Andries Bekker, Tiaan out of Bok tou

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Cape Town - The Springboks have been dealt a further blow with lock Andries Bekker and hooker Tiaan Liebenberg set to miss their European tour.

News broke on Monday that the Western Province duo will miss their team's Currie Cup semi-final against the Golden Lions this weekend. Bekker injured his right toe in the first half of their victory over the Cheetahs at Newlands last week, while Liebenberg  injured his back in the same game.

While WP remain reluctant to state how serious the injuries are, the Beeld website was reliably informed that Bekker will be out for between six to eight weeks, with Liebenberg likely out for two or three months.

This will be a big blow for the Boks, after they also recently lost the services of prop Coenie Oosthuizen (back injury) and flyhalf Johan Goosen (knee).

The Springboks start their European tour against Ireland in Dublin on November 10, followed by Tests against Scotland in Edinburgh (November 17) and England in London (November 24).

The news will also affect WP negatively should they beat the Lions and progress to the Currie Cup final. De Kock Steenkamp and Scarra Ntubeni will replace the injured duo for Saturday's clash in Johannesburg.

 Wonderful player management by South Africa. Andries Bekker could have been a Springbok great if managed properly. 

Waisted in a totally meaningless Currie Cup in comparison to the Springbok internationals. 

Australia do not even have a local competition like the ITM or Currie Cup. The All Blacks would never be playing the likes of Mccaw, Carter and co in their ITM. Instead they are wrapped in wool and being conditioned to peak for the games that mean something to players of their caliber.

Visbok, Andries Bekker's injury has nothing to do wioth management. He is just fragile by nature. When was the last time that he complated  an entire season? Not even when he played of the bench, for the Springboks, did he see out an entire season. I was indeed surprised by the amount of rugby that he managed to play this year. He must have clogged more minutes on field than he has ever managed in any particular season of his career.

Bongani

Your summary is 100% correct as to the Bekker situationm.

However, there is one point I wish to raise.   In discussions with players in the game prior to 1981 - I was told that the player agenda for players those days - rarely exceed 14 to 16 games a year.   That included both tests and CC games.   They obviously played some more club rugby games - but that was not as strenuous as games played on higher level.

The old players I talked to all expressed serious reservations about the present situation - where it is expected from players to play more than 30 games a year on a much higher level.   I believe it is essential to maximize the number of games realistically expected from players to circa 20 to 24 games per year and make sure that they are rotated and rested throughout the season.  The real situation should be three games and the next one a rest game.   That would help with recovery from minor injuries and niggles as well.  Unfortunately the money requires wins every week  .

Some players get mentally and physically tired and does not play consistently through seasons.  It also seem that the serious injury problems are enhanced when platers are over-used.

Just some thoughts on the matter - obviously Naas Botha (a workaholic if ever there was one) will disagree with what I said here.    

Mike, although I agree 100% on the rotation issue, it will remain pie in the sky, unless we see a major mindset change from right at the top. The players are nothing more than commodities, in the eyes of the big bosses, nowadays.

 The thing that I don’t get is the fact that we have our national coach saying that he can’t put demands on provincial coaches to rest certain players as they are contracted by the unions and the unions want results. Ultimately the unions pays their wages, but then if you look at all the money that SARU give these unions based on broadcast right for the Springboks and Super Rugby. I would almost say the National coach has every right to make a request. I just don’t want to see our provincial team taking preference when our number one priority should be the springboks.

On the Bekker issue, the guy was played into the ground by Coetzee back in 2011 and 2010 and almost played every single Super rugby game. The latter of the games he was carrying an injury and ended up being ruled out for the entire season and missing his opportunity to go to the world cup. Bekker is our best number 5 lock by a country mile and so are some of our other players. It is time that key players get the financial reward and game management to pro-long their career and ensure that they are at their best for the financial team. 

Bekker seems to be fine and might still play on Saturday.

Liebenberg is no loss. A v overated player. If this moves Craig Burden up the pecking order then its good news!

"On the Bekker issue, the guy was played into the ground by Coetzee back in 2011 and 2010 and almost played every single Super rugby game."

In 2011 Bekker played 1135 minutes of Super Rugby. Victor Matfield played 1200 min. The difference is that after that Bekker was out, while Matfield played two full TN tests. Then he went on to play the RWC.

In 2010, Bekker played the Super 14 series. I have not yet checked his game time, but the S14 final was, once again his last game for the year.

Nee wat, Bekker is just fragile. He was probably played into the ground by his standards, but not compared to a many other players.

If you had watched pap victor "playing" he was forever leaning on the rucks or standing waving his arms at the bulle forwards or in the bull backline. Never forget bakkies immortal words - victor doesnt always play in the backline. I have watched this guy"play" for an entire match. Doing zip and then being acclaimed by his groupies.! What a con man.

Bekker is many times more physical than matfield. I cannot think of a lock who isnt.  I am hoping Meyer tries Flip and Etzebeth as  a combo on tour.

Geez Beeno, I cannot believe that after al these years, you still have the same argumenst that you have been using back in 2008/9 on Supersport. When I noticed that you are on here, I thought that you just might have opened your eyes and bowed down to the brilliance and superiority of one of the greatest lock forwards to play the game, if not the greatest.

Liebenberg is no loss at all, he should never have been considered in the first place

Liebenberg was in the Bok team by default.

@kingkorn,

spot on bro, meyer should have the right to say no to certain players being played in the currie cup and theres no doubt in my mind that Boks rugby would improve 30% easy with this adjustment alone.

before the All Blacks left on their away leg of the IRC against the pumas and the Boks, carter was under an injury cloud and beauden barret who plays for taranaki in the ITM was named in his provinces team mid week clash against auckland on the 19th sept, more then two weeks before the All Blacks departed from NZ to play the final IRC tests, but hansen pulled him out much to the disgust of many taranaki fans as he was an important part to their team in an imprtant game and ultimatley taranaki lost the match and on top of that, barret didnt play one second in argentina or SA.

now i got no love for taranaki, but even i thought that wrapping up even fringe All Black players in cotton wool was the wrong call, but after seeing the way saffa players get worked into the ground, i am very thankful that NZRU have the philosophy of the rugby needs of the All Blacks, outweigh the rugby needs of the man and if they do amke errors, it is always on the side of caution.

while i agree that some layers are defitnately harder then others, to say the matfield is not a hardman is rubbish, i dont think theres such a thing as a forward who has ever represented the Boks noe being hard.

matfield was class, higly rated in NZ as one of the finest locks to ever grace the game and when compared to bekker, theres a big pfffffft with a kiwi accent all over it.
bekker at his best is super class, but he cant produce that on a conssitent level, did nayone watch him play in mendoza and soccer city??? i mean jeebers, talk about much ado about nothing, though the pumas dont the All Blacks and pumas dont see it that way, thanks to him easy meters and pts were cashed in thanks to the bekker cheque.
he also has an injury issue, has beeker EVER played a season not plagued with injuries, if there was ever a player who needed SARU to step up and say enough is enough, bekker is one and brussow is another, both have been in the Boks for 5 years and beekers racked up 29 tests and brussow 20, o_O,,,all this talk about them being quality and best ever means jack if they dont play enough times to prove that on the big stage where it counts the most.

Sorry oaks matfield at 107 kg and a string bean was the papest lock ever to play for the Boks. Name me a papper lock  - there just isnt one.

No the immortal comment of Bakkies (his long suffering lock partner and the true world class ) sums it all up - victor doesnt alwys play inm the backline - suck it up roupies suck it up!!. Bwahahahahahahahahaha he was not actually a lock at all. Only thing he was any good at wa scatching the ball in the lineout and here his feats were magnified out of all proportion.

Thankfully he has retired RIP. Pity one has to reiterate all this but some nutters are still thinking matfield was a lock of note.

Now lets hope Meyer doesnt play pap Chilli Boy a loafer of note.  Great pity about Liebenberg as he is the type of tough get your hands dirty player you need in the NH where scrumming is taken seriously. wee chilli best stay at home! Hahahahahhahahaha.

We just have to hope Strauss stays fit or we are in trouble. The fancy pants types love wee burden. He may be of use as an impact player but who in his right mind would start burden in a test aganist  a top side. No Meyer was spot on re our three best hookers - Bissie, Liebenberg and Strauss.

man snapster you need to get some clear thinking going. Jake I seem to recall also called up Liebenberg. Both Meyer and Jake saw his merit. chilli boy was a quota selection and that much is obvious  -they even mad him Bok captain one game!! . Also snapster do stop going on about JJ at center!! There's  a good man! If JJ finally does something at center you may speak again!

saSUE neither Brussouw or Bekker will be thrown away.   Nobody has said they are the best ever in any case!!! What is clear is that Bekker is ten times the lock wannabe that victor was. Victor never got injured simply because of his non physical play.  

So much to straighten out and so little time!!

 Both Bakkies and Matfielf was extremely poor for the boks in 2011 and 2010. They peaked back in 2009 when they won the Tri-Nations and beat the lions. Since then they just played on reputation. Matfield was managed by his union and hardly ever trained, it is a well known fact. Don't forget, Bakkies was also injured for a long time and probably played nearly half the Matches that Matfield did. This is probably the reason why players such a s Spies, Morne Steyn and Matfield never got injured is the fact that they hardly ever got stuck in. 

I'm not denying Matfields greatness as he schooled Bekker in the Super Rugby final. What I'm stating is that Matfield coasted in last couple of seasons. I will also never forget Matfields solo chip and collect try that he scored back in 2003 when the bulls was still getting a hammering. If you thought that he like hanging in the background, you should have seen him then. 

So after many years loafing in the backline he managed to chip one over the opposing backlin ean score. Oh boy one for the books!!!

No we are well shot of him.

Case closed