Gloucester the perfect home for Boer's blue-collar grafting

There have been worse times to be a sporting South African: the boycott years were grim beyond measure, the late Hansie Cronje shamed the nation when he was exposed in all his grasping chicanery, and if you care to go back to the mid-1950s and beyond there is ample evidence that the vices currently associated with the republic's rugger types – most notably, their habit of reacting to painful defeat by inflicting as much gratuitous pain as possible in return – are far from new. But the last few days have rated unusually high on the humiliation scale, as Jake Boer of Cape Town readily acknowledges.

"As of last Saturday, I consider myself an Englishman," he announces, his ironic smile tinged with sadness. "I know Corne Krige and I know Robbie Fleck [two of the more celebrated South Africans who found themselves on the sticky end of 50 points at Twickenham seven days ago]. I played provincial schools stuff with them, and I know how they'll be feeling right now. They'll be hurting real bad, they'll be embarrassed and they'll be wondering where they go from here. These are proud players who cannot hide the fact that they have been involved in a desperate day for Springbok rugby. And if, like me, you spent your boyhood dreaming of being a Bok, then it gives you no pleasure to think of what they're going through."

All things considered, then, it is just as well that Jake Boer of Cape Town can also claim to be Jake Boer of Gloucester, and that the good folk of Gloucester have taken to him with more passion, and in far greater numbers, than the people of Cape Town ever did. Dean Ryan, who has been coaching at Kingsholm since the end of last season, never praises a player until he has exhausted every conceivable alternative, yet even he is driven to say of Boer: "Jake? Absolutely terrific, a flanker and a half. We have a lot of people playing a lot of good rugby at the moment, but I know that were it not for Jake, half of them wouldn't be performing nearly as well."

Dick Best said the much the same thing when he coached Boer at London Irish between 1998 and 2001, and Best was not renowned for distributing verbal bouquets either. In short, Boer has made more impact on English Premiership rugby than any South African currently earning his corn here, with the possible exception of Brendan Venter, with whom he played at Irish and against whom he plays at Kingsholm this afternoon. Yet unlike Marius Hurter or Naka Drotske or Pieter Rossouw or Werner Swanepoel or Charl Marais, he was never capped by his country. Not to put too fine a point on it, he never went close.

Boer was more than handy at schools level, but medical problems cost him a year of crucial rugby development and when he eventually returned to the field, he found his peers had moved on a distance. He played a good standard with the famous Villagers club and made the Western Province second-string, but that was about his lot. When he was offered an opportunity to try his luck with Bob Dwyer's Leicester, he did not agonise for long before taking the leap.

"I did a lot of learning at Welford Road," he recalls, "and they saw enough to offer me a three-year deal. But I was finding it tough to get a run in the first team – I sat on the bench a few times, but spent most of my time in the twos – and when I looked around me and saw the quality if the back-rowers fighting for a place, I knew there would be some big frustrations. I had travelled to England to play, not sit around. When London Irish came in for me, I was ready to go."

And he has been going some ever since. Along with Venter and Steve Bachop, he was at the heart of London Irish's first Premiership flowering – seven victories on the bounce, each of them as dynamic as they were startling, between December 1998 and February '99. Almost four years on, he is wielding a similar influence at Gloucester, who are top of the domestic pile and set fair for a place in the inaugural Grand Final at Twickenham on 31 May.

There are several strings to the Cherry and White bow – Ludovic Mercier's kicking, the pace and adventure of James Simpson-Daniel and Marcel Garvey on the wings, the intimidating power and ruthlessness of a bully-boy tight five – but Boer and his fellow loosies, Junior Paramore and James Forrester, are very much the talk of this rugby-obsessed town.

By and large, it is Paramore and Forrester who catch the eye – Forrester in particular, with his loose-limbed, length-of-the-field rampages and breathtaking turns of speed. But Boer is the man for the connoisseurs, who appreciate his selfless devotion to the cause, his boundless enthusiasm for the grotty, unglamourous, blue-collar tasks that keep his team on the front foot. When a more traditional flanker-scavenger like Andy Hazell is in the Gloucester back row, Boer can play with greater freedom and revels in it. But Forrester, the young hot-shot, is the man in possession, and the South African has adapted his game accordingly.

"James is a loose player with plenty of flair who is great on the ball," he says. "I'm probably a tighter player by instinct, and when he is in the side, I play even tighter than usual. I don't have a problem with that at all: tell me how you want the game played, and you've got it. Modern back-row rugby is about balance and flexibility and collective effort. It's no good having one player who does A and another who does B. These days, you need three guys capable of doing both A and B, and, preferably, C and D and E."

Do Gloucester command that broad range as a side – the range exhibited by Leicester during their four-year domination of domestic rugby – or are they the Springboks of the Premiership: big and tough and horrible, but too easily lured into time-warp tactics the moment the other lot ask an awkward question or two? "I'm not sure either side are as inflexible as you make out," he replies.

"There are certain similarities between Gloucester rugby and South African rugby – the physicality, the passionate support, the feeling of uniqueness, of history. But the Boks played some exhilarating back-line stuff during the last Tri-Nations, and Gloucester score tries from all over the field. Things are not as obvious as some people make out."

This much is obvious, however. Over the next month and a half Gloucester will discover a good deal about themselves and their title ambitions, not just in England but in Europe too. Today's fixture against a London Irish side coming off the back of a 20-point victory over Leicester is followed by home-and-away Heineken Cup matches with Perpignan, who may well be the Gloucester of France (frightening home record, menacing pack, scary crowd). They then play Premiership matches against Northampton and Wasps, opponents who know what it is to subdue the Kingsholm spirit.

"Big games, all of them," says Boer. "And that's why I've been here for the last five years. I love England because, as a rugby player, it's one of the places to be. If I'd waited around in South Africa for a while longer, who knows? Maybe I'd have fulfilled myself. But I sacrificed that possibility to come here, and I'm glad I did. It was a good move."

Judging by the events of last weekend, the move was better than good. It was brilliant.