Willemse’s injury leaves WP shorthanded
ALTHOUGH Jean de Villiers managed to get through Saturday’s friendly against the Pumas unscathed, Western Province suddenly have a bit of a crisis at hooker.
Hooker Michael Willemse, who captained the WP Vodacom Cup side, injured his medial ligaments in his ankle in the friendly at the Drakenstein Correctional Centre. He is expected to be out for at least a month.
Province are already without the services of their firstchoice No 2 Scarra Ntubeni, who is currently with the Springboks, while Neil Rautenbach has moved to Bloemfontein to play for the Cheetahs.
That may only leave Bongi Mbonambi and Chad Solomon, who was still playing Varsity Cup with the Ikey Tigers earlier this year, for the Currie Cup, because there is a good chance that Ntubeni will be going to the World Cup with the Boks.
Solomon was good in the tight-loose in the 19-6 defeat to the Pumas on Saturday, but his lineout throwing was pretty average, probably because he didn’t spend a lot of time with WP in the week leading up to the match.
Mbonambi is set to start in the No 2 jersey in Saturday’s friendly against the Kings in Port Elizabeth. And his throwing will certainly be under the microscope following the Stormers’ lineout woes in the Super Rugby playoff against the Brumbies at Newlands.
“We lost Mikey in the first 10 minutes of the match, and we just didn’t have enough time to practice lineouts with Chad,” WP coach John Dobson told the Cape Times after the match. “Without our two international locks and hooker, we were always going to struggle against a full-strength Pumas side. Obviously Mikey’s ankle injury wasn’t part of the plan. Bongi is the only fit hooker at the moment.”
The second-string WP side fought back well in the second half after trailing 19-3 at half- time. The young WP side were outgunned in the first half, but stepped up their effort in the physical exchanges in the second half.
“At one stage we had five Under-21s on the field, and to win the second half 3-0, that is a great effort,” Dobson said.
“We got some flash points, the height of the loose trio and the depth at hooker is a problem. But our ball was a lot faster at the breakdown. There were also some good individual performances, like EW Viljoen (fullback), Kobus (van Wyk) and Huw Jones. Josh Katzen also did well in his first game in just over a year.”
Dobson also confirmed that De Villiers will again start in the friendly against the Kings this Saturday. The Springbok captain played 61 minutes against the Pumas in the No 12 jersey for WP. He did complain about a little stiffness in the left calf after the match, but his reconstructed knee is fine.