Smiley back for Cats
March 22, 2001

Springbok scrumhalf Werner Swanepoel will make his return to big time rugby on Friday for the Cats against the struggling Hurricanes in Bloemfontein.

The nippy No 9, who has been out of action since breaking his jaw against the Lions in a warm-up game, will start on the bench as the Cats look to continue their impressive start to the Vodacom Super 12 campaign.

Swanepoel admitted he could hardly contain his excitement at making his comeback. "I'm as excited as a little boy to play again," he told Beeld newspaper. "Fitness won't be a problem because I worked on that while I was out. Match fitness could be a problem, but that will sorted after a few games."

The 28-year-old, who used sessions in an oxygen tank to speed up his recovery, said he hoped his injuries were something of the past. "They say everything happens in three's and I've got experience of that. I hurt my ankle ligaments before the Test against Canada, then it was my shoulder before the Bok tour last year, and now it was my cheekbone."

Swanepoel said he would play with headgear on Saturday just to get past the physcological side of it. "I trained with it for physcological purposes, but I'll take it off after ten minutes," he confirmed.

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.

ABOUT COOKIES

To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy to accept cookies and other technologies.

More Info Here Cookie Choices