What the fuck - SARU says one thing in Public and then does the exact opposite. Jurie Roux made an announcement of limitations of foreign-based players on TV - and then stood there announcing a squad consisting of nine foreign-based players without even a look of shame - despite the fact that he contradicted himself directly from what he said on TV previously. Spineles lot at SARU - that is for sure. I should never have trusted them at all - but I thought for a change they might be talking the truth.
There is just one consolation I can find in that squad and that is NO Francois Steyn and NO Juan de Jongh and NO Juandre Kruger. Mozart must be crying still about those three certainties he named as his top players. At least we are spared that one.
Now lets look at the squad:-
The 2011 WC losers
Here we have the following :-
Zane Kirchner, JP Pietersen, Bryan Habana, Jacque Fourie, Morne Steyn, Fourie du Preez, Willem Alberts, Bakkies Botha, Gurthro Steenkamp.
Of those the following are really no good anymore:-
Zane Kirchner, Morne Steyn, Willem Alberts, Gurthro Steenkamp
Fourie du Preez came back and played from the bench when the Pumas were in disarray and looked very good. Then came back for the Ellis Park test and was bog ordinary with nothing to write home about. Is he going to be something better in the forthcoming matches?
Bakkies Botha - always a card candidate is back - he was always a dirty player - and got a massive following despite that. But - for heaven sake - the man is 34 years of age and will be 36 in the WC time in 2015. Is he still up to standard and why him when we have good enough local talent. Back to the future in his case.
Like Du Preez, who had a very average game at Ellis Park - Fourie and JP Pietersen is playing "soft" rugby in Japan. Will they make it in the hard test environment - or be the same as Fourie du Preez was in the last test - bog ordinary? Fourie, Du Preez and Pietersen were great players - but are they still great players? I have my doubts about that one.
Meyer would be wise to play at least Pietersen and Fourie from the bench in the first test to see what they can produce - like he did with Du Preez, Not that it worked out in the Du Preez case in the AB test.
The Quota Selections
The selections made in the main with no regard to overall merit are the following:-
Zane Kirchner, Siya Kolisi, Gurthro Steenkamp, Scara Ngubene.
Merit selections :-
JP Pietersen, Bryan Habana, Gio Aplon (with some rather serious question marks on defence) and Tendai Mtawarire.
The Most disappointing Selections
Zane Thoughtless Kirchner, Morne Ellis Park Debacle Steyn, Willem Ellis Park Debacle Alberts, Ruan Mr Average Pienaar, Gurthro Fat Steenkamp, and Jannie Missed Tackles Professional du Plessis.
Answer to Mozart's Prayers
The Rugby Geriatrics Botha, Fourie, Pienaar, Steenkamp and Du Preez are all in.
The Poor and Under-Performing are also in:-
Morne Steyn, Willem Alberts, Jannie du Plessis
The prayers went astray because the following are still around:-
JJ Engelbrecht, Jan Serfontein, Johan Goosen, Pat Lambie (not after the recent final when he became a turncoat on that one), Marcel Coetzee, Frans Malherbe and Coenie Oosthuizen. That despite his constant bad mouthing of them. Did I leave out anyone in this category - Mozart?
The unexplicable selection
Louis Schreuder is the one I think of here. However, Meyer is one person that you can trust never to change his mind - unless forced into it by injuries, etc. He had Schreuder at one of his training camps last year - and that possibly explain that one.
The Future with that Squad looking at WC 2015
That future looks bleak with the squad selections made now - and that s really where we will repeat the 2011 series. The mediocre and over-the-hill players would make sure of that.
Repeat the mistakes of the Wallabies in 1995, the POMS in 2007, the Springboks in 2011 by selecting over-the hill players are a certain guarantee for losing in that competitio0n.
