JP Du Preez wants to be the biggest player to represent Scotland since 7ft Richard Metcalfe became the tallest international player ever at the turn of the century.
At 6 ft 10½ ins, the South Africa second-row is just short of the record, but is believed to be the biggest player involved in professional rugby at the moment
And after moving from Sale Sharks to join Glasgow Warriors this summer, he plans to pass the five-year residency requirement in order to eventually pull on the dark blue jersey with a thistle on its chest.
“It’s any rugby player’s dream to play internationally, so I wouldn’t mind playing for Scotland,” said the 27-year-old. “Unfortunately, I didn’t strike lucky with a Scottish granny, so I need to do the residency stuff.”
In truth, Du Preez’s chances of making it as a Scotland player are remote. By the time he qualifies he will be 32, which is a ripe old age to be winning your first cap, especially as a so-called project player who would effectively be blocking the progress of up-and-coming talent.
Fortunately, the prospect of international rugby was not the chief driving force behind his decision to join Warriors.
“I’m doing this for my son, Izak, who is eight-months old, to give him the best opportunity as a young child, especially with what’s happening back in South Africa with all the crime and all that stuff,” he explained.
“Glasgow is a great place to be. Good people, good fans – everything is very good.
Du Preez added that he is enjoying working under his former Cheetahs coach Franco Smith, who took over the reins during the summer following the sacking of Danny Wilson.
“I wasn’t too concerned when Danny moved on despite the fact he was the coach who brought me here,” he explained. “I’ve been in that situation before, so I know how it works and I was just ready to impress whoever took over the team.
“Then, when I found it was going to be Franco, I was quite happy because I know what type of structure he wants to play and what he wants to get out of the game.
“I played under him for quite a while at the Cheetahs back in Bloemfontein.”
Smith has wasted little time in establishing a reputation as a tough task-master but du Preez says he enjoys that no-nonsense type of environment.
“Maybe it’s because I’m used to it and that’s just the type of people we are. I wouldn’t say we’re tough, but we know we want to get stuff done in a certain way.
“Franco is very clear about how he wants to play, what type of areas he wants us to play in, and what our focus is for the weekend. The communication between him and the players is very good.”
Du Preez has come off the bench twice so far this season, against Cradiff and Ospreys. He is hoping to be involved again when the Bulls visit Scotstoun on Saturday evening.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here