Patrick Lambie

Patrick Lambie

Date of birth	October 17, 1990 (1990-10-17)
Place of birth	Durban, South Africa
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	92 kg (200 lb)
School	Clifton School Michaelhouse
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Fullback/Flyhalf/Centre
Provincial/State sides
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
2010-	Natal Sharks	17	(205)
Super Rugby
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
2010-	Sharks	22	(203)
National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
2010-	South Africa	10	(6)

Patrick Lambie is a professional rugby union player who plays for the Natal Sharks in the Currie Cup and Super Rugby. He attended school at Clifton Preparatory in Durban before attending Michaelhouse from 2004–2008. He represented his country at the schoolboy level for his last two years of school. He was head boy and captained both the rugby and cricket team in his final year at Michaelhouse.

Lambie is capable of playing flyhalf, centre and fullback, and was the leading points scorer in the 2009 ABSA u21 Currie Cup^{[citation needed]} despite only turning 19 later that year. He represented South Africa at the u20 level when he was selected for the squad, and was utilized extensively as the first choice fullback during the 2010 u20 World Cup in Argentina.^{[citation needed]}

Lambie broke into the Sharks senior team set up in the 2010 Super 14 season, where his debut was spent in the fullback position. He was shifted to centre in the 2010 Currie Cup and due to injury was required to fill the flyhalf birth. Due to his natural talent and unwavering nerve he made the position his own and was integral in helping the Sharks reach Currie Cup success in 2010, including scoring two tries, three conversions and three penalties in the Sharks' 30-10 win over Western Province in the final of the tournament. He was awarded with the "Man of the Match" award in the Currie Cup final. Lambie was also the second highest point scorer in the Currie Cup.

Lambie was called up to represent South Africa during their 2010 tour to Ireland and the United Kingdom. He made his début against Ireland on 6 November 2010, at flyhalf after Morne Steyn was substituted in the second half. He converted a try on his debut. He has since then made six appearances in total for the Springboks with five off the bench and one start. He has also started against the Barbarians team for the Springboks at fullback, but this is not an official international match. Patrick Lambie was Michaelhouse school's first South African rugby player in their 115 year history.

School career

Patrick Lambie was not a prodigious rugby player during his Clifton Preparatory school years, but he came into his own while attending Michaelhouse school. He played in the highest level teams in all of the u14,u15 and u16 age groups at Michaelhouse. He suffered an elbow injury in his 2006 year which sidelined him for most of the season. In 2007, Lambie made the Michaelhouse first team as fullback and went on to play both KZN at Craven Week and S.A. Schools. In 2008, Patrick Lambie became headboy of Michaelhouse and both first team rugby and cricket captain. In 2008 Patrick once again made the KZN Craven week and S.A. Schools sides. His cacks were Robert Anderson and Mark Brown. Lambie attained more than a 80% win rate with his two years of Michaelhouse's first team, and never lost in any sport to Hilton who is Michaelhouse's "rival" school. While Lambie played in the Michaelhouse first rugby team they were ranked in the top ten rugby schools in the country. Lambie was both the KZN cricket and KZN Craven Week captain.

2009 Season

Lambie had a very successful season in 2009 for the Sharks u21 team, even though he turned 19 years old in October that year. Lambie played the fullback position for the u21 Sharks. Lambie scored a personal haul of 192 points in the competition and ended the season as the u21 Currie Cup top points scorer. Lambie narrowly lost the u21 ABSA Currie Cup final against u21 Free State Cheetahs. He made one appearance for the Sharks senior side in 2009 in the Currie Cup against the GWK Griquas at centre. Lambie made his debut in the last twenty minutes of the match.

2010 Season

Patrick Lambie made his debut for the Sharks against The Highlanders at fullback on the 18th of March. His debut coincided with the end of the Sharks five game losing streak. He went on to start the next seven consecutive games (losing only one match against the champion Bulls which ended their 5 match winning streak) for the Sharks and scoring two tries in the process. Lambie then played for the South African u20 team in the 2010 IRB Junior World Championship in Argentina. He played fullback for all of the games and ended up as the tournaments second top scorer (behind Tyler Bleyendaal). South Africa came third in the competition.

Lambie quickly joined the Sharks for the start of the Currie Cup rugby competition. He started the campaign at fullback but shifted to inside centre and finally flyhalf where he would remain for the rest of the campaign. Lambie scored 205 points in 16 games and ended up the second highest scorer (behind Willem de Waal in the competition. He played in all the Sharks sixteen games coming off the bench in just one of them. In 2010 he played twenty four matches for the Sharks, winning 19 of them and scoring a total of 215 points in all competitions for the Sharks. Patrick Lambie was awarded the Man of the Match award for the Currie Cup final in which he led the Sharks to victory against the Western Province.

2011 Season

Patrick Lambie began the 2011 Super Rugby season by playing against the Cheetahs in a South African derby. Lambie converted a try and slotted three penalties, scoring eleven points in the process. Lambie's second match was against the Blues. He scored a try and converted four penalties and two tries scoring nineteen points in the process, he was awarded a man of the match for his display. Although Patrick put in a perfect kicking performance in his fifth match of the season against the Chiefs the Sharks lost 15-9. Lambie broke his finger in the match against the Chiefs and was sidelined for three matches, the only matches he had missed since his debut.

He came back strongly from his injury and propelled the Sharks from their dismal form, which included two losses after his departure, he then led them to 6th place on the Super Rugby log only nine points behind the reds. He finished fourth on the point scorers chart with 193 points which includes four tries in his first full season of Super Rugby. Lambie broke the Sharks record for most points scored in a season by an individual player. The Sharks made it to the Super Rugby playoffs but lost to the Crusaders with Lambie kicking all the penalties and conversions. His success and brilliant play in the Super Rugby season earned him a place in the preliminary Springbok squad for the RWC 2011. He made two more appearances for the Springboks this season during the Tri-nations and earned his first start on the 30th of July 2011 at fly-half against the New Zealand rugby team.

Honours

Natal Sharks

• Currie Cup: 2010

External links

• Sharks Profile