- The three Du Preez brothers have made the club and Manchester their home
- Have all played crucial roles in Sale’s run to a crunch semi-final with Leicester
- EXCLUSIVE: David Ribbans used to chase sharks now he must tame Saracens
Squeezed into a courtyard garden on the outskirts of Manchester, the three Du Preez brothers are huddled together to recreate a childhood photograph from 2002.
‘At one point I was the biggest but they caught up pretty quickly,’ says the eldest, Rob, sandwiched between the giant twins Dan and Jean-Luc.
The image takes them back to their childhood, wearing Crusaders jerseys from their club in Durban, at the beginning of their remarkable rugby journey.
‘If we went out for lunch somewhere, we’d always find a patch of grass to play two-on-one,’ adds Rob, 29, the most forthcoming of the siblings. ‘There was always some kind of sport going on. Cricket, basketball, soccer. The twins were brilliant at waterpolo. Dan could definitely have got Springbok colours if he’d kept playing.’
Dan, 27, chips in: ‘I was a striker and JL was a centre back. It’s very physical but we like physical games! You hold the ball in one hand, it definitely helps with your offloading. There was a provincial tournament at the end of the year where we played against [South Africa hooker] Malcolm Marx… he was tough!’
The fiercest of the brothers, Jean-Luc, adds: ‘We even played sixth team soccer… the fighting team!’
Moving over to the sofa, they cram in side-by-side with Rob’s cuddly cockapoo, Dubs.
‘If you wanted to gauge personalities, you should see the twins’ dogs,’ says Rob with a laugh. ‘I’ve got this little handbag dog and they’ve got big Italian Mastiffs from the same litter. About 50kgs each!’
They reminisce about their school summer holidays spent on their grandma’s farm back in South Africa. They would leave the city for Potchefstroom, near the Mooi River. ‘We’d lift up rocks looking for snakes and spiders,’ recalls Jean-Luc. ‘Pretty stupid when you think about it!’
Their first rugby match together was back at Kearsney College, as teenagers, where the twins played in the pack and Rob wore the No10 jersey. ‘The twins were playing two years up and we beat Hilton 43-0,’ says Rob. ‘They were in 10th grade. JL scored a worldie of a try!’
Now the brothers see Sale as their adopted home. Over the past four years, they have all bought houses in the area, got married and had children. Dan hosts a braai every other weekend — ‘a few chops, a chicken, a couple of tomahawks [steaks]’ — but on Sunday their focus is on their play-off against Leicester.
Rob starts in a heavyweight centre partnership alongside Manu Tuilagi, and Jean Luc is at lock, with Dan coming off the bench.
‘The older I’ve got, the more I’ve realised that playing together is quite special,’ says Rob. ‘We’ve probably taken it for granted. Playing together is nice but it’s also seeing each other every day, training together, Monday to Friday. That’s not going to be there for ever because the day we do stop, we’ve all got our own busy lives outside of rugby. We’ll miss that, for sure.’
On the pitch, Dan and Jean-Luc add the physicality to Sale’s pack. They weigh in at a combined total of 227kg, more than 35st. Not too much smaller at just over 15st, Rob adds a direct approach to the backline, shifting from No 10 to the centres to accommodate George Ford’s return from injury.
‘Myself and Jean Luc play similar styles so the relationship definitely helps us,’ says Dan. ‘We often find ourselves around each other on the pitch. I have an idea of what he’s going to do and react to that. Rob’s a bit further out. If JL makes a few metres in the carry I know to expect an offload. If we had to get into a scuffle with someone, I know the others would be there in a second!’
Together, the brothers have been capped 20 times by the Springboks, becoming the first set of three siblings to be called up together when they were picked by Rassie Erasmus in 2018. On Sunday, they will come up against a couple of familiar faces from the national team In Leicester No 8 Jasper Wiese and No 10 Handre Pollard.
‘Jasper’s one of those players that, no matter how hard or how many times he gets hit, he’ll keep coming,’ says Jean-Luc. ‘He doesn’t stop. He looks you in the eye and runs hard. Leicester rely on him to get go-forward. We’ve got the timber to make physical gains, too. It’s a big part of our game. We know what’s expected of us. We take a lot of pride in our forward play.’
On Pollard, Rob says: ‘I played with Handre at Under-20s. He played 12, I played 10. I was with him in a Bok camp and I’ve played against him plenty. He’s also a physical player, likes to take the ball quite flat and be a running option.’
The brothers’ dad, Robert, who played scrum-half for South Africa, and mum have even flown over for the game; one of the biggest in Sale’s recent history. The club are hoping to move one step closer towards their first Premiership crown since 2006, when the Du Preez boys were still at school, and the significance of the occasion has not been lost on them.
‘Sale’s not won the league for 16 or 17 years,’ says Jean-Luc. ‘When you’re in the play-offs, you’ve got a real shot at winning. There’s no hiding from that, we all want to win the Prem.
And in their new home, just down the road from Manchester City, they could go on to complete a famous sporting double.
‘Erling Haaland’s the same height as a rugby player! 50 goals… he’s a freak. He could do the long-range kicks. We need to see if he can catch and pass! Hopefully we can be back page in the local news and they could have the front cover! That would be very cool for the city. It’s been a long time so it would be very special.’