News

Januarie can play, but can't

August 12 2009

Poor communication between the national set-up and Western Province has meant the Cape side will not use Springbok scrum-half Ricky Januarie in their Curie Cup match against Boland on Saturday.

Ricky Januarie is one of the Springbok players who has been cleared to play in this weekends round of Currie Cup matches, but Western Province do not intend using him because they were informed of his availability "too late."

WP coach Allister Coetzee agrees that Januarie, the Bok reserve scrum-half, needs game-time in case something happens to Fourie du Preez and he is required to play more than the current bit part he is playing in the Tri-Nations campaign. Up to now Januarie has only seen game time in the last minutes of the matches the Boks have played.

However, Coetzee says he was not informed in enough time of Januarie's availability, which is why he is pressing ahead with plans to field Dewaldt Duvenage at number nine in Saturdays match against the Boland Cavaliers in Wellington.

"We heard on Monday that the Bulls were able to use Chiliboy Ralepelle and Gurthro Steenkamp in their match against Griquas, so I don't understand why we weren't informed then that Ricky is available," Coetzee told the Western Province website

"We were only told on Tuesday, which is too late to bring him in as all our plans have been made."

Coetzee said he would also have liked to use lock Andries Bekker, who has not played a full game for a couple of months after being injured for the second half of the Super 14 season. Bekker, like Januarie, has been used off the bench by the Boks over the past few weeks, but there may come a time when he will be forced by an emergency into playing a more important role.

WP, smarting from their narrow defeat to Griquas in Kimberley last Friday, look set to stick with pretty much the same team that they fielded in that game, with Adriaan Fondse probably in line for a recall to the starting side now that he is over his injury and got some game time in the last minutes against Griquas.

Duvenage has been the first choice for the Stormers and WP since the halfway point of the Super 14 season. The only exception was the first game of the Currie Cup season against the Sharks at Newlands, when Coetzee decided to start with Januarie in an attempt to get him back into match fitness.

Januarie had a solid if not spectacular match against the Sharks which partially watered down the memory of his disastrous 20 minutes on the field in the first test against the British and Irish Lions, a performance which gave rise to Springbok coach Peter de Villiers' infamous black and white mechanic analogy.