Ruled out: Jean de Villiers
Western Province coach Allister Coetzee has made four changes to his side for Saturday's Currie Cup semi-final with the Golden Lions in Johannesburg.
The big news is that captain and inside centre Jean de Villiers has been sidelined for the remainder of the Currie Cup with a grade one hamstring strain, but he is not considered doubtful for the Springboks' year-end tour of Ireland, Scotland and England next month.
His place in the run-on side to face the Lions will be taken by Marcel Brache.
The WP and Bok skipper was sent for a scan on Wednesday and after consultation with the WP team doctor, Arthur Williams, and further advice from a specialist, De Villiers faces a three-week lay-off.
The other changes sees Gio Aplon taking over at full-back from Joe Pietersen while lock De Kock Steenkamp and hooker Scarra Ntubeni come in for injured Springbok duo Andries Bekker (toe), Tiaan Liebenberg (back) who were sidelined earlier this week.
Coetzee said he decided to leave De Villiers out as a precautionary measure after the Springbok skipper sustained the injury during a training session.
"Jean felt pain while accelerating and I don't want to risk him," he said.
While De Villiers' injury is a major blow for Province, Coetzee is confident that Brache will do well as his replacement.
"Marcel has come a long way with the team and grown a lot this season," the coach said.
"He is not a stranger to the set-up and has done well for us when he has started in previous games."
Deon Fourie, who takes over the captaincy, said although losing De Villiers was a setback he was confident of attaining success on Saturday.
"Jean offers stability, leadership and experience to any side he plays in but we still have other experienced Boks in our side which we can count on," he said.
"All the guys who are coming into the side for those experienced players have stood in for them before and most of them have experienced similar situations in the past."
Coetzee also confirmed that Liebenberg and Bekker will not return to action during 2012.
"Both Tiaan and Andries are out for the rest of the season," he revealed.
"Tiaan is out for eight weeks with a vertebrae injury while Andries has a toe injury.
"Both injuries were picked up against the Cheetahs."
When asked about facing a player like Elton Jantjies - whose excellent goal-kicking has helped the defending champions reach the semi-final - Coetzee said WP would not focus on any individuals.
"We work hard within our own system," he said.
"Our aim is to do well defensively and with ball in hand. If you focus on one quality player in a team you forget that there are other players amongst the opposition who are also good and that could be dangerous."
Western Province: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Marcel Brache, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Don Armand, 6 Deon Fourie (c), 5 De Kock Steenkamp, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Deon Carstens, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 19 Jebb Sinclair, 20 Louis Schreuder, 21 Damian de Allende, 22 Joe Pietersen.
Date: Saturday, October 20
Kick-off: 19:00 local (18:00 BST, 17:00 GMT)
Venue: Coca-Cola Park, Johannesburg
Referee: Marius Jonker
Assistant referees: Sindile Mayende, Stefan Breytenbach
Television match official: Johann Meuwesen
Assessor: Pierre Oelofse
By David Skippers
Comments
kappelange says...
My problems with Liebenberg is the line-out throws under pressure that he tends scoff up (prime example is the Rugby Championship, when the Springbok lineout suddenly became a weakness when he came on the field) and that he slows our attack down when he shows up in the backline with his slow, direct and upright running. Scarra tends to dip under the tackles or run past them with his pace.
Posted 20:26 18th October 2012
JayStarr says...
@ kappelange: I rate Liebenberg - he was one of the best hookers in Super Rugby this season. But Scarra is not a bad replacement at all. I agree completely about Duvenage though - our weakest link this season in my opinion... but I actually like Schreuder a tiny tad more than Groom. They both are great players and have contributed immensely to the revival of our attacking game, but I think Schreuder gets the ball away quicker from the back of the ruck - a bit like George Gregan - and for me that's the most important quality in a scrum-half. But I definitely think our two scrummies for Super Rugby should be Schreuder and Groom - they have completely out-shined Duvenage...
Hopefully Coetzee employs the same rotation policy with our (now plethora of) loosies for Super Rugby. The competition for the position really brought out the best in Schreuder and Groom, so hopefully the same works for Burger, Vermeulen, Kolisi, Koster, Elstadt, Carr, et al. It really worked for the Sharks when they rotated Daniel, Alberts, Coetzee and Kankowski - they all ended up being their best players.
I also agree about Brache. He brings an attacking edge that JdV has been lacking this season - and he is used to playing outside Groom/Schreuder and Catrakilis. He was one of Province's star players this season, so he deserves to play in the semi-final.
Posted 14:33 18th October 2012
rolf says...
well, Bekker out is never a blessing when it comes to line-outs.
Good Luck Vee-Pee!
Posted 12:06 18th October 2012
kappelange says...
Brache has been impressive this year, i agree with JayStarr, but i'll take it further and say that the Liebenberg and Duvenage injuries have been the biggest blessing of them all. Scarra has been fantastic this year with his pace and workrate and Groome has been instrumental in the rejuvenation of our attacking game.
Posted 08:50 18th October 2012
JayStarr says...
This might be a blessing in disguise...
Posted 01:48 18th October 2012
Herbman says...
Thanks goodness!! He needs the rest, he must have played every minute of rugby this year.
Posted 14:17 17th October 2012