GianniLombard, just by being on the field, is already a winner in this season’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship. The schoolboy sensation of six years ago hastwice fought back from serious knee injuries to star in the Emirates Lionsstunning away win against the Ospreys.

Lombardwill start again at No 10 against Cardiff on Friday evening, with JordanHendrikse providing cover off the bench.

Hendrikse,the 21 year-old brother of Springboks scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse, started theopening match of the season and indications are that he and Lombard will sharethe No 10 responsibilities for the Emirates Lions.

Lombard,a former SA Schools and SA under 20 fullback/winger, was part of the famedPaarl Boys High School side that went 60 matches unbeaten in five years whenSean Erasmus was the head coach.

Lombardplayed First XV in the final two years of that five-year streak, with PaarlBoys High providing six of the SA Schools starting pack and 11 of the match 23.

Erasmuswas scouted by the Emirates Lions and this influenced the decision of Lombard,centre Manuel Rass and loose-forward Francke Horn to make the move.

TheDHL Stormers and Springbok lock Salmaan Moerat captained Paarl Boys High in thefinal year and of that side Dan Jooste and Takir Abrahams have played for theSharks and Khanya Ncusane for the Sharks Academy.

‘Itwas a very well balanced side,’ said Erasmus. ‘It is encouraging that so manyare making an impression so early on in their professional careers and it isparticularly pleasing to see Gianni back after such big injury setbacks.’

Lombard,with supreme skill sets that includes goalkicking, was also a superb athlete atschool. He ran 11.1 in the 100 metres but his specialist events were the 100metres hurdles and 400 metres hurdles. He won silver in the 400 metres hurdlesat the 2016 Under 18 World Championships.

Thetemptation was there to pursue an athletics career and take up scholarshipoffers in the United States.

Hispassion for rugby won the day, but it was rugby that nearly ended hisprofessional sporting career.

AnACL injury, suffered in the Emirates Lions win against the Chiefs in NewZealand in 2019, ended his season and on his return to the field he did hisknee again.

Tocome back from one knee injury takes some doing. To return from two, havingcome in quick succession, says everything about the mental strength of the 24year-old.

Lombardtook a different journey back from the second injury and joined former EmiratesLions and Gloucester coach Johan Ackermann at the Red Hurricanes in Japan. Themove was part of a structured rehabilitation programme and Lombard was easedback into professional rugby in the Japanese league where the focus is more onthe pace of the game.

Heplayed four matches earlier in the year before returning to home for the startof the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.

Toget a measure of just how hard Lombard has fought to play again, you only haveto look at his professional match statistics. Since his professional debut in2018, he has played just 19 matches, with six of them coming in the past fewmonths.

Comparethat with a player who never missed a match for his Schools First XV, played inall three SA Schools matches in 2016 and played in 10 out of a possible 10 SAunder 20 matches in 2017 and 2018, including two junior World Cups.

‘Thehardest part of being injured was watching your mates play every week but Inever lost hope or motivation.  The medical team, rehabilitation team andthe coaches at the Lions were so good in providing all the support I needed,’said Lombard. ‘To be on the field, playing for the Lions in the Vodacom URC is justthe greatest feeling.’