I’ve still got a good few years left in me, promises Francois van Wyk

By Jon Newcombe

Francois van Wyk is revelling being around world-class players and feels moving to Bath has given him a new lease of life.

Van Wyk joined the blue, back and whites from Leicester last summer, and it now nearly halfway through his two-year deal.

He turns 34 at the end of July but the South African has no plans to make this contract his last.

“I still think I have got a good few years in me,” he said. “It’s funny, I thought at this age I would have slowed down a little bit but actually I feel really good and I am playing every week.

“I am really happy where I am at the moment and hopefully I can just push on and get better as well.”

High Performance Environment

Much of that, he says, is down to the players around him, and the high performance environment created by Johann van Graan at Bath.

“There’s world-class players around us. The knowledge and experience that the England boys and Thomas (du Toit), when he goes away with the Springboks, bring back to the camp is massive.

“We try and improve and if there is something wrong we try and fix it straight away and try and get better. I think we are in a good place but I think we can only get better as well.”

As sturdy as Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s famous Box Tunnel, near where he lives, van Wyk has been immovable in the scrum but mobile enough around the pitch to be in the position to score four tries.

Try Scoring

The most recent of those came against Harlequins, who he’d scored the match-winner against back in October, with the South African romping home from 12 metres out after Will Butt combined with Ben Spencer to set up the score.

“I think it’s our game plan and when the opportunity is there, we just try and take it. I was just in the right place at the right time. Credit to the boys for setting it up,” van Wyk said.

“It’s always great to score a try as a prop. But it is not just about me, it is about the team. I was just in the right place at the right time.”

Countryman Du Toit has twice as many tries as van Wyk, and was Bath’s joint-top try-scorer for the season, along with Tom de Glanville and Ruaridh McConnochie, going into this weekend’s Challenge Cup tie against Pau.

Nearly a quarter of Bath’s tries in all competitions have come from the Front Row Union, and du Toit backs up van Wyk’s claims that it is more by design than accident.

Thomas du Toit

Du Toit, below, said: “I genuinely think that the coaches at Bath have seen something that can potentially be of benefit to me and my game and they have taken that and taught me the art of scoring tries closer to the line, pick-and-going, and putting that into my arsenal.

“Everyone is on the same page, to want to achieve closer to the line. So I would say a lot of that is because of what the coaches have taught us as a group and the opportunities just seem to be coming my way.”