Oli Kebble
Oli Kebble will join the Warriors next season and the South African-born prop says he has ambitions to play international rugby for Scotland.
Oli will join Glasgow Warriors from the Cape Town-based Stormers after his Super Rugby commitments and will qualify for Scotland honours after completing three years of residency under World Rugby’s eligibility criteria.
He could follow in the footsteps of fellow-prop WP Nel who qualified for Scotland during his time with Edinburgh.
Oli said: “That’s definitely a goal of mine. I’d love to play international rugby and to play for Scotland would be a great honour. I know there’s a three-year waiting period and we’ll see how far I come, but it would definitely be a great thing if I could represent Scotland one day.
“For any rugby player, the ultimate goal would be to play international rugby, so I definitely considered that when talking to the Scottish Rugby Union, and that’s why I chose Glasgow in the end.”
The son of former Springboks prop Guy, Kebble represented South Africa at U20 level, turning out in the same side as current Scotland front-row Allan Dell.
But the loose-head has grown frustrated at the lack of opportunities in his homeland and believes Scotland can provide alternative route to the international stage – even if, as has been widely mooted, the residency period is extended from three to five years.
Josh Strauss qualified for Scotland after spending three years with Glasgow, establishing himself as a vital part of the Warriors back-row.
Fellow loose forward CJ Stander followed the same path to Ireland honours, and starred for Joe Schmidt’s men during this year’s Six Nations Championship.
“I’m quite keen for a change, live overseas for a bit,” Oli added. “I’ve been sticking around here and I haven’t really had a look-in at all, so I decided to make the move.
“There are a lot of great props in South Africa, but the fact that I’m not getting any closer over the past three or four Super Rugby seasons has definitely been a factor.
“I remember watching WP Nel when I was at school; he was a great prop for the Cheetahs, and I was sad to see him leave South Africa, but I think he’s really made the most of his opportunities, so I’m looking to do a similar thing for sure.
“I think with guys like CJ, it was a similar situation to me. They were playing Super Rugby, but playing behind some great players. So just looking for opportunities elsewhere and taking those opportunities with both hands.
“There’s just such a great pool of rugby talent in South Africa, so many schools play rugby here and there are lots of guys coming through all the time. Sometimes it’s difficult to manage all the talent when you can only pick 15 or 23 players every day. Some guys wait for their chance to come, and other players decide to maybe go look somewhere else.”
glasgowwarriors
How good is Oli Kebble?
Question for those who watch lots of SA rugby and know what goes on in the front row (nudge nudge Loosehead, Scrumdown) where would you place Oli Kebble on a ranking of South African props. How does he compare to Allan Dell who played SA U20 same time as him and now has represented Scotland?
South Africa currently has a lot of good loosehead props. Beast is past his prime but Thomas Du Toit, the Ginger coming back from France to play for the WP, Van Rensburg, Fourie, Smith, Nche are all ahead of Kebble. If I remember correctly, Kebble can play tighthead a bit where SA has problems. I recon that Kebble will do alright in Europe.
Loosehead wrote:
Hi Loosehead thanks, so it seems Kebble is quite a long down the pecking order there on loosehead side, he still is quite young so hope he does well over here. Would be handy if he is also comfortable on the tighthead side as Glasgow have a guy who only turned 21 earlier this year who is already pretty much a stalwart at tight head – Zander Fagerson, you will know that is really young in that position.
@ Bullscot:
Hi Bully
I personally think that Ollie has not realised his full potential.
He is certainly a big unit, but that does not always guarantee success. At age group level he looked most impressive, but at senior level has failed to dominate.
Personally, I would take a technically superior, but physically smaller front row any day.
Of course, it may be that young Kebble has not been mentored correctly in the last few years.
Best of luck to the young man,
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