Head coach Rassie Erasmus has detailed how Lions tighthead prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye shed his excess weight before earning a Springboks call-up.
Ntlabakanye has been named in the first Springboks matchday 23 of the year, starting at tighthead prop in the uncapped match against the Barbarians.
The Lions forward heads into the game tipping the scales at 140 kilograms and while that is still a staggering number, it was significantly higher not too long ago as he weighed in at 158kgs.
Daan Human’s role in Ntlabakanye’s weight loss
The 26-year-old has been on the Boks‘ radar for about two years, according to Erasmus, who revealed that he has been driving out from Johannesburg to scrum guru Daan Human’s farm in Bloemfontein – easily a four drive – to better his game and weight.
Erasmus is eager to see how the slimmed-down tighthead adjusts to international rugby and pointed to misconceptions about wingers like Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse and their ability to play at the highest level.
“There were comments in the past where players are said to be too light like Cheslin Kolbe,” Erasmus told reporters after naming his squad.
“But what area of the game does Cheslin or Kurt-Lee Arendse not man up? They make their tackles, they do the aerial skills, they tackle guys back, beat the guy in front of them but it can be the other way around if you one of the heavy guys.
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“A guy like Frans Malherbe is not a front page model but hell, he can play, he does his job in the front-row, he is maybe not the most athletic guy. In Asenathi we have somebody who we see has an unbelievable touch and feel for the game, just like Neethling Fouche and Ox Nche – we not talking about scrummaging necessarily.
“So when we started looking at Ntlabakanye two years ago, we started tracking his battle rates and it’s up there with the other guys.”
With the blessing of the Lions and their coaching team, Erasmus and Human deployed a plan to get Ntlabakanye up to scratch quicker ahead of his first outing in Green and Gold.
“We so spoke to Cash [Ivan van Rooyen, Lions coach] and said ‘We wanted to get this right’ and he went a few times to Daan’s farm and stayed there for a week and Daan worked with him – with the blessing of coach and CEO – after the Lions fell out of the URC,” the head coach revealed.
“Whenever there was a break, he drove to Bloemfontein, went to the farm and he dropped 15 to 18 kilograms. So let’s hope he can now perform at Test match level, that will be great.”
Ntlabakanye is not the only player who will be pulling on a Springboks jersey for the first time with flanker Vincent Tshituka named in the starting XV for the meeting with the Baa-Baas in Cape Town.
Scarlet hooker Marnus van der Merwe is also set to feature from the bench along with Stormers prop Neethling Fouche.
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