Whiteley lauds play-anywhere Van Rensburg

Rudolph Jacobs

Lions star Rohan Janse van Rensburg is such an extraordinary talent that he probably wouldn’t look out of place at loose forward.

This is the opinion of Lions captain Warren Whiteley after Janse van Rensburg’s late try secured a struggling 28-25 win over the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein last weekend.

Janse van Rensburg (right) produced his magic out of the unac- customed position of rightwing after the Lions decided at the 11th hour to move Lionel Mapoe into outside centre after he was initially picked at wing.

The situation was complicated further when centre Howard Mnisi suffered a season-ending knee injury resulting in Harold Vorster coming on to replace him combining with Mapoe with Janse van Rensburg staying out on the wing.

“It was the plan to play Rohan on the wing from the start,” said Whiteley.

“He is a very versatile player and we were pretty confident about moving him around. He is really talented and he showed it again at the weekend.”

Whiteley said with regular rightwing Ruan Combrinck out with a shoulder injury until the end of next month, coach Johan Ackermann and backline mentor Swys de Bruin are experimenting all the time.

“We will try a couple of things and if it comes off it’s great. But Rohan is a quality player and you pretty much can play him anywhere – even on the flank – and he will still perform,” he said.

Whiteley was relieved with the win but said they know they didn’t perform well.

“We just need to execute better and that wasn’t good on the weekend. The Cheetahs managed to apply a lot of pressure on us.

“There’s lots to work on at setpiece time as we weren’t as consistent as we wanted to be, but to have pulled it through showed a lot of composure,” he said.