{"id":351923,"date":"2025-12-16T15:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/351923\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T15:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:00:09","slug":"south-african-nick-schonert-set-to-embark-on-new-test-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/351923\/","title":{"rendered":"South African Nick Schonert set to embark on new Test career"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African-born prop Nick Schonert has confirmed he has made himself available to play for Germany<\/a> in the 2026 Rugby Europe Championship.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old, who is currently playing in France\u2019s Pro D2<\/a> with Vannes, qualifies for the Black Eagles through the grandparent ruling, as both of his father\u2019s parents were born there.<\/p>\n

Schonert has long been aware of his German ancestry \u2013 extended family still lives in Hanover \u2013 but it took an approach from Vannes<\/a> team-mate, German international Eric Marks<\/a>, to persuade the experienced prop to give it a go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a bit of German, bit of English, bit of South African, and if you dig even deeper, there is a bit of Scottish on my Mum\u2019s side as well,\u201d said Schonert, explaining his rich ancestral tapestry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I signed for Vannes I didn\u2019t even think about it, but when I arrived Eric Marks<\/a> was like, \u2018you\u2019re German, right, would you ever be interested?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done all I have ever wanted to do and rugby has been the most incredible job I have ever have. But chatting with Eric, he told me the whole spiel about what Germany has gone through the last few years \u2013 how they had a bit of a run and now they\u2019re in a bit of a slump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know they have the likes of BJ Botha<\/a>, the ex-South African tight-head, who in my opinion was one of the best technical scrummagers, working with them, he\u2019s the scrum coach. They are putting a lot of effort into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that Germany need a 34-year-old tight-head with a dodgy back to come and help them, and I am not trying to win the Webb Ellis trophy with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if I can help to steady the ship and add a bit experience, I am happy to play my part.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am trying to say no to as few a things as possible now, because I know that in 18 months\u2019 time, rugby could be done and I\u2019ll be onto the next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schonert\u2019s only previous experience of international rugby was as a Junior Springbok in 2011, when World Cup-winning legends Siya Kolisi<\/a>, Eben Etzebeth<\/a> and Mbongeni Mbonambi were team-mates.<\/p>\n

The tight-head did come close to England<\/a> honours under Eddie Jones during his seven years with Worcester, qualifying through his Reading-born maternal grandmother. However, a broken finger ruled him out of England\u2019s tour of Argentina<\/a> in 2017, and he was forced to withdraw from England\u2019s autumn camp in 2018 through injury too.<\/p>\n

He did represent England against the Barbarians<\/a> in 2018, and was on standby for the last two Rugby World Cups.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngland was the frustrating one. I was with them for both World Cups, I was always the non-travelling reserve for the 2019 and 2023 World Cups,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very unfortunate but also, in my mind, I was behind guys like Dan Cole; I had a bit of a crush on him. If that\u2019s the guy that kept me out of it, then so be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Worcester, Schonert spent four seasons with Sale<\/a> Sharks, but he struggled for game time after having half of his heel removed and was released in April this year. He was snapped up by Japan<\/a> Rugby League One outfit Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars<\/a> on a short-term deal but didn\u2019t play a game.<\/p>\n

After 14 rounds of the current Pro D2 season, Vannes are flying high at the top of the table and Schonert has yet to be on the losing side, although injury has restricted him to just five appearances. When he has played, Schonert has been a surprise try threat, crossing five times, which is more than he\u2019d managed in his entire club career up to that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 12 years of playing rugby in England, I scored three tries,\u201d Schonert revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne was at the bottom of a maul against Quins and the season before that, in April 2018, I scored against Newcastle. I have the video of it for proof! And there was one more, I think (also for Worcester<\/a> in the Championship).<\/p>\n

\u201cI was never interesting in scoring tries, I\u2019d rather get a scrum penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been quite weird, I just keep ending up close to the try line with the ball and scoring. I think the total distance ran is no more than five metres, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a kid, my Mum used to says she\u2019d give me x amount of pocket money if I scored a try. Unfortunately, I am scoring all these tries at 34, so that offer is off the table!\u201d<\/p>\n

Schonert has been having fun at a couple of his team-mates\u2019 expense. \u201cI try to act like it (scoring a try) doesn\u2019t affect me, I just turn around and run back to the halfway line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s comical in a way. We have a team-mate, Fabrice (Metz), a lock, who hasn\u2019t scored in his entire career, something like 300 French games<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last try I scored he was literally about 20cms short and I just picked the ball up and put it over the line. Thirteen other players and myself were celebrating and he was one Frenchman at the bottom swearing at me. I thought it was hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schonert\u2019s move to Vannes hasn\u2019t been totally pain free \u2013 a torn bicep required surgery in September \u2013 but, by and large, he is playing with a smile on his face again and has put the dark days at Sale behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I would be able to get back after being out for so long,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a bone spur that was growing into the Achilles and they had to remove half of my heel. I have now got bone that has thankfully hardened over the last 18 months, so it is completely, touch wood, a thing of the past. I have had no pain whatsoever.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a hell of an operation. It was about two months before I could walk again. It is all good now, but my wife still hates me for it because I literally had the op a few months after our first child was born so she had to do the majority of the chores!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South African-born prop Nick Schonert has confirmed he has made himself available to play for Germany in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-351923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}