So much has been talked about young Pat Lambie being the next great player to come out of KZN and in his first full season as a pro he has not put a foot wrong and shown glimpses of what all the hype is about.
I interviewed him when he was still in Michaelhouse and even then one could see there was something special about the kid. This time however he took the Cheetahs by the scruff and turned the result on it`s head in one of the great Shark comebacks.
Trailing 6-13 with only ten minutes of the game to go it seemed that once again the Cheetahs were going to do a number on the Sharks. Try as they might the Sharks had no method of how to break down a tireless Cheetah’s defense that is until desperation called for the ball to be spread wide.
Juan Smith and Ashley Johnson were outstanding for the Cheetahs, and No 8 Johnson might well have picked up the man of the match award had it not been for Lambie’s heroics in the last 10 minutes. The Sharks revival also dovetailed with the arrival of Jean Deysel who used his speed and bulk to carry the ball up and create some space for the free running Kanko.
Still new to the No. 12 jersey Lambie put on a breath-taking display showing great vision and pace picked up a loose ball and stretched over to plant it over the try line. Credit must be given to Kanko and Mvovo who together wreaked havoc in the Cheetah’s scrambling defense.
Within the minute Lambie was speeding down the touchline after having received an overhead pass from Keegan Daniel to add his second try and put the game beyond a shell-shocked Free State team who would have believed the game was in the bag. Final score 25-13.
Contributing 20 points out of a team total of 25 Lambie has served notice that he is a find of the season and one can only hope he gets his chance in the Bok setup for 2011.
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