Bax and co. remain in WP U21 mix

A host of Varsity Cup stars from Stellenbosch and UCT have once again been named in the Western Province Under-21 team for Saturday's Currie Cup clash against the Lions at Newlands.

FNB Maties No.8 Morné Hanekom remains in charge of the WP U21 team - a unit that includes four Stellenbosch Varsity Cup players and five from Western Cape rivals, UCT.

Hanekom, centre Johann Sadie, lock Hugo Kloppers and prop Lourens Adriaanse were all part of the 2009 Varsity Cup-winning Maties squad. Fullback Tiger Bax (pictured), winger Dane Johnson, centre Tim Whitehead, lock Martin Muller and Dayne Jans all played for UCT in the 2009 competition.

Bax and Muller also both played Super 14 rugby for the Stormers this season, whilst the selfsame Muller, Adriaanse and Whitehead were all part of the SA Universities team that played two matches against the Collegiate All-Americans.

Industrious hooker Jans, meanwhile, underwent a trial with the Lions during June and will be looking to show a thing or two to the opposition should he get an opportunity off the replacements' bench.

The WP juniors smashed Boland 62-3 in Wellington last week, with Sadie (two), Johnson, Bax and Hanekom amongst the nine Western Province try-scorers.

The Men in Blue and White will be hoping for a similar performance against their Lions counterparts as they play the curtain-raiser to the senior WP versus Lions Currie Cup encounter at 5.05pm.

The WP Under-21 team:

15 Tiger Bax
14 Dane Johnson
13 Tim Whitehead
12 Johann Sadie
11 Chris Juries
10 Coenie van Wyk
9 Liam Slatem
8 Morné Hanekom (captain)
7 Rynardt Elstadt
6 Wimpie van der Walt
5 Martin Muller
4 Hugo Kloppers
3 Lourens Adriaanse
2 Sydney Tobias
1 Denzil Riddles

Replacements:
16 Dayne Jans
17 Jean Rossouw
18 Hein van der Merwe
19 Yaya Hartzenberg
20 Johan Laker
21 Burger Schoeman
22 Jurgen Visser

Kick-off: 2.40pm