RUBEN van Heerden, who hails from Alberton, has been selected for the Junior Springbok team.
Van Heerden, who is a product of Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool and plays his provincial rugby at the Blue Bulls, has parents living in Alberton. Standing at 2.01 metres tall and weighing some 118kg, the lock is destined for bigger things and has already had a taste of senior rugby in the Vodacom Blue Bulls team.
The South African u-20 team, for which he has been chosen, will play in the World Rugby u-20 championship which will take place in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Coach Chean Roux has named Ernst van Rhyn as captain of the SA u-20 squad for the World championship.
Roux selected eight players among the chosen 28 who played in the same tournament last year.
Van Rhyn, Curwin Bosch, Kwenzo Blose, Carl Sadie, Zain Davids, Stedman Gans, Manie Libbok and Embrose Papier were all members of the Junior Springbok team that finished fourth in the World Rugby u-20 Championship in Manchester in 2016.
Roux’s squad also includes six players who represented the South African Schools team last season in the u-19 International Series, namely Salmaan Moerat, who captained the team, Gianni Lombard, Rewan Kruger, Wandisile Simelane, Damian Willemse and Daniel Jooste.
While Bosch has been a stand-out performer for the Cell C Sharks in Vodacom Super Rugby, Willemse made his debut for the DHL Stormers, while Davids and Gans have been with the Springbok Sevens squad for the last three months.
The team will be led by experienced captain Van Rhyn, who was the SA u-20 vice-captain last season and the SA Schools captain in 2015, while Johan Grobbelaar has been named the vice-captain.
The Junior Springboks will face France, Georgia and Argentina in the pool stages of the international spectacle in Tbilisi, which runs from May 31 to June 18.
The team will depart for Georgia on May 25.
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