Lions lose Doppies

May 9, 2012
Posted by DavidS

In a move many will be saddened by the Lions have lost their faithful inside center.

The Golden Lions Facebook site reports in dry fashion that the stalwart inside center has signed for Benneton Treviso and has been released from his contract with effect June this year.

This may explain why he has been replaced by Alwyn Hollenbach and now by Jaco Taute in the Super 15 side.

La Grange is a converted scrumhalf who moved to the inside center berth and actually skippered the Lions last year during the Super 15 after John Mitchell dropped Franco Van Der Merwe for a spell. He was part of the 2011 Currie Cup winning Lions squad.

He’ll be missed as one of the few inside centers in South Africa who could run into gaps and put other runners around him into space.

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to MySpace

9 Comments

  1. DavidS Champion Supporter DavidS says:
    May 9th, 2012 at 9:37 pm Reply to this comment

    Is this the start of the exodus?

  2. il postino il postino says:
    May 9th, 2012 at 9:45 pm Reply to this comment

    Dawie, I thought he was out with a lengthy injury (elbow) otherwise I’m pretty sure he’d have been picked.

  3. Boertjie Boertjie says:
    May 9th, 2012 at 10:08 pm Reply to this comment

    Reply to il postino @ 9:45 pm:

    I thought so too. Maybe they just spun a
    story and dropped him when they got news
    of his new contract?
    Like they did with – was it Jano? – last year.

  4. il postino il postino says:
    May 9th, 2012 at 10:23 pm Reply to this comment

    Doubt it was spin, Boertjie. Seemed quite a bad injury at the time.

    Anyway Doppies had kind of got as far as he could in the SA game. New pastures, a nice payoff towards the end of his career in an untaxing league. I’d do the same!

  5. bok_in_oz bryce_in_oz says:
    May 10th, 2012 at 5:31 am Reply to this comment

    Reply to il postino @ 10:23 pm:

    Yep agreed on the injury… and agreed on the well deserved stint overseas to earn some decent moolah and have a bit of a scene change…

  6. Kat Kat says:
    May 10th, 2012 at 8:36 am Reply to this comment

    Doppies served us like few others and I wish him all the best for his future. He is a Lions man through and through. Takes a special man to stick with a team that went through so much. Great guy. He deserves every Euro he will get in Italy. True loyalty like this is rare in pro sport these days.

  7. Americano Americano says:
    May 10th, 2012 at 9:11 am Reply to this comment

    I didn’t get to watch this guy that much. I’m not real confident in this but was there a similarity to Dewet Barry in his game?
    I know he had some hard luck with his elbow and i was always trying to figure out why the commentators pronounced his name “Le Fran-see” but that is neither here nor there.

    I do know though that he was quite rated by DavidS and for that loss I’m sorry DavidS and wish this guy the best in sunny Italy.

  8. Cosa Cosa die BLOUBOK says:
    May 10th, 2012 at 4:34 pm Reply to this comment

    Reply to Kat @ 8:36 am:

    I also rated him. Hoped that he would come to the BULLS next year as a versatile bencher!

  9. DavidS Champion Supporter DavidS says:
    May 10th, 2012 at 7:43 pm Reply to this comment

    Reply to Americano @ 9:11 am:

    More like Wayne Julies. Outstanding pass left and right and good distributor.

Switch to our mobile site