Stephen Nell

Cape Town – Jean de Villiers hopes to help Western Province break their trophy drought at senior level this year.

“There is a bit of an empty feeling inside with us not having won anything yet,” the Springbok inside centre told Sport24 on Wednesday after Western Province announced him in their side for Saturday’s Currie Cup match against the Leopards at Newlands.

“The day you don’t have that desire to win trophies anymore, it will be time to retire. I still have that burning desire and the team is looking good. Yes, WP have three bad weeks behind them, but remain in a strong position.”

The inclusion of De Villiers and Juan de Jongh as centres, Lionel Cronjé at flyhalf and Gio Aplon on the wing, should sharpen WP on the attack.

“I met Lionel for the first time this week. He’s a pleasant guy and is looking forward to starting. Every one of us has a point to prove,” said De Villiers.

The 29-year-old midfield star has already achieved his goal of re-establishing himself in the Springbok No 12 jersey.

“It was important to me and I had to fight hard to get myself back in that position. I believe things went quite well and I improved in every game. I now have to keep that up and play my way into the Springbok squad for the end-of-season tour.”

De Villiers last represented WP in 2008 and the Stormers in 2009. He joined up with Irish side Munster after last year’s Tri-Nations.

“One of the reasons I decided to go to Ireland was to play less rugby. I have not played much in this calendar year. It’s good to be back and hopefully I can keep on playing,” he said.

Province announced Conrad Hoffmann at fullback, but he still has to pass a fitness test on Friday.

Team lineups:

Western Province:
15 Conrad Hoffmann, 14 Conrad Jantjes, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Gio Aplon, 10 Lionel Cronje, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Nick Koster, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Anton van Zyl (captain), 4 Adriaan Fondse, 3 JC Kritzinger, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 JD Moller

Replacements: 16 Callie Visagie, 17 Wicus Blaauw, 18 Brok Harris, 19 De Kock Steenkamp, 20 Yaya Hartzenburg, 21 Willem de Waal, 22 Paul Bosch

Leopards:
15. Hendrik Daniel Petrus Dames, 14. Deon Scholtz, 13. Jovan Bowles, 12. Cecil Dumond, 11. Dumisani Matyeshana, 10. Clayton Durand, 9. Theo Clyde van Wyk, 8. Riaan Swanepoel, 7. RW Kember, 6. Wilhelm Koch (captain), 5. Bradley Peter Mockford, 4. Anthonie Johannes Gronum, 3. Johan Coetzee, 2. Pellow van der Westhuizen, 1. Bennie Geldenhuys Uys

Replacements: 16. Gavin Williamson, 17. Os Van der Walt, 18. Edrich Linde, 19. Christo van Niekerk, 20. Theuns Kotze, 21. Neill Jacobs, 22. Kempie Rautenbach