Springboks Superstar number eight Duane Vermeulen promises he will do his best to be ready for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
Due to injury 35-year-old missed the British and Irish Lions but returned to play in the majority of their Rugby Championship campaign and then featured for the Boks in the Autumn Nations Series
Vermeulen recently signed for Ulster. World cup winner believes that his Test career can benefit from the move.
“I always said if things didn’t work out contractually in South Africa then I’d go to play abroad,” he told The Ulster Rugby Show.. “The Ulster offer came up and I thought, ‘maybe doing this might be good for my rugby’.
“You can always learn and maybe a change of scenery and environment will do me good. I chatted to my wife and we decided on doing that.
“I still want to play for the Springboks as well. So if I can push towards the next World Cup as well, that’s my marker. That’s a big thing.
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“I don’t play this game to compete, I play to win,” he added. “Everyone wants to walk off the field a winner and lift trophies – that’s what it’s all about.”
“If I can contribute to something like that I’d be happy. By doing that you get younger guys looking up to you and learning from you. You don’t even have to say anything, people see the difference quickly.
“You have to have guys working towards that same goal and keep on setting goals along the way, consistently growing as a team.
“From what I have seen in my short time as part of the squad it seems the guys have that so now it’s just fine tuning.
“In South Africa we love the maul. It’s really part of the things we do and it’s something I hope I can contribute to this squad and hopefully we can change one or two things and score a lot of maul tries.”
