Former Birds man is Province's new pivot

A Former St John's boy who spent a year playing football for Moroka Swallows will be Western Province's new flyhalf on Friday night.

Demetri Catrakilis will the sixth flyhalf this season used by Stormers and Province coach Allister Coetzee.

The rule of rugby at the moment seems to be that if you're a flyhalf in Cape Town, you're going to suffer a long-term injury. Coetzee had to find a new No.10 this week after another flyhalf succumbed to injury at the weekend.

University of Cape Town and Varsity Cup star Catrakilis will make his first start for WP after his debut from the bench against Griquas last week.

Peter Grant, Gary van Aswegen, Lionel Cronje, Kurt Coleman and Dewaldt Duvenage all played flyhalf in the Super rugby season.

Van Aswegen suffered a knee-ligament injury in April, but returned after 12 weeks against Griquas in the Currie Cup opener last weekend. He looked superb, moved freely and kicked well.

But a recurrence of the injury has ruled him out for another 12 weeks, paving the way for Catrakilis to cement his place - if injury doesn't strike him down.

"Demetri is by far the best goal-kicker we have at the moment, which is why he has been given a chance," Coetzee said.

One of the forgotten men of WP rugby, flyhalf Isma-eel Dollie is on the bench. The former South African under-19 star appeared to have a bright future, but failed to make a breakthrough at WP, which saw him move to Perth and try his luck with the Western Force.

That sojourn was also unsuccessful, but Dollie got a second chance in Cape Town and will relish the chance to display the running and passing skills that saw him included in Bok coach Peter de Villiers's first training squad in 2008.

Catrakilis has also paid his dues in the lower ranks and will have first bite at the No10 jersey knowing that Coleman is likely to be fit in the next two weeks.

Catrakilis hails from Johannesburg, where he attended St John's College. His first love was football, but he turned to rugby midway through high school, even though he initially wanted to play soccer professionally.

Rugby eventually won his heart. Since then, he's come through club rugby into the Currie Cup set-up, a path few players travel in the professional era.

"I hadn't played rugby before high school. My first love was soccer," Catrakilis said.

"I thought I wanted to make a career out of the round ball game and played until Grade 11 at club level. At 17, I had a year with Moroka Swallows, but I started really loving rugby in matric and gave up soccer.

"After school I went to France and played for Racing Metro's under- 23s. It was a really good experience. I learnt a lot from Andrew Mehrtens. The experience made me hungrier when I returned to South Africa."

Nick Mallett's nephew Nick Fenton-Wells was included on the bench as loose-forward cover.