Viljoen takes the reins for DHL WP u21s

Oct 15 • General News • 3800 Views • Comments Off on Viljoen takes the reins for DHL WP u21s

Centre EW Viljoen will captain the table-topping DHL Western Province Under-21s in Saturday’s Absa Provincial Under-21 semifinal meeting with the Xerox Golden Lions’ U21s at City Park in Cape Town (kick-off 14h00).

Viljoen, a senior member of the DHL WP Under-21 squad, takes over the matchday captaincy from Ryno Eksteen, who will miss the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury, the latter having initially inherited the captaincy from No.8 Rikus Bothma, who is still unavailable with a leg injury.

SA Under-20 ace Grant Hermanus will start at fullback in Eksteen’s absence, with Leolin Zas back on the left-wing after making his senior Absa Currie Cup debut against the EP Kings last weekend.

In all, head coach Robbie Fleck has made six changes to the line-up that defeated the Kings by 45-31, with Devon Nash lining up at No.8, David Ribbans returning at lock, Kyle Whyte coming in at tighthead prop and Chad Solomon resuming at hooker after sitting out last week.

Ribbans is back in the mix from a minor back niggle and will form an athletic second row combination with new team vice-captain JD Schickerling, who will play his third match in a row following his high-profile return from a serious neck injury.

“EW has been playing some great rugby,” Fleck told the www.wprugby.com website about his new captain. “He has matured nicely, showing great leadership (in particular) up in Johannesburg against the Lions two weeks ago and he deserves to take over the captaincy.

“That said, I think we have a good leadership core in this group, which is part of what we wanted to create this season,” added Fleck. “Most of our players are still U21 next year, but one of our key aims this season was to produce (more) leaders in general.

“And in order to do so (produce more leaders) a lot of our focus and part of our culture was to give our players responsibility and allow them to grow more as players and as people. As a result, the players are making decisions for themselves which is great; they feel empowered and are constantly maturing as a group – all of which augurs well ahead of the pressures of a play-off match.”

The table-topping DHL WP U21s will head into the 2015 semifinals with 52 log points from their 12 league matches – having won ten matches, drawing once and losing once; picking up nine four-try bonus points in the process.

“We’ve had a good build-up,” commented Fleck, when asked about their preparation for the next phase of the Absa Provincial Under-21 competition.

“We’ve followed our normal routine and not changed anything this week – we’ve done our detail and focused on what we want to do. The players have responded well and our intensity at training has been good and there’s a sharpness within the group which augurs well.”

Looking at the challenge of facing up to the Lions, who finished fourth on the log, Fleck prefers to focus on his own team and what they need to do in order to advance to a fifth Absa Under-21 Final in six seasons.

“The Lions are a good side. They started as tournament favourites… they dropped off a bit mid-season, but they came back at us in Johannesburg (two weeks ago) and we certainly know what’s coming this week,” he said.

“They’re a good physical side and we know that’s (physicality) coming our way… that’s where the challenge is. But despite the threats they possess, we have to stick to what we know best and that’s ourselves.

“We have focused on ourselves all year long and have again done so this week, which aligns to our culture and the brand we want to play – a brand we all believe in in this team.”

* City Park is based on the corner of Thornton and Lawson Roads in Crawford and easily accessible from the M5 and N2 freeways. Tickets for Saturday are priced at R10 per person or R10 per car.

The DHL WP Under-21 team for Saturday (v Golden Lions, home) is as follows:

15. Grant Hermanus
14. Khanyo Ngcukana
13. EW Viljoen (captain)
12. Jarryd Sage
11. Leolin Zas
10. Brandon Thomson
9. Justin Phillips
8. Devon Nash
7. Jacques Vermeulen
6. Luke Stringer
5. JD Schickerling (vice-captain)
4. David Ribbans
3. Kyle Whyte
2. Chad Solomon
1. Wesley Adonis
Replacements:
16. Martin Wipplinger
17. Liam Hendricks
18. Kobus van Dyk
19. Christo van der Merwe
20. SP Ferreira
21. Ernst Stapelberg
22. James Verity-Amm
Referee: Lourens van der Merwe