Currie Cup
Boks boost for Province
2011-10-13 09:28
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Cape Town - Jean de Villiers will captain a
Springbok-filled Western Province line-up in the team's Currie Cup rugby
match against the Pumas at Newlands on Saturday.
The midfielder is one of six returning Boks snapped up for the 22-man match-day squad by Province head coach Allister Coetzee.
Schalk Burger and Jaque Fourie will start on the substitutes bench.
"Juan
(De Jongh) only played one match at the World Cup in New Zealand and
that's why I decided to rest Jaque," said Coetzee on Thursday.
"I feel Jaque will do well off the bench, and besides not many of the youngsters in the team have played with him in the past.
"I'm
using Burger as an impact player and when he does come on, I have an
option with flanker Pieter Louw who can play at six, seven or eight as
required.
"Gio (Aplon) will start at fullback and he's there because of the way we plan to play.
"The
great thing about the Boks is that none of them are carrying niggles,
and all of them are running flat out. None of them have strapping and
none of them needed ice treatment at Wednesday's training.
"In
the absence of the Boks I must say that the young players learnt many
lessons and they were outstanding when the team were hit hard by
repeated injury setbacks. They all showed great fighting spirit and
that's not something one can coach.
"I'm glad that we can field
this team now because it gives all of them a chance to know each other
ahead of the play-off matches. I like the situation in the backline
where Demetri (Catrakalis) will have four Boks alongside him, and I'm
sure his game will benefit a great deal."
Province will be without their kingpin, scrumhalf Dewalt Duvenage, who underwent an operation on his toe on Tuesday.
"Dewaldt tore a muscle in his toe and it needed an operation," said Coetzee.
"Even
with the Boks back, his absence is a blow to our side because for the
past few weeks he's been the soul of the team. He played an incredible
leadership role in an inexperienced side and was the only senior guy
along with Conrad Jantjes in the backline. He proved to be an
outstanding goalkicker when he was called upon, so he's worth a great
deal to this team."
Lock De Kock Steenkamp is down with a stomach complaint and will sit out this week's action.
He
will be in the selection mix week next when a likely semifinal against
the Lions in Johannesburg is looming. In his absence, Adriaan Fondse
will make the calls at line-out time.
TeamsWestern Province: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 JJ Engelbrecht, 13 Juan De Jongh, 12 Jean De Villiers (captain), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Nick Koster, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Pieter Louw, 5 Adriaan Fondse, 4 Hilton Lobberts, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 JC Kritzinger
Substitutes: 16 Tiaan Liebenberg, 17 Frans Malherbe, 18 Tertius Daniller, 19 Schalk Burger, 20 Louis Schreuder, 21 Jaque Fourie, 22 Conrad Jantjes
Pumas:
TBA