Kruger gobsmacked at the class of the masterclass

ONE of the questions Xerox Golden Lions coach Herkie Kruger was asked after his side’s 47-29 demolition of the Vodacom Blue Bulls in their SuperSport Rugby Challenge game was whether he’d like to borrow the Super Rugby players that packed his side at the Bill Jardine Stadium.

“I would love to!” was his predictable answer. “I enjoyed it and I learned quite a bit. It’s great to have guys like Warren [Whiteley] and Malcolm [Marx] and all those senior guys actually take charge, it was good.

“You can see their seniority and their professionalism in how they go about things, and the younger guys learned quite a bit. And they’re easy to coach. We’ve got our quarterfinal against the Sharks in East London, now we just have to see which Super Rugby guys we’re going to get.”

The good news is Kruger could well hold on to Lions Super Rugby captain Whiteley a little longer, thanks to his having just come back from a long-term knee injury while Marx looks destined to go straight back into the reckoning, having only been out for six weeks with a hamstring injury.

“Re-injuring my knee again was a big setback so we’ve had to be a bit more conservative the second time around,” explained Whiteley after the game. “The plan was always to get a game or two under my belt before Super Rugby starts.

“Next week Super Rugby starts again and hopefully I can keep on building on today and keep contributing.”

Quite where he’ll keep contributing is a moot point, but if the Lions are being cautious then he would have to play for the Rugby Challenge side one more time.

Whiteley, who played 60 minutes to Marx’s 40 on Sunday, explained what the complications were to him returning to the field: “I’d been out for six weeks and the boys were going on tour on the Wednesday so the Tuesday before we pushed it a bit and I just wasn’t ready.

“I probably had another two weeks to go and to go on tour I needed to finish that Tuesday session. Towards the end I stepped and basically hurt it again and we had to start from scratch. I hurt the same ligament and it was back to zero again. It was tough, a bitter pill to swallow but it’s part of the game.”

Whiteley said being out there again had done little for his nerves: “It was great, I must say I was very nervous coming into the game. I still feel a bit tentative but I drew a lot of confidence from getting 60 minutes under my belt. I’m just grateful to be back and to contribute to the team, that’s what I missed the most.”

Last year’s Springbok captain said he had been excited by the developments under new coach Johan “Rassie” Erasmus: “They’ll be disappointed from what happened this weekend but it’s been fantastic and overall it’s been much improved with a lot of guys putting their hands up and so much talent around.

“With a lot of guys also coming back from injury the competition now will be amazing within the group, everyone wants to be a part of that.” —