DHL Western Province coach Allister Coetsee today named a strong squad for his teams Currie Cup opener against The Bulls at Newlands.
Up front he has named a battle hardened pack with Gerbrand Grobler the only player without Super Rugby experience even though he has been on the Stormers bench.
Deon Fourie captains the side from the flank with Scarra Ntubeni starting the season as he finished it last year in the number 2 jersey, Rhynhardt Elstadt will be the man they look to get them over the advantage line, Elstadt is almost forgotten as being the hard man before the emergence of one Eben Etzebeth.
The backs contain a number of exciting players, SA u20 start Cheslyn Kolbe makes his senior debut at left wing with Gerhard van den Heever and Gio Aplon adding the necessary experience in the back three.
Louis Schreuder and Gary van Aswegen make up the halfback pairing, the former will be vice-captain of the side while the latter will almost certainly be looking to repeat his heroics against of the last super rugby league game against the Bulls, performance that had the entire Newlands crowd on their feet for an extended standing ovation when he was subbed for Elton Jantjies.
Damian De Allende and Pat Howard will be looking to have a go from mid-field , Howard too is making his senior debut and will be trying hard to make his mark on the coach.
The DHL Western Province team to face the Bulls :
15. Gio Aplon
14. Gerhard van den Heever
13. Pat Howard
12. Damian de Allende
11. Cheslin Kolbe
10. Gary van Aswegen
9. Louis Schreuder (vice-captain)
8. Nizaam Carr
7. Rynhardt Elstadt
6. Deon Fourie (captain)
5. De Kock Steenkamp
4. Gerbrandt Grobler
3. Brok Harris
2. Scarra Ntubeni
1. Steven Kitshoff
Reserves:
16. Alistair Vermaak
17. Pat Cilliers
18. Michael Rhodes
19. Ruan Kitshoff
20. Nic Groom
21. Kurt Coleman
22. Berton Klaasen
Kick off is at 17:05 and the referee is Rasta Rasivhenge
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Hopefully kolbe gets a chance to have a few runs-should be sunny this Saturday
that’s a good line-up….
And so the defence begins. Kinda looking forward to this.
Is it really Pat Howard’s debut? I’m sure he has got a few caps on the wing for Province.
Elstadt shoould be in the Bok squad instead of Flip van der Merwe!!
He was the next Danie Rossouw and was unlucky not to make the Bok team in 2011 already.
He, Etzebeth and PSDT are the Bakkies, Danie and Victor model 2.0!
Really shocking that he doesn’t even get invited to the Bok camps.
@James Munnik (Comment 4) : I know some youngster made his debut about 2 years ago and then broke his leg in that game, I’m not sure if it was Howard
@ChrisS (Comment 5) : He had a bad 2 years injury wise and its due to his injury that Eben got a run and set the world alight. Etzebeth was supposed to be an understudy to Elstadt, playing a few minutes here and there
Ok its definitely Howards debut
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 7) : That’s my point exactly. He’s an amazing player and it’s not like he’s just lost his talent all of a sudden or that Etzebeth improved dramatically.
Both should be in the Bok team!!
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 6) : ah crap – who was that guy? Jeez, that break was ugly
@robdylan (Comment 10) : Heinrich Steyl
@Clayton(PJLD) (Comment 8) : According to rugby365’s article Pat Howard played a few games off the bench last year – hope he does well – don’t know how the recruiting geniuses at Kings Park let him slip through the net 🙁
Pat Howard did make a few appearances off the bench for WP last year, I know that because I’m a fan of the player, I was quite chuffed when he made his debut last year.
So the Bulls will field their first English-speaking captain in 75 years… I find that hard to believe. Naas speaks delicious Brits