Du Toit has been brilliant in leading the lineout for both the Stormers and the Boks this year. As he explained, this is the first year in several that he has not been plagued by injury, and the momentum he has picked up has underlined why he was regarded as a potential strong challenger for Victor Matfield’s place when the legendary Bulls player was still playing.
Du Toit missed the first test of the series against Ireland because of a hamstring train picked up during the Stellenbosch training camp. He would have been a strong challenger for a starting place at his new franchise home ground of Newlands, but it was initially thought that the former Sharks player would be out for between two to six weeks.
His recovery though was much quicker than expected, and he ended up playing a strong role for the Boks off the bench at Newlands after replacing Lood de Jager. He started in the No 5 jersey for the first time at Emirates Airlines Park, and his leadership of the lineout was superb. However, so was his general play in his former role as a blindside flank when he switched positions later on.
Du Toit’s switch to the side of the scrum for Siya Kolisi wasn’t scripted beforehand, but according to assistant coach Matt Proudfoot, it went off so well that it is something that we can expect to see much more of in the future.
“Having a player like him who has flexibility in being able to switch between lock and flank is a huge benefit for us and it played a big role in the way we won the game in the last quarter hour in the second test,” said Proudfoot.
“We knew at the point that Pieter-Steph made the switch that we desperately needed an extra ball carrier. We were able to bring on Franco Mostert, so we could move Pieter-Steph to the flank and still have that robustness in the second row.
