Scots roots of new South Africa sensation

WHEN one of South Africa's hottest new talents Patrick Lambie takes his bow on his first UK tour, there will be many watching on from Scotland wondering "what if".

• Patrick Lambie was a star of the 2010 Currie Cup final at the weekend, the stand-off scoring two of the Sharks' three tries, and is one of seven uncapped players in South Africa's 30-man squad. Picture: Getty

Just 20 a fortnight ago, Lambie was a star of the 2010 Currie Cup Final, the stand-off scoring two of the Sharks' three tries, converting all three and adding a penalty to steer the Durban side to a convincing 30-10 win over Western Province.

His hopes of winning a call-up to the Springboks' end-of-season "Grand Slam" tour received a major boost as a result and he was named for the squad, which arrived this week in Ireland to prepare for Saturday's opening Test match, the first to be played in Dublin's new Aviva Stadium. Much focus has been on New Zealand and their bid for another "Grand Slam" - their hopes of setting a new record of consecutive wins dashed by defeat to the Wallabies at the weekend - but the Springboks have a similar agenda with games against the four home nations in successive weeks.

Lambie is one of seven uncapped players in South Africa's 30-man squad, and there is a good chance he may feature in the Murrayfield international.

Former Scotland captain Peter "PC" Brown, who led Scotland to the only back-to-back wins over England inside eight days, in 1971, is one person hoping that is the case, as he is a relation.

"We are all very excited," he told The Scotsman. "Another branch of the family has come good! We are very pleased and proud to see another member of the family doing well in rugby. If only we had persuaded him to play for Scotland."

Lambie has two Scottish grandparents, a grandfather from England who also played for England, and a grandmother from South Africa. His Scottish great-grandmother Don Lambie (nee Bell) was Peter's grandmother's sister.

Patrick's great-grandfather Sammy Lambie was also pretty well known in Ayr as he owned a chip shop around the corner from Somerset Park.

"His father Ian and I consider ourselves half-cousins," said Brown. "Patrick's grandpa Jack and Neeta Lambie emigrated from Ayr, and they had two daughters and a son, Ian.

"I was across in South Africa last year and met Patrick for the first time.He is a lovely lad and has great hands for rugby, hands like I remember my father had, natural ball-player's hands - isn't it funny how the genes come through?

"I did try to tell him he should be thinking about his grandfather, of course, and maybe have a wee think about Scotland, but he's a Durban boy born and bred and very proud of his roots there so there was only one path he was looking at and good on him.

"I did tell Andy Robinson to watch out for him last year and Andy being Andy said he'd compile a dossier immediately, and I bet he probably did. But the boy will be a Springbok soon, albeit with the Scottish blood helping him along."

Lambie, who has played stand-off, centre and full-back, has made a swift impression on the senior game.

He was born in Durban in 1990, only left school, Michaelhouse, two years ago, first played for the Sharks at provincial level in 2009, aged 18, and made his Super 14 debut this year, against the Hurricanes. However, he always had a notable sporting talent, captaining the high school rugby first XV and cricket first XI, and represented his province Natal in both sports. He was the leading points scorers in the 2009 U21 Currie Cup and played for the U20s in the IRB Junior World Championships in Argentina this year. He was one of five nominations for the South African Young Player of the Year this season, narrowly missing out to Lions fly-half Elton Jantjies. Both Lambie and Jantjies have been included in coach Peter de Villiers' tour squad, and so if they fill the same roles as they did with the under-20s, Lambie may be more likely to feature at full-back.

When he takes his international bow, however, which is almost certain to be this month, he will be the first from the Michaelhouse school to become a Springbok.

The Boks are missing a core of experienced players from the tour, including John Smit, Jaque Fourie, Wynand Olivier, Andries Bekker, Fourie du Preez, JP Pietersen, Gurthr Steenkamp, Butch James, Ricky Januarie and Schalk Burger, but de Villiers is keen to see how the young players cope with touring with a view to seeing how many he could include in next year's World Cup squad for New Zealand. Brown is clearly delighted that that has helped open the door for one of his far-flung relatives.

He added: "We didn't know if he would be involved at international level yet, because he has just turned 20, but the Currie Cup final was something special.

"I watched it and he beat three guys to score one of his tries, and was easily man of the match, so we had high hopes then that he might be selected. The coach has spoken about picking players for this tour that are in form, so that's obviously played a big part.

"We're delighted that Patrick will be touring Scotland. His parents and other family members are all coming across to support him and so we'll catch up. There's no accounting for the talent we Scots spread is there?"