Hannes Lombard – Cradock High captain
Player Profile
Cradock High School travel to Somerset-East on Saturday to face Gill College in a FNB Classic Clash. Hannes Lombard will lead out the visitors in what is his forty-seventh game for the 1st XV.
Johannes Cornelius Lombard was born in Adelaide on 16 December 1987. Most people know him as “Hannes”, but he is also called “JC” by some. He attended junior school in his hometown before going into the hostel at Cradock High in Grade 8. He is a school prefect and is headboy of the hostel.
Hannes plays lock for the 1st XV but has also spent a lot of his career at No. 8. He played four games for the 1st XV when he was in Grade 9 (Std 7) and if it were not for injuries he would have well over 50 caps. He played for Easter Province Under-13 and represented EP Country Districts at Under-15 and Under-16 level.
Standing 1.91 metres tall and weighing 102kgs, Hannes is strong on the drive and also good with ball in hand. In addition his height makes him good in the line-outs. His favourite player is Schalk Burger, whom he admires for his no nonsense approach to the game.
The Cradock 1st XV are having a good season and according to Hannes their best wins to date have come against Hangklip and Adelaide. The win against Hangklip was their first in eight years and they have never before beaten Adelaide. Their game is built around their strong pack, who have an average height of 1.86 metres and weight of 94kg. Their backs are no slouches either, with their wings in particular having tons of pace.
Cradock play Gill only once a season and this is the last game of the season for both schools. With nine Grade 12s in the Cradock 1st XV there are lots of players looking to end on a high. Having lost narrowly 10-7 last year and not having beaten Gill since 1998 there is the added incentive of making a piece of history.
Hannes may captain the 1st rugby team but his true love is cricket and having played for the EP Schools team for the last two years he is hoping to attend Free State varsity on a cricket scholarship next year. The tall leg-spinner hopes to study teaching, but for now he will settle for teaching Gill College a rugby lesson on Saturday.
