News reports out late yesterday have confirmed that Western Province prop Wicus Blaauw has been ruled out for the remainder of the Currie Cup season.
The 25-year old loose head suffered a ligament tear in his left wrist, which will require corrective surgery later this week. With Blaauw, the first-choice loose head prop once again out, Province will no doubt turn to 19-year-old Steven Kitshoff to wear the number 1 jersey for the rest of the season.
Blaauw joins a growing Province injury list that now includes the likes of another season-long casualty in Duanne Vermeulen, along with Tim Whitehead, Pieter Louw and Demetri Catrakilis , who still have some weeks to go before returning to fitness.
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Sorry… 😐 I think i missed this somehow 😕 Is Duane out for the entire season?
A loss, but not a ‘BIG’ one. Blaauw is like a headless chicken sometimes. Think Kitshoff, if they take care of him, could be something special.
Wish Blaauw would’ve turned out for Namibia at this WC. He’s never going to be a Springbok.
@SharksRTB (Comment 1) : yup
According to Tank Blaauw uis not going to be offered a contract next year.
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 4) :
Saw that! Wish we could sign a decent prop from one of the NH nations. 🙄
@wpw (Comment 5) :
Who keep signing up our props? You don’t think that maybe indicates a dearth of quality props up North, leave alone any who would exchange the Pound or Euro for the Rand? 🙄
Dear Western Province
Do yourselves a favour… go to Club Champs next week and ahve a look at Sabz Nhlapo and Julian Redelinghuys, both of whom will be playing for Rovers.
Trust me on this.
Sincerely
Generous Sharks supporter, Kent
@robdylan (Comment 7) :
But are they from the NH?
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 4) :
Don’t believe it. If it were true they’d be playing JD Moller ahead of him. Not to mention they’ve said this year that with conditioning they see him as a great loosehead in the future 🙄 They still see him as the best 1 in WP, with Kitshoff the ‘youngster’ knawing at his heels.
@wpw (Comment 5) :
Why need a prop from the NH? They already have half our props over there anyway. Rather get one of those back if we had to.
Props currently playing rugby for top European clubs.
England: Deon Carstens (Saracens), Petrus du Plessis (Saracens), Jared Saunders (Saracens), Faan Rautenbach (London Irish), Shaun Ruwers (London Wasps), Ashley Wells (Newcastle), Brian Mujati (Northampton)
France: Rayno Gerber (Stade Français), Gert Muller (Agen), Albertus Buckle (Biarritz), Eduard Coetzee (Biarritz), Michael Coetzee (Castres), Daniel Kotze (Clermont), Danie Thiart (Perpignan), Daan Human (Toulouse), Gurthro Steenkamp (Toulouse)
Ireland: Dylan Rogers (Connacht), Heinke van der Merwe (Leinster), BJ Botha (Munster), Wian du Preez (Munster)
Would also like to know what the story is with JC Kritzinger?
Looked a promising tighthead. Malherbe also a HUGE guy. Hopefully they have him on a good conditioning programme because we need a tighthead in SA who is a good scrummager and also good ball-carrier with a decent workrate on defense. Our best bet at the moment is still Jannie du Plessis, or WP Nel. Coenie Oosthuizen an outsider.
@robdylan (Comment 7) : Rassie doesn’t look at club.Rassie don’t play that.
@hendrikp (Comment 11) : JC was a promising TH and then they decided….wait for it….to turn him into a Loosehead ❗ How does a union who struggles for prop depth turn a a promising 3 into a 1.
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 13) :
Weird yeah. Maybe something to do with conditioning or technique. Who knows!!
I wouldn’t mind if they ditched Blaauw at all. Personally don’t think he’s much of a rugby player.
@hendrikp (Comment 14) : I think Blaauw has abit of an attitude problem, he has shown glimpses of brilliance but largely a non force.
Also when having a look at the stormers scrummaging problems during the superrugby season it had a lot to do with Blaauws body in the scrums, he was almost never square.
@hendrikp (Comment 10) :
I would prefer someone who actually knows how to scrum as opposed to the crap we have in SA.
Remember how well Frederico Mendez did as player and mentor for WP a few years ago??
We should have kept him as scrum coach!
@wpw (Comment 16) : The tried to keep him he just wanted to get away.I don’t think he was to keen to hang around Mallet.
@wpw (Comment 16) : That said I don’t mind us developing our own players which is what is happening at WP.
Wonder what happened to Buhle Mxunyelwa, Allister couldn’t praise him highly enough at one point and the only concern was coniditioning, he now seems MIA.
@wpw (Comment 16) :
He was alright. I wouldn’t say he was anything better then we can find in SA. Especially with this being Kitshoff’s first year out of school, I think we are in a great position.
Heinke van der Merwe would have been an excellent player at any other province besides the Lions. They ruined him.
But we definitely need a dominant tighthead. So have got high hopes for Malherbe 😀
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 18) :
Never heard of the guy, but a google search says he plays for Maties. May have been a case of Allister ‘overhyping’ the guy because he doesn’t look like he’s got a great ‘CV’.
@hendrikp (Comment 19) : What was up with moving Heinke to TH?
@hendrikp (Comment 20) : He had a cameo or 2 for the Stormers.Remember seeing him on the field.
A big dude.
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 21) :
Definitely didn’t play for the Stormers but it says he was part of the WP Currie Cup team. May have played CC rugby for WP (he did for the Bulldogs also).
Not sure what they were thinking with moving Heinke to TH. I don’t think that was what made him move though. Probably has more to do with the culture at the Lions during that time. You’ve also got to get sick of losing sometime. Just wish WP would’ve picked him up because he’s gone and proved his worth at Leinster now. Excellent loosehead.
@hendrikp (Comment 22) : You are right, it was the WP squad, probably agains teb Griquas because I remember it was in a different kit.
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 23) :
I see I see! Farking Bulls signed that young tighthead from Grey College – Neethling Fouche. Sharks are going to suffer as a result of the Bulls signing all the Grey College players now, hehe 🙄 😕
@hendrikp (Comment 24) : 🙂 😈 😆