprised by De Jager’s emergence. “He’s a very intelligent kid and very talented, but his story is about hard work and perseverance. He has a wise head on his shoulders, and he’s worked helluva hard. I’m very chuffed for him.”

There are many lessons in the De Jager narrative, not least of which is that the pipeline to Springbok rugby doesn’t always follow the traditional route, and nor does it have to. De Jager got lucky – spotted by a teacher wife of a rugby scout – but you would hope that the Potchefstroom feeder system would have spotted him anyway.

Another lesson is how De Jager has knuckled down and hasn’t stopped working since his schooldays. Playing out of the unfashionable East Rand, where few favours are given, De Jager always had to do a little more. The rewards have followed.

He already has 16 Test caps. Given that he is still learning his trade and will doubtless fill out in the years to come, his potential is scary. At 2,06m he’s already frighteningly large. Giant in size and, soon, giant in stature too. – © Sunday Tribune