Free-scoring Springboks prop Thomas du Toit ‘loving life’ at Bath and backs trio for England call-up

James While
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Bath tighthead prop Thomas du Toit.

Bath tighthead prop Thomas du Toit.

Following Bath’s win over Racing 92, Planet Rugby’s James While spoke to Thomas du Toit, who confesses to loving the work/life balance in England’s South West.

The Springboks prop joined Bath from the Sharks ahead of the 2023/24 season and has quickly put the disappointment of missing the Rugby World Cup behind him, scoring six tries in the first 12 games for the club, including one against the Paris outfit.

The 28-year-old played over 100 times for the Sharks, who he also skippered, during his time in Durban and was in the mix to make the Boks’ World Cup squad, but just missed the final cut despite his rare ability to play both loosehead and tighthead prop to an international standard.

A World Cup winner with South Africa in 2019, Du Toit has quickly become a cornerstone of the Bath pack and proved as much on Sunday when he came up against Bok teammates Siya Kolisi and Trevor Nyakane.

“Yeah look, I’m loving it here in Bath,” Du Toit admitted.

“We are living in Corsham which is just outside of Bath and what’s nice about it is we’re basically finding both sides of the social spectrum.

“We are in a smaller village where we know a lot of the people – we know the local coffee shop owner and we know the local florist; there’s a real community feel here. And then we get to Bath to experience the city life and see the beautiful scenery and architecture that this area and Bath have to offer. So honestly. in our opinion, we’ve got best of both worlds for now and both my partner and I are thoroughly enjoying it.”

High flyers

With Bath flying high in the Premiership, their front-row power is one of the features of their performances and with both Beno Obano and Will Stuart expected to be named in Steve Borthwick’s 35-man squad on Wednesday, Du Toit is delighted to be part of such a formidable unit.

“Look, I’m a prop and getting on the scoresheet so often feels a bit weird. I’ve never scored like this and for some reason it’s just happening. I much prefer scrum penalty over a try so I’ll leave it at that!” he quipped.

“But yes, I think the names that you mentioned, Beno and Will and also Tom Dunn, they’re definitely ready for Test match rugby. I think the way that they performed over the last months that I’ve been involved is they have been second to none in the Premiership and I don’t see how they would let any team down. I think their preparation is unbelievable and the way the discipline has come along is good also.

“I think any team can benefit from their skills and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for guys like like Dunny as an outside bet but I know with Will and Beno they can become regular selections for England. I think they really good enough and they’ve performed well enough and I really hope that they get a proper chance.”

He added: “The reality is there’s so little between the three of us that I believe that any of us can start one week and then swap around the next week and we’re in such a position now we are able to maintain our freshness through this rotation.”

Bath belief

Bath’s performance at the Recreation Ground on Sunday saw them come from a two-score deficit to take the match against some world class operators in the Racing 92 team.

Du Toit believes that his side’s resilience is getting more compelling every time they play together and that the performance against Racing was demonstration of that.

“Yeah, we pride ourselves on being tough to beat and I think that kind of mindset goes throughout the team now. And yes, there were definitely lapses in concentration from time to time when they (Racing) got through us and that’s down to a lot of good play from the opposition side.

“But whilst we try and have that mentality throughout the squad it’s obviously difficult because teams are throwing everything at us and looking at a team like Racing they have an unbelievable side of Test quality players, so the reality is we’re playing teams that are also very good and we can’t lose sight of that.

“In this match we identified certain periods in the game where we definitely wanted to up the tempo against them – the times in the game when we knew we could get some good reward with tries and points the board. We really stuck to that process, which was a good sign of a growing team. And yeah, it’s exciting to see that when we stick to things then it gives us a return on our thinking.

“We’re getting that confidence in our team that it will work and we will hopefully do it again and again.”

Making shapes

Du Toit is a deep thinker on scrummaging and admits that experience has taught him that the picture of legality that you paint to the referee is a key aspect of getting the rewards.

“It’s interesting – the referees obviously have a different interpretation from ref to ref. I think the reality of it is you have to look at the shape – if you have a better shape than the pack you’re up against that’s the first step to getting rewards,” he said.

“And then I think the second thing is dominance. If you see dominance, a team going forward with a good shape, then it’s a clearer picture than all the technical stuff and I reckon we did that very well against Racing.

“Obviously, we’d say that because we got those five penalties but it’s not an accident – we try to have a good shape and show a proper picture to the referee so that he can make a clear, informed choice. I can’t say if they were all correct but I think a decent amount of them were good calls based upon the shape we showed. And that’s a team thing that we all subscribe to.

“Look at Elliott Stooke as a pure example of somebody that works so hard. He’s a talented rugby player but is work ethic is right up there and when you have that, it overshadows everything else completely. I mean, as good as the rugby players here are, we all work unbelievably hard. Elliott has got the all the talent in the world but what setting him apart is the fact that he’s working unbelievably hard. And he’s raising the tempo every time that he gets onto the pitch from the bench. It’s such a positive and the reality is exactly what we need – a player offering us game us lifting energy in the last quarter. And that’s what guys like him are bringing us at this moment.

“I think that was very close to a Test match against Racing. We went right down to the wire and that showed that there was tempo in the rugby throughout the game. It was a proper 80 minute performance from both sides. And it was good to see Siya (Kolisi) and Trevor Nyakane, so I’m pretty happy with both the way things are happening on the pitch but also my time in Bath off the field too.”

READ MORE: Former Springboks head coach AGAINST South Africa joining Six Nations

Bath Thomas du Toit

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