Bok team predictions

So first game of the season, but not a test match. Reading through some old post, Rassie stated that he wanted to use the Barbarians game to get players back up to speed, especially those in Japan. So I expected to see the spine of the players to be from Japan. Then you had some players that hardly featured, those would be the likes of Etzebeth and Kolisi that has had very limited game time this season.

There will also be an SA A game as a curtain raiser. However, Rassie has pointed out that he will use this to give the U/20 players a run. So expect to see most of this team being the baby boks. This is designed to prevent any future bok stars from being poached, namely white players that have to go stand back in the line and pick up the slack.

So who would you put in your first bok team, keeping in mind the French, English and Bulls players are still on duty. So we won't see the likes of JJ VD Mech on the park and potentially the heaviest bok pack ever. Imagine having Wilco, Du Toit and Mesh in your tight five.

So here is who I think they should pick

1. Boan Venter
2. Malcolm Marx
3. Carlu Sadie
4. Eben Etzebeth
5. Lood de Jager
6. Paul de Villiers
7. Pieter-Steph du Toit
8. Jasper Wiese
9. Grant Williams
10. Manie Libbok
11. Cheslin Kolbe
12. Damian de Allende
13. Lukhanyo Am
14. Edwill van der Merwe
15. Quan Horn

Reserves

1. Andre-Hugo Venter
2. Ntuthuko Mchunu
3. Neethling Fouché
4. Franco Mostert
5. Evan Roos
6. Faf de Klerk
7. Andre Esterhuizen
8. Willemse

SA A team

1. Danie Kruger
2. JJ Kotze
3. Hanro Jacobs
4. Riley Norton
5. Ruben van Heerden
6. Phepsi Buthelezi
7. Emmanuel Tshituka
8. Vincent Tshituka
9. Nico Steyn
10. Vusi Moyo
11. Zekhethelo Siyaya
12. Jurenzo Julius
13. Markus Muller
14. Jaco Williams
15. Luan Giliomee

Reserves

1. Siphosethu Mnebelele
2. Ox Nche
3. Vincent Koch
4. Zachary Porthen
5. Ben-Jason Dixon
6. Imad Khan
7. Jesse Kriel

And just as I put my predictions out Rassie publishes his list. Real mix back of players, not sure who is the real A team and B team, but wanted to blend youth with experience I guess, given that they are playing against Zimbabwe.

Fassi is back, can he get back up to speed, Williams is starting, Norton is picked at 4, but short for a lock and light 1.98 and 118kg. Mostert is still in the mix

Most interesting is Horn at 10, must be running low on experience bok 10s right now. Don't think I have ever seen him play at 10 |

For the A team, Juju hardly made the bench. Probably not in Rassies bigger plans

Springbok team to face the Barbarians in Gqeberha:

15 Aphelele Fassi

14 Cheslin Kolbe

13 Jesse Kriel

12 Andre Esterhuizen

11 Edwill van der Merwe

10 Quan Horn

9 Grant Williams

8 Jasper Wiese

7 Pieter-Steph du Toit

6 Siya Kolisi (captain)

5 Franco Mostert

4 Riley Norton

3 Carlu Sadie

2 Andre-Hugo Venter

1 Ox Nche

Replacements:

16 JJ Kotze

17 Ntuthuko Mchunu

18 Zachary Porthen

19 Ben-Jason Dixon

20 Paul de Villiers

21 Evan Roos

22 Faf de Klerk

23 Vusi Moyo

SA ‘A’ team to face Zimbabwe in Gqeberha:

15 Luan Giliomee

14 Jaco Williams

13 Markus Muller

12 Lukhanyo Am

11 Zekhethelo Siyaya

10 Yaqeen Ahmed

9 Haashim Pead

8 Phepsi Buthelezi

7 Bathobele Hlekani

6 Emmanuel Tshituka

5 Ruben van Heerden

4 Vincent Tshituka (captain)

3 Neethling Fouche

2 Siphosethu Mnebelele

1 Boan Venter

Replacements:

16 Liam van Wyk

17 Oliver Reid

18 Hanro Jacobs

19 Adre Smith

20 Siba Mahashe

21 Nico Steyn

22 Imad Khan

23 Jurenzo Julius

Bit disappointed that Cameron Hanekom didn't make either squad but glad to see PSdT and Fassi back.

Hanekom will play on Friday night Rooi.

Still time to delete post and ill delete mine.

Ja, no Bulls players

Excited to see what Moyo can do off the bench. Big bodied 10 with great hands and a cannon boot.

These teams do have the feel of a end of season 1sts/2nds + colts squad game rather than a warm up for England. Hopefully no injuries.

"Hanekom will play on Friday night Rooi.

Still time to delete post and ill delete mine."

Oh, of course. I forgot the Bulls are playing a final.

My bad.

lol Imagine Rassie actually not picking Cam!

It would be WW3

I see Carly Sadie is 29, Weighs 13 kg and has been playing at 3 fir Bordeaux. Looking forward to seeing how he goes.

The two locks are lightweight but mobile so should suit a Baa Baas match.

Quan at 10 will be very interesting. He has a good head for rugby and is a skillful player but when last did he play 10?

One should think the AE fanboys should be over the moon...

"One should think the AE fanboys should be over the moon..."

Hahaha DB.

Pride cometh before the fall. I'll wait till he's named in the team to face England. ; )

;-)

I see no Dud in any of the teams. Pushing 35 now, who will be our next in line 12. Can't be Willemse ?

Hooker is cooked for now. Will have to wait and see.

People apparently like Mills.

Honestly, I didn't think he looked too special. But then in the two games before he got injured he was looking quite decent.

Mega weird that we have this abundance of athletic loosie size players but seem to be struggling to find two good 12s to take over from DDA and AE. Shouldn't we have plenty of those?

The Bulls have Stokke, basically held together with duct tape and prayer at this point. The Stormers have a stop gap 12. Mills at the Lions might be the guy but there is nowhere near enough evidence for him yet. And the Sharks have AE who probably has until the WC and then he's done.

Do we really want Hooker at 12 considering the other skills he brings? Willemse can probably do a job, but he's our best 15 by a distance and probably one of the best 23s in the world.

Dunno, but I can't think of any clear successors at 12.

"Quan at 10 will be very interesting. He has a good head for rugby and is a skillful player but when last did he play 10?"

His decision making is at crazy levels. Toward the end of the season he started making a few errors here and there but prior to that he went for so many games at a zero error rate. Nobody does that. For reference, Willemse's error rate this season, in a side with far better funding and players than the Lions, was higher than Quan's. What happens when Quan slots in with a dominant pack that runs over people, wins their lineouts and mauls well?

Quan already pops up as the Lions 2nd, 1st reciever so it's not like he's completely new to the position and I heard a stat that he has the most 50-22's in the URC this season so his identification of where the space is and ability to exploit it has been shown.

Also with this being Fassis 1st game back I wouldn't be surprised to see him move to 15 later on and Moyo come on.

Dunno, but I can't think of any clear successors at 12.

No worries, T-Bro is grooming Am for the 12 position. That leaves us good for at least another year.

We could have had the mulleted wonder and broken Becs' heart.

Bronson still needs to do more impressing, yes.

Roos is waiting. Waiting.

Honestly, selecting Franco Mostert over Ruben v heerden doesn't really make sense to me. He is most properly there to guide the young Riley Norton.

Quan at 10 is a surprise, but let's see how it goes. In my opinion, he is best served at fullback, not a make shift flyhalf.

I do feel sorry for Jurie Matthee, who is a solid flyhalf and actually deserves the chance at Springbok level.

Happy for Carlu Sadie, who is the next best Tight Head prop we have other than Wilco.

Both of them are very powerful at scrum time. Not so fassi is overrated, and Quan or Willemse, is much better at fullback.

Hopefully, we can have a good game. I sincerely hope Dr. Lucky gets his selections, and depth building spot on for the 2026 season, in preparation for RWC 2027.

Looks like our backline player are getting smaller and smaller. Did you see Luan Guilleme next to Andre Esterhuizen, looks like an under 12 player against OOM Andre. Not sure how these midgets are going to square up against international quality backline players that over 100kgs and thighs like thunder. Just have to chuck in a few big south sea islanders and it will be one way traffic all day.

Markus Muller is not big at all only standing at 1,83 cm and 92 kg. Where you have Moodie and Hooker that are both over 1.90 and pushing close to 100kg with speed and skill to boot.

It also looks like our locks are shrinking. Dave would have a fit if he was on here with Riley Norton at 4 lock and only 198 tall and less then 115 kg. Apparently he is too slow to play blind side flank, but highly rated as a leader. Probably need some speed training. Also, wonder if he should have opted for Cricket instead given he is a fast bowler with amazing batting and bowling stats. Batting average of over 50 and 18 for bowling. Could have made some proper cash in the IPL.

Then Tsesuka has been plugged into lock for the A's and he is only 195 cm. Saffex will be having kittens right now why he is not starting for the boks. But what Dave doesn't know is that there are only 23 players that can fit into a match day team and that 150 does go into 23.

Stil, will be interesting

Before 1992 the main strength of the Springboks used to be their backlne, The average height and weight of players were no bigger and heavier than the call small/ Take for instance Gerber by some distance the Springboks best ever had - his height was 1,83 and weight 91 kg.

After 1992 the situation changed drastically to the negative with introduction of 10 man rugby - that rarely let to scoring of tries. Jean de Villiers was by some distance the best center we had in the period - but he h ad two essential elements for backline players - he had ball sense and ball skill and adequate pace,

The problem started with flyhalfs. The game plan was for flyhalfs to ki.ck the ball and the rest of the problem was a disaster, Take for instance Morne and compare him with Carter. Percentage-wise Carter kicked mote balls than Morne did - but there was a huge difference. Carter kicked balls strategically putting the opponents under pressure - Morne made aimless kicks putting his own team under pressure.

So lets look at centers. They basically needs three essentials to be goo/d centers, The need to have adequate pace, ball sense and ball skills. The need to be able to protect breakdown balls and steel oppoments balls, Of those requirements Fransie had zerfo af ter trying to destgoying the food production in France He became slow and neve pated a testg between 2012 and 2019 whn h e was used as bench player in tests already won by the Springboks, AE was and remains slow, and even White ratnefd him as a loosie - not a center/ He is not adequate in pace and his ball sense was inadequate.

The Springboks predominantly played ten man ru,gby woith loosies that was the extension o/f the Tight 5. Bar a short period in 1997 to 1998 when they won 17 tests in a row and the team reigned supreme. The reason was that .in 1997 Carel du Plessis as coash and his comments were real - the Springboks were unable to score tries ab=nd he set out to select a squad that could be coached to overcome that requirement - struggled initially but then the team clicked and they beat th e Lions and Australian by the biggest winning margins ever, When Du Plessis was replaced by Mallett and headded ju,st one backline player to the squad - Moore,

The honeymoon lasted 18 months and then a problem set in - some of the players wanted to retire and Mallet fired Teichmann as captain. The deterioration in performances started and Mallett failed to find replacements that meet requirements - in other words he resigned before he would have been fired,

In 2004 White was appointed as coach and the era of 10 man rugby returned with a vengeance, The fact is that the Springboks won the RWC .2007 by luck. In his book Smit wrote there were no game plan aimed at scoring of tries in h e final - zilch .

The dark years started getting better in 2018 and now the situation is that some of the stallwards have to be replaced with due regard to the requirements I referred to/ above,

There is on other issue that was to be changed and that is the usage of loosies. In the past they were part of an extension of the Tight 5 - now they must be pqrt of a broader game plan in conjunction with the backline. That was why Browne was brought in. All we hear on this site is why was Du,Toit or other players where they used to/ be in the past - it is aprt o/f t he Brown game plan/ . , . . .

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