Embrose Papier

Embrose Cheldon Papier (born (1997-04-25)25 April 1997) is a South African rugby union player, currently playing with the Bulls in Super Rugby and the Blue Bulls in the domestic Currie Cup.^[1] His regular position is scrum-half.

Rugby career

2010–2015: Schoolboy rugby

Papier was born in Clanwilliam in the Western Cape. As early as primary school level, he earned provincial colours by representing the Boland Cavaliers at the 2010 Under-13 Craven Week tournament held in Graaff-Reinet.^[2]

He then moved to Pretoria, where he enrolled at Hoërskool Garsfontein. In 2013, he represented the Blue Bulls at the Under-16 Grant Khomo Week held in Vanderbijlpark,^[3] starting all three of their matches and scoring a try in their match against Eastern Province.^[4]

In 2014, despite still being in the Under-17 age bracket, he was included in the Blue Bulls squad for the Under-18 Craven Week, South Africa's premier rugby union tournament at high school level.^[5] He started all three matches at the tournament held in Middelburg, scoring a try in their 36–15 victory over KwaZulu-Natal.^[6] After the tournament, he was included in a South Africa Schools team that hosted the Under-18 International Series against their counterparts from France, Wales and England.^[7] Papier played off the bench in their 28–13 victory over France in their opening match,^[8] but was promoted to the starting line-up for their second match against Wales, scoring a try in their 40–15 victory.^[9] He was again used as a replacement for their final match against England, but could not prevent South Africa suffering a 22–30 defeat.^[10]

Papier had a similar season in 2015; he started all three of the Blue Bulls' matches at the Craven Week in Stellenbosch, scoring a try in their 40–12 victory over his home province Boland.^[11] He was once again included in the South Africa Schools squad,^[12] this time starting all three of their matches and also being named the vice-captain of the team. He scored a try in their 42–11 victory over Wales,^[13] and – after a 12–5 victory over France in their second match^[14] – scored another in their 23–16 win over England to avenge their 2014 defeat.^[15]

2016–present: Youth rugby

After high school, Papier joined the Blue Bulls' academy for the 2016 season. Despite not being included in an initial South Africa Under-20 training squad,^[16] or a reduced provisional squad named a week later,^[17] Papier was included in the final South Africa Under-20 squad for the 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship tournament to be held in Manchester in England.^[18] He started their opening match in Pool C of the tournament on the bench, appearing for the final eight minutes as South Africa came from behind to beat Japan 59–19.^[19] He did not feature in their second pool match, a 13–19 defeat to Argentina,^[20] but started their final match, scoring South Africa's first try in the match as they bounced back to secure a 40-31 bonus-point victory over France.^[21] The result meant South Africa secured a semi-final place as the best runner-up in the competition, but Papier suffered an ankle injury during a training session, which ended his involvement in the tournament.^[22] South Africa faced three-time champions England in their semi-final match, but the hosts proved too strong for them, knocking them out of the competition with a 39–17 victory,^[23] and they also lost the third-place play-off match against Argentina, as the South American side beat South Africa for the second time in the tournament, convincingly winning 49–19^[24] to condemn South Africa to fourth place in the competition.

Papier recovered from his injury towards the end of the 2016 Under-19 Provincial Championship, starting the Blue Bulls' final two matches of the regular season. He scored a try in the first of those, a 62–7 victory over Leopards U19,^[25] before he helped the Blue Bulls secure second place on the log^[26] with a 50–30 victory over Western Province U19.^[27] He also started their semi-final match against Golden Lions U19, but a 34–24 victory for the team from Johannesburg ended the Blue Bulls' participation in the competition.^[28]

In November 2016, Papier was named in the Bulls Super Rugby team's extended training squad during the team's preparations for the 2017 Super Rugby season.^[29]

References