Gavin Rich

Johannesburg – Luke Watson has recovered from his flu and will be back at the helm of Vodacom Western Province in Saturday’s crucial ABSA Currie Cup match against the Xerox Lions at Newlands.

The No 8 pulled out of last week’s game against Boland Cavaliers in Wellington at the last minute, with hooker Tiaan Liebenberg taking over the captaincy and leading WP to a convincing victory over their neighbours in the annual Cape derby.

Word from the WP camp is that Watson is now back in full health, and Province are looking forward to having him back for a match which could be injected with a bit of needle because of the ongoing enmity between the Western Province and Lions unions over player contracts.

It started towards the end of 2007, when Rassie Erasmus took over what was in effect the WP director of rugby position and managed to lure away Brian Mujati. He is attempting to do the same now with Springbok centre Jaque Fourie, who is keen to move to the Cape. But the Lions have dug their heels in and have made it known they will keep Fourie to his contract which holds him to the union until the end of next season.

The Stormers brains-trust are known to be working on loopholes in their quest to secure Fourie’s services, and are believed they are confident they can still get him to the Cape, but it has done nothing to improve the already tetchy relationship between the two unions.

Adding to the determination of the Lions will be the knowledge that these are now desperate times for them in terms of this year’s domestic competition. Their defeat to the Sharks in Johannesburg last weekend was their third of the season, and with Griquas looking so strong as the competition’s dark-horse, the Lions cannot afford to lose more ground.

But WP are confident that they are now gathering momentum, with coach Allister Coetzee praising the team for their clinical second half performance against Boland, where they scored four tries.

The WP team for the Lions game will be named on Wednesday, but the problem for Coetzee as he welcomes back players from injuries revolves more around who he is going to leave out than who he is going to find to fill the positions in the team.