Western Province outside back Heinrich Steyl became the latest player to fall to the curse of the blue and white hooped jersey when it was confirmed that he will be out of action for nine months with a broken leg.
Steyl broke both bones in his leg in his first start for the Cape side in their tense victory over the Sharks in Durban last week. The exciting young fullback had made his Currie Cup debut the week before against the Cheetahs at Newlands but now faces a long road to recovery.
“It was a terrible injury and a scan showed that Heinrich had broken his leg in two places, much the same way Conrad Jantjes did last year,” said his coach Allister Coetzee.
“I really feel for him because it was his first match in the starting team, and he’ll be out of the game for at least nine months,” he added.
In another blow for Province, who have had to deal with a ridiculously long injury list this season, scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenage injured his ankle late in the game scoring what proved to be the winning try.
As a result, Duvenage, who had moved into the flyhalf berth at the expense of Lionel Cronje, could not take the conversion. Instead, the place-kicking duties were handed to substitute scrumhalf Louis Schreuder but Duvenage battled on gamely to help his side to a morale-boosting win.
“It says a lot about the character and guts of Dewaldt that he carried on with an injury,” Coetzee said.
“But that’s what this team is about, they’re all fight and that’s what won the day. We’ve now had a chance to review the game and we saw that given the opportunities we created, we left some tries out there on the field.”
Johann Sadie and Conrad Jantjes who carried slight niggles into the game, are expected to be available for this week’s game, as is prop JC Kritzinger who left the field with what looked like a shoulder injury.
Also on the positive side; Nic Groom, Demetri Catrakillis and Nick Koster are all training again after injury lay-offs and are all expected to be available for selection this week in the pivitol match against the Lions.
Coetzee said his makeshift team managed to cut down on the error rate and did not stray from the match plan in their late away victory against the defending champions.
“We pulled off a great win against a Sharks side that included some quality players,” said Coetzee.
He said the team’s gameplan would be changed a great deal for the Lions’ match.
“We won’t have the same players available, as much as we would like and that changes the way we will play. The next step is to work on a plan that the available players will be comfortable with.
“Our concern won’t be what the Lions are capable of, but we know that as the Currie Cup log-leaders they are a very good side, and a very fit side considering they have lots of strike late in a match.
“The Lions have a side that have played together for two seasons and they’re not affected by Springbok call-ups the way we are. They have shown the benefits of continuity in selection and are now a formidable team,” Coetzee said.
“Province, on the other hand, have already used just over 40 players in the Currie Cup competition so we don’t have continuity and it’s been very difficult to produce consistent performances,” he explained.