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Cape Town - While he does not expect a call anytime soon from Springbok coach Allister Coetzee, lock Andries Bekker admits he harbours ambitions of representing his country again.
The 32-year-old former Stormers second rower played the last of his 29 Tests for the Springboks against the All Blacks in October 2012, and made himself unavailable for national selection when he left the Stormers for Japan’s Kobelco Steelers in 2013.
However, in an interview on the Vodacom Rugby website, Bekker did not rule out the possibility of playing Test rugby again.
“Yes, that’s still in the back of my mind,” Bekker said when probed on the matter.
Bekker noted though that there are currently good locks in the national set-up and he doesn’t expect the Bok coach to call on his services.
“It’s a tough one because I don’t think he (Coetzee) will go for the older guys now because he’s got Eben (Etzebeth), Lood (de Jager), Pieter-Steph (du Toit) and Franco (Mostert). All four of them are very young.
“So it’s tough to bring an older dog in, I don’t think it’s going to work, pushing forward to the World Cup… but if the question is there if I will play for the Boks, then definitely yes.”
Before he left for Japan, the 2.08m Bekker played 104 Super Rugby games for the Stormers between 2005 and 2013.
