{"id":914551,"date":"2026-10-03T10:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914551\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T10:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:38:09","slug":"springboks-legend-os-du-randt-on-the-three-differences-between-the-amateur-and-professional-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914551\/","title":{"rendered":"Springboks legend Os du Randt on the three differences between the amateur and professional game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Springboks<\/a> legend Os du Randt has named three ways rugby has changed since becoming professional in 1995.<\/p>\n

Rugby purists will fondly remember the amateur days, but much has changed since. Appearing on Boks Unpacked X The Verdict,\u00a0Du Randt looked back on an era he played through.<\/p>\n

1 Pressure<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s too much pressure on the school kids these days,\u201d said the double World Cup<\/a> winner. \u201cParents put a lot of pressure on winning and sponsorships.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt the rugby environment can feel a little like a pressure cooker, particularly when trying to forge a professional career as a young player. Being let go from an academy as a youngster can feel like the end of the world.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s external pressure from friends and family, the feeling that as a promising prospect, you don\u2019t want to let them down.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also internalised pressure too \u2013 the expectation on yourself to \u2018make it\u2019, as often this is the \u2018one thing\u2019 a young rugby prospect believes they\u2019re good at.<\/p>\n

During the amateur days, not making the squad simply meant that the player wouldn\u2019t play rugby that weekend, or they had to play in the second string, or find a new team, but nowadays, in the professional era, not making it into a professional senior squad may mean the player will need to look for an entirely new career.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just the pressure of becoming a professional; it\u2019s also the pressure to consistently perform well in the shirt. There\u2019s a lot more riding on the performances in the professional game: sponsorships, bonuses, and the pressure of added viewership, with millions more eyes ready to critique your every movement.<\/p>\n

In fact, millions tune into both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s World Cup finals. Attendance increased from 469,664 across all matches in the 1987 World Cup to\u00a02,437,208 in the 2023 edition.<\/p>\n

Siya Kolisi\u2019s Springboks \u2018sacrifice\u2019 and why Stormers youngsters \u2018respect\u2019 the \u2018humble\u2019 superstar more<\/a><\/p>\n

2 Money<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money changed the whole thing,\u201d he continued. \u201cI mean, the guys can set them up now for life, which is good.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing set up for life is one thing, but being well paid to do a job you genuinely don\u2019t want to lose can make the sacrifices required even greater.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s take an example. When Ollie [Le Roux]<\/a>\u00a0was there, he played and made his debut. I came back from injury after my rehab surgery, and then when Nelie Smith wanted to make me a tighthead, I said no. I\u2019d rather play for the B side because there\u2019s no money involved, there\u2019s no fame. We\u2019re not on TV, all those kinds of things. So these days, I imagine you would say yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at Thomas du Toit. He made the swap, and my question is: Would that have happened in an amateur era? I don\u2019t think so. I think that\u2019s a big change where mentally and your mindset changes quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

3 Fights<\/p>\n

\u201cFor anyone who played the game in the early 2000s or before, you\u2019ll remember how each game appeared to turn into a brawl at some stage or other. You may have been stuck into the action yourselves, or watched with bemusement as the melee erupted in the centre field, but the fact is, it happened,\u201d said Du Randt.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowadays, however, particularly in the professional game, it\u2019s simply non-existent. With the increased fines, citations and general punishments for these indiscretions, the most you\u2019re likely to see is some pushing and shoving, with the odd hand to the face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game was still hard,\u201d Du Randt reminisced, but he does welcome the focus turning back to the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, in those days, there were a lot more punches. Sometimes I wanted to put up a boxing match afterwards and say, \u2018Let\u2019s play rugby and let\u2019s go and box afterwards\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aggression is still, of course, a major part of the game, but sometimes it does still spill over, most notably Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth was banned for 12 weeks after eye-gouging a Wales player in the 2025 Autumn Nations series.<\/p>\n

Slightly further back, disgraced French prop Mohamed Haouas<\/a> was banned for three weeks in 2020 for punching Scotland\u2019s Jamie Richie during a Six Nations match, and then in 2023 banned for four matches for headbutting Scotland\u2019s Ben White.<\/p>\n

So these incidents do still happen, but they\u2019re certainly not on a regular occurrence.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Siya Kolisi\u2019s Springboks \u2018sacrifice\u2019 and why Stormers youngsters \u2018respect\u2019 the \u2018humble\u2019 superstar more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springboks legend Os du Randt has named three ways rugby has changed since becoming professional in 1995. Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,1379,818,1182,44,760,1183,85],"class_list":["post-914551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914551","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=914551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}