{"id":329791,"date":"2025-12-05T16:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T16:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/329791\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T16:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T16:49:08","slug":"stormers-lock-adds-weight-to-zimbabwes-rugby-world-cup-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/329791\/","title":{"rendered":"Stormers lock adds weight to Zimbabwe&#8217;s Rugby World Cup mission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/stormers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stormers<\/a> forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/gary-porter\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gary Porter<\/a> has confirmed his availability for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/zimbabwe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zimbabwe<\/a> as the Sables look to build the depth of their squad ahead of their return to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/rugby-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rugby World Cup<\/a> stage in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a> in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Porter, 29, qualifies for Zimababwe, who last appeared at the tournament in 1991, through his Bulawayo-born mother.<\/p>\n<p>Standing two metres tall and weighing 115kg, Porter will give the Sables\u2019 tight five some extra ballast, as they prepare to face England, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/wales\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wales<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/tonga\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tonga<\/a> in Pool F in 22 months\u2019 time.<\/p>\n<p>He has previously spent time with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/western-province\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Western Province<\/a> and in the English Championship with Ealing Trailfinders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are in constant communication with players and we are happy with the progress of possible personnel who are showing interest in playing for the Sables,\u201d said Sables head coach Pieter Benade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne such example is the Stormers lock <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/gary-porter\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gary Porter<\/a>, whose mother was born in Bulawayo, and has confirmed he is available to play. We are looking to build the tight five, so Porter being added to the second row stocks will be a significant addition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stormers forward Gary Porter has confirmed his availability for Zimbabwe as the Sables look to build the depth&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-329791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}