Fri 17 Feb 2012 | 05:26
Friday Funnies - Joe Van Niekerk scores with a vertical leap try

7
Comments

Today's funny clip comes from the Top 14, and was actually requested by one of the guys on the field when it happened. It features Joe Van Niekerk finishing off a lovely Toulon try, but losing serious man points on the dive.

Toulon thumped Bordeaux 44-7 after a slow start to the game. Captain Van Niekerk started things off when he got on the end of a great little move off the back of the scrum that went something like 8, 9, 15, 14, back to 8, then inside to 7. That's positions, not numbers on their backs as it looks like Steffon Armitage was scrumming at number eight at the time. 

Luke Rooney also scored, as did Sebastien Tillous-Borde and Welshman Eifion Lewis Roberts, who scored twice after coming on as a second half substitute.

The request for this video, as mentioned earlier, actually came in from number 6 on the day, Joe El-Abd. He found the dive so hilarious that he wants it to be shared with rugby fans around the word, so we've obliged.

"My brother that's what ya call vertical jump with 10cm height next time I will try and get a few more cm's in distance!!!" Van Niekerk tweeted back.

The try itself was quite good, so it's worth showing anyway and hopefully by exposing Van Niekerk's awkward looking effort he'll put some time into perfecting it, perhaps with Matt Giteau by his side. Or, in future he can just dot it down and stroll back casually like the rest of the forwards. 

You can follow Joe Van Niekerk on twitter at @bigjoevn, and Joe El-Abd is @joeelabd

7 Comments

  • johnny03
    8:12 PM 21/02/2012

    would love to have seen Henry Tuilagi just waiting for him at the end there

  • fettsack
    4:10 PM 18/02/2012

    I hope he got well punished for that at the bar!
    A good dive should be horizontal and sliding on the ground, not like Ashton does, just throwing himself on the ground and probably hurting himself for nothing.
    Van Niekerk is a very good player though, still got it!

  • pretzel
    10:53 PM 17/02/2012

    ok no worries, its working fine now...

  • pretzel
    10:48 PM 17/02/2012

    Is the quality balls for anyone else or is it just me? honestly it was like watching a series of still shots... (yes thats what a video is well done).. but with every other one missing... skipping everywhere...

    As I say my internet might just be running slow right now, however I thought I'd ask...

  • haroldnm
    9:01 PM 17/02/2012

    He is a big guy and 31 years old give him a break at least he tried and thanks to him we had a good laugh hahahaha

  • guy
    8:43 PM 17/02/2012

    I can see him thinking:

    'Let's do something spectacular...let's do a splash! Houston we have lift-off. Wait a minute: I am almost 32 and 108 kilograms, I'll definitely break something...abord, abord, mayday!!!!!!!'

    He made a fool of himself here. Great player though and a well worked try.

  • gallego
    8:25 PM 17/02/2012

    An "ashtonian" dive. I like that...