Currie Cup – CJ commits to Lions
21 Jul 2011
Keo.co.za brings you the news from the Currie Cup.
CJ commits to Lions - CJ van der Linde has joined the Lions on a two-year contract from Western Province.
After much speculation, the Lions have confirmed that Van der Linde will officially join the Lions on 1 August.
‘CJ comes with a wealth of experience and has tremendous value to add,’ said Lions coach John Mitchell.
‘I’m really looking forward to working with a player of CJ’s calibre and experience. I’ve always believed in developing youngsters as part of the expansion process and exposing them to experienced mentors such as CJ.’
Still no Sarel for Griquas – Sarel Pretorius will miss Griquas’ second Currie Cup of the season when they tackle the Lions in Kimberley this weekend.
The scrumhalf is still sidelined with a knee injury, which sees Shannon Rick retain the No 9 jersey. There’s another injury blow for Abré Minnie’s men as Rocco Jansen, who grabbed a brace in the draw against WP last weekend, is also ruled out. Fabian Juries starts in his place.
Griquas – 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Richard Lawson, 13 Wilmaure Louw, 12 Barry Geel, 11 Fabian Juries, 10 Monty Dumond, 9 Shannon Rick, 8 Jonathan Mokuena (c), 7 Davon Raubenheimer, 6 Justin Downey, 5 Martin Muller, 4 Hendrik Roodt, 3 Lourens Adriaanse, 2 Ryno Barnes, 1 Steph Roberts.
Subs: 16 Matthew Dobson, 17 Jean Botha, 18 Frikkie Spies, 19 Jaco Nepgen, 20 Matthew Rosslee, 21 Logan Basson, 22 Rudi Vogt.
23 Comments
21 Jul 2011, 10:57 am
That is fine, we need to build depth at 9 anyways.
And we can’t take any chances on him.
21 Jul 2011, 11:38 am
@Griqua_warrior(willievz)-1:
do you love him like you do gaffie?
21 Jul 2011, 13:17 pm
Johannesburg, 21 July 2011… The Golden Lions Rugby Union announced the signing of Springbok 2007 Rugby World Cup winner, Prop CJ van der Linde. Currently playing for the DHL Western Province, van der Linde will join the MTN Golden Lions Absa Currie Cup team in August.
His contract commences on 1 August 2011 until 31 October 2013.
Van der Linde began his professional career in 1999 when he represented South Africa at U/19 level. He has progressed through the ranks, from U/21 to senior and has been a Springbok since 2002.
CJ has spent the majority of his career with the Free State Cheetahs, and played for the Cats (a combination of Cheetahs and Lions players) Super 12 team in 2004 and 2005. He moved to Cape Town and signed with the Western Province at the end of 2010. He is currently with the Springbok Tri Nations squad in Australasia.
Coach John Mitchell is looking forward to CJ’s arrival: “CJ comes with a wealth of experience and has tremendous value to add to the Lions. I’m really looking forward to working with a player of CJ’s caliber and experience. I’ve always believed in developing youngsters as part of the expansion process and exposing them to experienced mentors such as CJ,” said Mitchell.
GLRU CEO Manie Reyneke also had only praises for CJ.
“It is no secret that we’ve been speaking to CJ for the past few weeks and we are both honoured and humbled to have a player of his caliber and vast experience joining the Lions.” said Reyneke
21 Jul 2011, 15:04 pm
CJ can’t scrum he’s folds double like a camping stretcher.
21 Jul 2011, 15:20 pm
We could use the extra cash flow.
21 Jul 2011, 15:41 pm
No better way to quash bankruptcy rumors than to sign a pseudo big name player
21 Jul 2011, 15:50 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy)-5: Buy Coenie Oosthuizen before the Sharks do.
21 Jul 2011, 15:51 pm
he’s kak
21 Jul 2011, 15:53 pm
@JA-JA(JA-JA)-7: no thanks the sharks are used to breeding their own top props
CJ?? even john smit is a better scrumager, yes grant believe it 
21 Jul 2011, 15:53 pm
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-8:
exactly
he the penalty king along with steggmann bwaaahahahahaaaaaaaa
21 Jul 2011, 15:56 pm
@President_of_the_Sharks_rugby_experts(sharks_lover)-9: Ye you do breed good props, WP can do with Eugene van Staden you better watch out.
You just gave Grant a new topic for a week, John vs CJ
21 Jul 2011, 15:58 pm
@President_of_the_Sharks_rugby_experts(sharks_lover)-10: Eish CJ and Stegmann on the same field is looking for trouble.
21 Jul 2011, 15:59 pm
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-8: Wait who are you talking about CJ or Coenie?
21 Jul 2011, 16:01 pm
@JA-JA(JA-JA)-13:
21 Jul 2011, 16:03 pm
CJ is rubbish
Stormer saviour…ummm nope
Bok saviour…umm not a f*ck-just gives intercepts to ben Foden
Watch BJ do the same thing only being SLIGHTLY better than CJ.
BJ,CJ…..never been,never will be
Bok rugby hasnt had a decent Tighthead since Cobus Visagie & Willie Meyer.
And it continues to be bleak.
Jannie is incumbent and no one is better than him at present however kak he is.
deal with it
21 Jul 2011, 16:04 pm
@JA-JA(JA-JA)-13:
Does that even need an answer?
Mr slip the bind van der Fatsh*t is kak!
21 Jul 2011, 16:15 pm
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-16: Ja he is kak, if he’s not slipping his bind he’s back and @ss is the only one sticking out of the scrum.
I just hope they never replace BJ with CJ in the same match…BJ for CJ…. people will think who knows what of our half time team talk.
21 Jul 2011, 18:59 pm
How can the Lions afford CJ ? I hear they cant pay half their other players salaries ?
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-15: I have always thought CJ is a bit timid. He has about the aggression factor of a gummy bear. No mongrel at all.
21 Jul 2011, 19:02 pm
@JA-JA(JA-JA)-7: The Sharks wont buy Coenie Oosthuisen. We aren’t WP that jump at the opportunity to buy anything that comes available without any thought.
The Sharks have some VERY promising young front row forwards coming through. Dale Chadwick, Kyle Cooper, Wiehann Herbst and then we still have Jannie Du Plessis, Beast Mtwarira, Eugene Van Staden and Bismark….
Sharks problem is not front row. Sharks need locks quite desperately, and I believe they are going after Franco Vd. Merwe.
21 Jul 2011, 19:41 pm
@Dusky(Dusky)-19: How do you explain JLP and Meyer Bosman, not much thought went in those decisions. Sharks can take Franco…..
21 Jul 2011, 22:00 pm
@President_of_the_Sharks_rugby_experts(sharks_lover)-9: farken got rocks in your head…..cj 100 times better prop than the quota
21 Jul 2011, 23:18 pm
@Dusky(Dusky)-19:
Lock? They don’t have a lock crisis as such. Compared to the Bulls who have only got (the promising) Juandre Kruger, (the alright but will always be average) Fudge Mabeta…. and then nothing. They’d be wasting their money going after Franco van der Merwe. Hargreaves is a good player who’s gotten bigger the last few years. Ross Skeate can do a job there. Anton Bresler looks highly promising. And Jandre Marais looks just as good. He could jump into the starting line-up in the next couple of years.
The Sharks crisis is at centre. Having brought Michalak in, do they really want to play Lambie at 12 (or more likely 15)? I don’t think it’s fair on Lambie at all. They are probably looking at having another S15 season with Meyer Bosman at 12. May as well play with 14 men because at least then someone will attempt to make a real tackle. Bosman has to be the worst 12 I’ve seen play consistently for an SA team since Grant Rees. The Sharks really were stupid to have wasted the talent of Andries Strauss by never playing him.
And Marius Joubert. I had high hopes that he could go in at the Sharks and really do something good. But after the weekends game I’m thinking he’d do well to just match Stefan Terblanche. The standard of the French Top 14 must be piss-poor if he had a ‘sublime’ career over there. He no longer has that zip that he had back in 2002-2003 (8 years ago, thats probably why).
Outside of centre, the Sharks are fine. They balance the books by holding a smallish roster, but the players know where they stand and they never seem to have injury crisis at any positions.
22 Jul 2011, 04:14 am
@Hendrik Pienaar(hendrikp)-22:
Whoops I forgot about Flip van der Merwe… but still the Bulls are short at lock. The next in line presumably would be Cornell Hess who has had no significant game-time outside of Vodacom Cup. Not sure how good he is if anyone would care to enlighten me?
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