SA Under-20 Trialists Squad Trimmed
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The South African national rugby selectors on Monday confirmed the names of players who will return back to their provincial unions after the 40-man training squad was reduced to 30 as the SA Under-20s squad prepare for their final trials game against DHL Western Province on Thursday.
All players that carried niggles and injuries following Saturday’s game at the Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck were released, as were the players who will be participating in Vodacom Super Rugby warm-up games this weekend.
Vodacom Blue Bulls winger Courtnall Skosan, as well as centres Francois Venter and Bradley Moolman will return to Pretoria today. DHL Western Province lock Wilhelm van der Slys and The Sharks’ Siseko Jafta, who took no part in Saturday’s Trials due to injury, are among the other players who will be heading back to their local unions.
“Some of the guys going home can most definitely count themselves unlucky, but this not the end of the road for any of those guys leaving us,” said SA Under-20 coach, Dawie Theron.
“We concluded our coaching one on ones with all 10 players that will be going back to their provinces and have explained to them where we believe they should work on to improve their skills, conditioning and rugby development.
“I understand that quite a number of the guys going back will be competing in the 2011 Vodacom Cup, the Varsity Cup, and we also have players training with their Super Rugby franchise squads. Then we also have players that will be staying here with us until Thursday who are expected to participate in their provincial structures from next week.”
The national selectors decided to keep all three scrumhalves, Ricky Schroeder (DHL Western Province), Lohan Jacobs (Vodacom Blue Bulls) and Kevin Luiters (Free State), that were initially selected to the 40-man training squad for the game against DHL Western Province.
The physical and robust wingers Emile Schwartz and Mandla Dube (both The Sharks), as well as the centre combination of Piet Lindeque and Heimar Williams that impressed during Saturday’s SA Under-20 trials gamem have been selected, as has the Platinum Leopards’ Kobus Lourens.
The Vodacom Blue Bulls U19 captain Arno Botha, who sat out of Saturday’s trials due to injury has now fully recovered and will be available for selection for Thursday’s game. DHL Western Province lock Eben Etzebeth and Ruan Venter, who represented the Lions during the 2010 Coca-Cola Under-18 Craven Week, will have another opportunity to impress the national selectors against DHL WP.
“We are taking our friendly against DHL Western Province very seriously in terms of seeing how far we have developed during the last seven days,” added Theron.
“These Under-20 players will have the chance to match themselves up against a side like Western Province. We training now with a smaller squad, but our guys will be exposed to more rugby training this week.”
SA U20 Trials Squad (Updated):
Fullbacks: Ulrich Beyers (Blue Bulls)
Riaan Britz (Free State)
Wings: Emile Schwartz (The Sharks)
Mandla Dube (The Sharks)
Sizo Maseko (Western Province)
Clarence Khumalo (Western Province)
Centres: Kobus Lourens (Platinum Leopards)
Heimar Williams (The Sharks)
Piet Lindeque (The Sharks)
Flyhalves: Tony Jantjies (Blue Bulls)
Sam Lane (Western Province)
Scrumhalves: Ricky Schroeder (Western Province)
Lohan Jacobs (Blue Bulls)
Kevin Luiters (Free State)
Loose forwards: Arno Botha (Blue Bulls)
Marcell Coetzee (The Sharks)
Brendan Groenewald (Free State)
Jean Cook (Free State)
Ernie Strydom (Platinum Leopards)
Nizaam Carr (Western Province)
Locks: Jose Julies (Blue Bulls)
Eben Etzebeth (Western Province)
Carl Wegner (Free State)
Ruan Venter (Lions)
Hookers: Bongi Mbonambi (Blue Bulls)
Baksteen van Heerden (Free State)
Props: Stefan Kotze (Free State)
John Roy Jenkins (Platinum Leopards)
Nick Schonnet (The Sharks)
Juan Schoeman (Blue Bulls)
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