With Willem Alberts’s hamstring injury preventing him from boarding the plane to Argentina with the rest of his springbok teammates last night, it’s Golden Lions captain Warren Whiteley who will tour in his place.
The skillful number 8, who played his junior rugby in Sharks colours after matriculating at Glenwood, has been a stand out for the Johannesburg side this year and has been particularly instrumental in their two big Currie Cup wins to date.
With Juan Smith and Oupa Mohoje already providing sufficient cover at blindside flank, coach Heyneke Meyer has opted to include Whiteley in order to play a back up role to number Duane Vermeulen instead, as reward for the former’s great form across all competitions this year.
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Well deserved
Well deserved. Whitely is a great player and a leader as well which HM always looks for.
With Alberts out, the Boks are short 1 specialist 8 as cover for Vermuelen.
Very well deserved. Good to see a player being picked for skills and tactical nous – not just the ability to run at people.
Good to see him being recognised but I cant see him getting any game time. And why Mahoje is there im not sure…yes fine expose the guy but if he isnt gonna play then rather let him help the Cheetahs…same with Reinach. They will all go on tour now so that opportunity is now lost
REJOICE !!!!
I hope that they give Duane a break and use Warren. He’s been brilliant and we need to see what our options are ahead of the World Cup.
Kanko seems to have dropped out of the running.
Huge congrats to Whiteley! Thoroughly deserved.
@SheldonK (Comment 4) :
Mahoje is there as 7 backup.
He has overtaken Kolisi in that role as HM sees Kolisi is more of a 6 but Marcel Coetzee has outplayed him in that role this year.
Juan Smith was only brought in when Matfield was unavailable as a 5/7 backup.
@ChrisS (Comment 6) :
Kanko is in Japan and has effectively dropped himself out of that role.
@John Galt (Comment 8) : Yeh look i figured he is backup 7…but then why not play him on the weekend? If u not gonna trust the guy against Arg then you never will trust him. Thats why i dont mind HM playing Pollard against Arg…yes he didnt have the best game but if u arent gonna trust a guy vs Arg then why have him there. Will be interesting to see who he plays in Arg…cos its def not gonna be easy
Is Lambie touring or is he staying with the Sharks?
@David12246 (Comment 11) : touring, AFAIK
Congrats Mr. Whiteley well deserved!!!!! Just hope he gets a chance to show what he can do and not just carry bags like Lambie.
@robdylan (Comment 12) : Lambie – professional bag carrier for the Bok team!!!!!!!
@John Galt (Comment 9) : He hasn’t been impressive this year!
@robdylan (Comment 12) : AFAIK??
@JD (Comment 14) : He must get some game time. He and Pollard are our first choice 10’s for next year!
@ChrisS (Comment 16) : that’s according to us, unfortunately HM does not agree.
@ChrisS (Comment 15) : as far as I know
@robdylan (Comment 18) : ok not really what I was thinking……
Lambie will replace Serfontein on the bench to cover 15.