Sevens stars bolster Baby Boks
SA Sevens players Paul Jordaan, William Small-Smith and Craig Barry have been drafted in to the SA Under-20 training squad for a conditioning and training camp in Cape Town from Sunday.
The trio will make their first appearance at a national U20 training camp after being involved with the Springbok Sevens structures since December 2010. Jordaan made a promising Sevens debut for the Boks in January at the New Zealand Sevens in Wellington, while Small-Smith and Barry, like Jordaan, are products of SARU’s High Performance programme.
The Baby Boks training squad includes prop Frans Malherbe and hooker Siyabonga Ntubeni who will also join the SA U20 training camp for the first time this season after representing the Stormers and Western Province in the Super Rugby and Vodacom Cup competitions.
Lock Eben Etzebeth (UCT Ikeys) and No.8 Arno Botha (Tukkies) competed in Monday evening’s FNB Varsity Cup final in Pretoria, and are also expected to join the Baby Boks in Cape Town on Sunday.
“We are now entering the final stages of our preparations for the forthcoming IRB Junior World Championship and it’s great to have players who come from our Springbok Sevens structure to join us for the first time,” said SA U20 coach Dawie Theron.
He explained: “We’ll be selecting the 26 players that will make up the final squad from the group of players that have been invited to this camp. We are where we want to be in terms of exposing our players to international opposition as many of the guys that will join us next week have either played in the international friendlies against Argentina or have competed in the Vodacom Cup or the Varsity Cup.”
“While our Super Rugby players will be allowed to continue to represent their franchises, we have quite a few players who have excelled in the Vodacom Cup and Varsity Cup who have also been also selected to this squad.
“The coaches will use this opportunity to fine tune our game structures to ensure that all players that could possibly make the final squad are on the same page,” added Theron.
The 26-man SA U20 squad that will participate in the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship in Italy during June will be announced during the first week of May.
South Africa U20 Training Squad: Ulrich Beyers, Riaan Britz,Wandile Mjekevu, Courtnall Skosan, Craig Barry, Francois Venter, Bradley Moolman, William Small-Smith, Johan Welthagen, Paul Jordaan, Johan Goosen, Tony Jantjies, Ricky Schroeder, Pieter Rademan, Lohan Jacobs, Siya Kolisi, Nizaam Carr, Marcell Coetzee, Francois Kleinhans, Cornell du Preez, Arno Botha, Eben Etzebeth, Carl Wegner, Jose Julies, Ruan Venter, Reiner Bernado, Mbongeni Mbonambi, Micheal van Vuuren, Siyabonga Ntubeni, Frans Malherbe, Steven Kitshoff, Jon Roy Jenkinson, Stephan Kotze, Denzil Lindoor.
