Game time key for Scarra
Stormers and WP hooker Scarra Ntubeni needs a couple of minutes under the belt after a lay-off to get back to his industrious best.
|||Cape Town - Sports cars normally need a couple of minutes to warm-up and you can drive them flat out. But bigger diesel bakkies need a few miles on the clock before they can consistently perform at their best.
It’s a bit like backline players and front row forwards. Backs normally don’t always need an uninterrupted period of game time to get back to their best. However, the big guys in the front row need a good solid run to perform at the peak of their abilities.
Stormers and Western Province hooker Scarra Ntubeni falls into the latter category, a guy who needs minutes under the belt after a lay-off to get back to his industrious best. To get back to the workhorse in the pack who carries selflessly, tackles courageously and fights at the breakdown like warrior.
Unfortunately for Ntubeni the emergence as Bongi Mbonambi as the first-choice Stormers No 2 has saw him play a big-part role off the bench in matches. That factor, and injuries over the last couple of seasons, has seen Ntubeni’s performances drop.
So much so that Mbonambi has leapfrogged him in the Springbok pecking order, as Ntubeni was left out of the Boks’ conditioning camp in the Stellenbosch this week. The Lions in-form hooker Malcom Marx also looks set to be included ahead of Ntubeni for the upcoming Rugby Championship.
However, the upcoming Currie Cup is going to give Ntubeni a proper chance to get to get back to his best to try and fight his way back up the Bok ladder.
Ntubeni will be WP coach John Dobson’s first-choice hooker in the Currie Cup, starting with tomorrow afternoon’s clash against the Blue Bulls at Loftus. Barring injury, Ntubeni should rack up the desired miles to fight for a place on the Boks’ End of Year Tour to the United Kingdom and Italy.
“I have to be honest and say certain players will have to regain form by playing in the Currie Cup - we have that agreement with the unions. If there’s a player who is not on form or who needs game time - especially a player like Scarra Ntubeni. Coming to camp is not going to help him,” Bok coach Allister Coetzee said this week.
“We all know Scarra’s capabilities and the type of player he is, but he needs to play. If I just take this example - if you look at where Malcolm Marx is now currently, and you ask why? It’s because of regular game time.
“And it’s the same reason why I think it’s important for Scarra to go and play Currie Cup, which is why he is not in this group as that tournament is starting this weekend. He would benefit more by playing.”
But there are also a host of other players who need up their game in the Currie Cup to try and force their way back in the Bok reckoning.
WP Loose forward Nizaam Carr also needs to get over his injuries and get onto the park to rediscover that form that made him a Springbok in 2014.
Carr needs to get back in the saddle for Province to get his confidence and form back after shifting between No 6 and No 8 during Super Rugby.
Cape Argus