Paul de Villiers earns praise from Springbok mentors ahead of debut

By Doug Mattushek
18th June 2026

Stormers flanker Paul de Villiers has earned the praise of current and former Springbok coaches Rassie Erasmus and Nick Mallett.

The Bok-to-be has enjoyed a sublime season in the blue and white hoops. A breakdown threat, a beast on defence and supremely fit, de Villiers' season earned him a place on the bench as the Springboks face the Barbarians on Saturday.

In the United Rugby Championship, de Villiers was a menace at the breakdown. He was ranked second in turnovers won for the competition, but it's his ratio that's impressive. His 19 turnovers are up against four penalties conceded. This, compared to stat leader Jeandre Rudolf, who conceded nine penalties to his 20 turnovers, while third-ranked Dan Thomas' 18 turnovers cost 15 penalties.

Mallett pointed this out on the Talking Boks podcast with Brendan Nel.

"He's around the same size as Kwagga Smith, probably not quite as quick, but similar physically," he said.

"He really admires Heinrich Brussow and wants to model parts of his game on him. He's got very good decision-making skills. He doesn't get penalised a lot, but he's invariably around the ball when the opposition want quick possession. He gets over it, slows it down and makes sure he's legal.

"His turnover-to-penalty ratio is outstanding. He wins a lot of turnovers because referees trust what he's doing."

The former Junior Bok captain's work rate on defence also stands out, as he ranked fourth in the URC tackle count and had an 83 per cent success rate.

"He's not just a fetcher, He's a very good defender, a hard tackler and he gets back to his feet quickly," continued Mallett.

"He's also a good ball-carrier, has excellent evasive skills and passes beautifully off both hands."

Erasmus also let slip that de Villiers has a massive engine. It's unknown what kind of special hell the players went through during last week's camp in Johannesburg, but you can be certain a Bok fitness Test is not a fun place to be.

But the 23-year-old apparently showed up his teammates during the lung-busting drills.

"A guy like Paul de Villiers, he did the best of everybody in the fitness test," said Erasmus, catching himself mid-sentence.

"Not that that should be the headline, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be. But I mean, he did the best of everybody in the fitness test, which is a hard thing. And he played the previous weekend."