The Bok management announced late on Monday that Sharks flyhalf Lambie will captain the team when they play the Barbarians in London a week before they play their first test of the four match tour against England at Twickenham. Test caps will not be awarded for the Wembley game, so Lambie’s name will not be added just yet to the list of Bok test captains.
Lambie is a shrewd choice as captain for this game. With 53 test caps, 28 of them at flyhalf and another 24 at fullback, the 26-year-old is one of the more experienced international players in a squad that, relatively speaking, is light on experience.
Lambie has also been part of previous successes in the United Kingdom, and played in both the previous wins over England at Twickenham – in 2012 and 2014.
Although injury truncated his Super Rugby season, Lambie was the appointed Sharks captain for 2016, and did well as leader in the few games he did get to play.
Most notably, he kept the team calm when they squeaked to a narrow win over the Jaguares in front of a hostile crowd in Buenos Aires, a game where he effectively won the game for the Sharks with his pinpoint place-kicking under pressure.
Regular Bok captain Adriaan Strauss is being rested for the tour opener and the decision to look to the future by trying Lambie in the leadership role is a good one.
However, while acknowledging that Lambie was coach Allister Coetzee’s initial first choice flyhalf in 2016, and was only prevented from continuing in that role by the severe concussion suffered in the opening test against Ireland in Cape Town, there is an obvious question that needs to be asked – what happens when Handre Pollard is back in the mix?
Pollard has been out for the entire season due to a freak injury picked up in pre-season training, but he was previous coach Heyneke Meyer’s first choice at last year’s World Cup and at the very least he would be expected to push Lambie hard for a starting place if he does return in full health next year.
Unless both players can be accommodated by Pollard playing inside centre, a suggestion made by former All Black coach John Mitchell after Pollard made his international debut in 2014, having Lambie as the captain going forward will stand in the way of Pollard’s ambitions.
Although he appeared to regress in 2015, possibly because he was playing under instruction in a conservative Bok game-plan, Pollard was just 20 when he first played for the Boks and made an immediate impression.
