Soon, Oliver Kebble won’t have any space left on his PVR. The Western Province prop is rapidly expanding his personal highlights package, while leaving opposition players scattered in his wake.
The son of former Springbok loosehead prop Guy, Oliver has been one of the key men during the WP’s demolition job of opposing packs at scrum time in the Currie Cup this year. Whether it’s been from the start or off the bench, Kebble’s powerhouse performances have been eye catching.
The 23-year-old helped to clean up the Sharks’ front row on Saturday to help WP to a bonus-point win in Durban. His father was at Kings Park to celebrate the Sharks’ 125th anniversary, and watched with a smile as his boy made mince meat of the likes of Thomas du Toit.
“I suppose I can look fondly back at those scrums. It is one of the highlights of my career so far, and I will definitely save it on my PVR for years to come!” Kebble, who also made an impression on the tighthead side, joked this week.
It has been a bit of a breakout year for Kebble, having also performed well for the Stormers and now playing a key role for WP.
This season is of great significance as first-choice No 1 Steven Kitshoff is leaving for France at the end of the Currie Cup, and next year Kebble will be fighting it out with JC Janse van Rensburg for the Stormers’ starting berth.
“Speaking to Dobbo (WP coach John Dobson) at the start of the Currie Cup, he spoke extensively about how this is my chance to make a name for myself,” Kebble said. “I think that is what I’m trying to do, because we have got a big Super Rugby next year, and I’m trying to build for that. Wherever I can put my hand up, that is the most important thing.”
Kebble reveals that his father has allowed him to develop into his own man, and hasn’t really interfered during his brief journey in rugby from the junior levels, through the South African Under-20 side, to WP and the Stormers.
“He has always been really supportive, not too intrusive and not always telling me what to do,” said Kebble, who is affectionately known as “Oli” at the union.
“I have to give him credit, because sometimes when he could have stuck his neck in, he kept his distance and he has just been supportive towards me, which is nice.”
While Kebble is as destructive in the scrum as his father, he is a bit more mobile and enjoys having a bit of a go with the ball. Earlier this season, in WP’s first Currie Cup match against Griquas, he also showed his neat handling skills with a lovely offload in the tackle.
“It’s every prop’s dream to whip out the goose step, or something like that! That (pass against Griquas) is also on my PVR,” he said.
But the emergence of Kebble this season, and indeed the likes of Kitshoff and Vincent Koch for the Stormers, and even WP No 3 Wilco Louw, is because of the new scrum culture the union has embraced.
The change came at the start of the year, and is something that former Stormers forward coach Matthew Proudfoot implemented.
The scrum was a big saving grace for the Stormers in Super Rugby, and it’s playing a big role for WP too. It’s part of their exit strategy in their own half, as they can easily milk a penalty to get better field position. They also put tremendous pressure on the opposition’s ball.
“I don’t think we were particularly pleased about how we scrummed last year. We sat down at the beginning of the season and put a lot of focus on it. We have spent a lot of time on the field scrumming as well,” Kebble said.
“I think we have grown as a pack, which is quite nice. Even this morning, we trained hard on our scrum, which we like to do every week before a game.
“There had to be a buy-in from the whole pack. We really decided that we wanted to put down a marker at scrum time, and if you have all eight players buy into that, you can really turn your scrum around.”
WP dominated the Blue Bulls’ scrum in their first meeting of the season, but the Bulls will be boosted by the return of Marcel van der Merwe, who just missed out on the Bok World Cup squad, for tomorrow’s Currie Cup clash at Newlands.
However, Kebble says facing Boks like Van der Merwe and Dean Greyling is a challenge Province are looking forward to.
“At the start of the season we might have looked at the Bulls scrum as their big weakness. But they have got players back now and they are starting to improve,” Kebble said.
“The opportunity for us is that we are playing against a Springbok front row. So that is the perfect marker to lay down as an upcoming loosehead or tighthead prop.
“I think we did that pretty well in Pretoria, and with Marcel coming back now, it will be interesting to see how we do against them.” - Cape Tiimes