Silky Jack van Poortvliet offers Leicester different dimension

Jack van Poortvliet’s return to Leicester Tigers colours after an eight-month spell on the sidelines was timely if the English club hopes to upset Leinster in the Champions Cup clash at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night (8.0). The 22-year-old scrumhalf with the quicksilver, silk-smooth pass provides a different dimension to any team he graces.

He missed the pool match between the teams at Welford Road, his comeback a bench cameo against Gloucester a fortnight ago, before last weekend producing a try-scoring display in the away win at the Newcastle Falcons.

Leinster are well versed with his obvious quality, as the scrumhalf was one of the Tigers’ brighter players despite being part of a Leicester team that suffered a drubbing in Dublin in last year’s European quarter-final between the teams.

Van Poortvliet understood adversity from a young age, so when he picked up an ankle injury in England’s World Cup warm-up game against Wales, he had some of the hardwiring required to be resilient but not enough to override the emotional devastation. There were tears aplenty when it was confirmed that the ankle ligament damage would rule him out of the tournament in France.

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It drew him back to his mid-teens when he was very nearly cut from the Leicester Tigers pre-academy pathway, not big enough or good enough and essentially the fourth-choice scrumhalf in the group, having started out as an outhalf. There were a few tears then too. However, a growth spurt over the next 18 months allowed the scrawny kid to fill out his frame.

From Norfolk farming stock – his great grandfather moved to England from the Netherlands before first World War – the childhood hours spent in a cow field with old, recycled rugby posts erected by his father Jeff, a former Saracens player, began to bear fruition, but only slowly initially.

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There were still dips in his rugby journey, missing out on age-grade and Premiership finals. A stint with a sports psychologist helped him cope. He explained: “I’d be so angry and sulky if I played badly or didn’t get picked. It almost took the enjoyment out of it.

“I’ve learned to enjoy it more, but I haven’t lost that competitiveness. I’ve always had battles with myself. I used to get really nervous. I’ve worked hard to manage that.” He forced his way into England underage sides and in 2021 was the heartbeat and captain of the English U20s Grand Slam-winning side, a tournament played in the summer in Cardiff.

The presence of England and Lions scrumhalf Ben Youngs as a mentor at Leicester played a huge part in his development, the two farming families live either side of the town of Aylsham, near Norwich in East Anglia.

Van Poortvliet made a try-scoring debut for England against Australia in the summer of 2022, grabbed a second against Argentina later that year and played in last year’s Six Nations championship. Selected for the World Cup squad, the angle ligament damage put the kibosh on that ambition.

Two subsequent hamstring injuries delayed his return to action, the second of which, when told that he’d be out for an additional eight weeks, it was a low point in morale terms. He admitted: “That was the lowest I’d been in the rehab, getting to a week before your comeback only to be told you will be out for another eight weeks was pretty demoralising.

“While the World Cup was going on, and my second hamstring injury, were without a doubt the two toughest moments of my career,” he said before he added that the setbacks made him more resilient. “It has just helped me become a lot more grateful to be back and a lot hungrier, now that I’m working even harder to get back to performing well.”

What Van Poortvliet will bring to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday is an all-round game. He is a threat on the fringes, especially with his pace, possesses good vision and a well calibrated kicking game. He sets the tempo for his team but therein lies an interesting kink in the Tigers’ playing style, when he is paired with World Cup winning outhalf Handre Pollard.

The Springbok is a more thoughtful, calculating 10 whose kicking game, both from the tee and out of hand is outstanding, but he has yet to fire in the same way that he did at Test level.

There is a likelihood that lock George Martin, so impressive in England’s recent Six Nations win against Ireland at Twickenham, will miss the Leinster match.

All the more reason why the Tigers will need their big-game players to stand up and Van Poortvliet is definitely one.

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