British & Irish Lions: Jake White hopes Lizo Gqoboka gets a shot

Bulls coach Jake White lauded the form of prop Lizo Gqoboka who made an impressive impact off the bench against the Sharks on Saturday.

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The Bulls’ forwards put on a dominant second-half display at Loftus Versveld, resulting in a crushing 43-9 win over the Sharks in their Rainbow Cup clash.

Springboks Gqoboka and Trevor Nyakane ran onto the park for the second stanza and made an immediate impact, with excellent scrummaging and Gqoboka scoring a sniping try from the breakdown.

“The impact Lizo made, that try he scored, was massive,” SA Rugby mag quoted Jake White as saying.

“Two weeks ago, he did the same, making a break down the short side and then off-loading to Zak Burger for a try that made the game safe.

“He’s a great scrummager, so it’s actually great if you can hold off on a guy like him, but we knew Thomas and Ox (Nche) would come hard at us at the set-piece. That’s why I deliberately swopped the props around at half-time. We knew they were going to make an impact, but some coaches might’ve waited until there were 20 to 30 minutes left before bringing Lizo and Trevor on.

“I just felt I needed Lizo to play a full half because he’s been playing so well.”

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The World Cup-winning coach added that Gqoboka may have a chance at making the Springbok squad to play agains the incoming British & Irish Lions.

“He’s playing really good rugby and he knows there’s an opportunity for him now since Beast Mtawarira has retired,” continued White.

“Hopefully he’ll just get better and stake a claim for the series against the British & Irish Lions.”