The Springboks’ plotting and planning for the 2025 season is now underneath approach, with 56 home gamers, together with Asenathi Ntlabakanye, set to collect in Cape City for the primary nationwide camp of the 12 months.
The alignment camp, which is ready to conclude on Wednesday 12 March, will comprise two gymnasium classes and a sequence of boardroom conferences to get the gamers up to the mark on the necessities and anticipated requirements for season.
The group consists 18 members of the 2023 Rugby World Cup-winning squad, an extra 22 capped nationwide gamers, and 16 uncapped gamers.
And Ntlabakanye is a kind of 16 uncapped squad newbies after a string of spectacular performances for the Lions all through the present marketing campaign in addition to in earlier seasons.
He earns his first invitation to a Bok alignment camp, together with six different Lions gamers (three capped Springboks and three uncapped hopefuls).
Who’s Asenathi Ntlabakanye?
Ntlabakanye got here by way of the Lions pathway, the place he shone within the junior ranks earlier than working his approach into the senior crew, through which he at the moment performs a pivotal position within the URC.
Because the Lions’ first-choice tighthead prop, he is likely one of the hottest prospects in South African rugby in the mean time.
However earlier than his rise to prominence in skilled rugby, Ntlabakanye attended St Stithians School in Johannesburg, performed Craven Week for Golden Lions throughout all age-grades and represented the Junior Springboks (SA U20) not as soon as however twice, following his choice in each 2018 and 2019.
The place is he from?
Ntlabakanye is Plettenberg Bay, thought to be one of the vital stunning coastal cities on South Africa’s famend Backyard Route.
How previous is Ntlabakanye?
He’s 25 years previous and was born on 15 April 1999.
What’s his peak and weight?
Ntlabakanye weighs 153 kg and stands 1.83 meters tall.
What place does he play?
Tighthead prop.
What does he convey to the Springboks?
With the Springboks available in the market for a long-term substitute for Frans Malherbe (33) at tighthead prop, Ntlabakanye might properly be the reply (the present backups are 34-year-old Vincent Koch, 29-year-old Thomas du Toit and 30-year-old Wilco Louw).
For a person with 153kg on him, Ntlabakanye carries his weight properly and is blessed with an unbelievably excessive work-out and good self-discipline.
Aside from executing his main position within the scrum to near-perfection, Ntlabakanye has a number of different options that belie his bulldozing body and put him a lower above the remaining.
As a rampant ball-carrier, an correct tackler and a uncommon breed of entrance rower blessed with misleading explosiveness off the mark and a flip of tempo, and delicate and beautiful dealing with expertise, Ntlabakanye will add one other dimension to the Springboks’ already stacked ahead arsenal on assault, whereas serving as one other brick wall within the Boks’ already suffocating defensive construction.
The entrance rower might be discovered on Instagram underneath the deal with @asap_ntlaba. He may also be discovered on X (previously Twitter) as @asenathintlaba3.
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