WP received good and bad news on second day of the Craven Week

KRUGERSDORP. – Western Province received good and bad news for their campaign at this year’s 59th annual Stadio Craven Week here.

Both the players, Josh Neill (flanker) and Henry du Plessis (prop), who received red cards during their opening match against the Sharks received suspensions of two matches and three matches respectively after their disciplinary hearings on Tuesday.

Western Province did appeal the outcome of Neill’s hearing and his initial red card was lowered to a yellow card. He will therefore be available to play for WP in their next match against Eastern Province on Wednesday.

The other setback is that the side’s inside centre, Kobus Blanckenberg‘s injury is serious enough to rule him out of the tournament as well. His midfield partner at Paarl Gimnasium, Markus Muller, has been called up from the Western Province XV and will take his place on the bench for the match against Eastern Province.

Muller will play in the number 25 jersey. In Du Plessis’ place, they have called on Matthew van der Merwe to start at tighthead prop on Wednesday.

The Western Province XV will still announce who will take Muller and Van der Merwe’s spots before their next encounter against the Golden Lions on Thursday.

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Hannes Nienaber

Hannes Nienaber covered schools' rugby in South Africa for Volksblad, Beeld, and Rapport for 11 years. He also created the biggest school rugby website in South Africa - School of Rugby - back in 2007. It eventually morphed into Supersport Schools Plus. He still occasionally milks cows.

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