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Cape Town - Dillyn Leyds is relishing the opportunity to pull on the No. 15 jersey for Western Province against the Pumas at Newlands on Saturday.
Leyds, who has been favoured as a wing so far this Currie Cup season, is almost certain to replace the injured Cheslin Kolbe at fullback.
Kolbe suffered a bruised ankle in WP's 29-14 over the Blue Bulls last weekend, and Leyds moved to fullback for the final 20 minutes of that match.
Now, Leyds will be entrusted with that responsibility from the beginning against the Pumas.
"I’m very excited to playing fullback again. It’s not an unfamiliar position to me so just happy to get a chance there again. I’m excited to see what myself and the rest of the backs can do now. We’ve been getting a bit of rhythm so it’ll be good to see where I can slot in on attack," Leyds said this week.
"I only played 20-odd minutes on Saturday at fullback and I was stuffed … I think I’m going to have to go to bed a lot earlier than I have been the past couple of weeks to get some extra hours in."
Jokes aside, Leyds was looking forward to the position giving him a new dimension to his attacking game.
"At fullback there is a lot more room to attack with and a bit more time to make decisions," he said.
"You have to help your 10s and your 9s a lot more ... and the kicking game is important.
"For me it’s going to be a lot of different. Knowing when to run, when to kick … so I’ve just got to adapt to that now."
Kick off on Saturday is at 15:00.
