Bok team vs French

15 Willie le Roux: 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers (captain) 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Flip van der Merwe, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Gurthrö Steenkamp, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Bakkies Botha, 20 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 21 Siya Kolisi 22 Jano Vermaak, 23 Patrick Lambie

 Real pity about Du Preez, we will definitely see the gap between him and Pienaar, in fact Pienaar has never been a class player.

Jacque Fourie???? Mmmmm not so sure

Glad Willie is there.  Good to see Pieter Steph on the bench.

One utility back (Lambie)?

This is a weird side.   The Bench are made up of 6 forwards and 2 backline players.

One has to wonder about that one.  Meyer insists on having Bakkies Botha - despite a low key and very average performance against the Scots on the bench - and is prepared to gamble that Fourie - after a poor game against the Welsh and a vey ordinary one against the Scots - will be able to put his hand up against the French.

One wonders why Meyer has to sacrifice a backline replacement in a desperate effort to find a place or Bakkies Botha.   Our locks (Etzebeth, Van der Merwe and Du Toit) are probably the best locks in world rugby at  present - yet he adds a lock to the match day squad.

Our real problem is with the backline - where we have   four top players (Le Roux, Pietersen, Habana and De Villiers)  and 3 very iffy ones (Fourie, Steyn and Pienaar).  One would have thought that he should take out insurance against a flop by the iffy three - by at least adding another center to he squad - but Meyer takes out insurance in a position where such insurance is not necessary.

One has to really wonder why that happened?          

Pine

I hope you are amused too on Saturday - when we have problems in that backline combination.  

Pienaar is not the scrummie he was five years ago and I am worried about him on Saturday.   He was not really up to standard In all tests he played in this year - so he is a source for concern.

The second weak spot is the robotic Morne Steyn - whose defence is indeed questionable.  He was poor in the RC with a missed tackle ratio of 19%  and in the Wales test it was 20%.   Aside from his failure as a backline pivot, I do not trust him to perform remotely up to standard under pressure.  That pathetic kick in the Super 15 final - that resulted in the winning try being scored by the Brumbies - and his failure in the Ellis Park test - condemned even by Naas Botha -  are two examples of such failures.

The third weak spot is Fourie - he was pathetic in the Wales Test when  Davies twice ran past him as if he was not even on the field of play.  Luckily for Fourie Davies went off injured. otherwise the Welsh backline would have had a field day.   Against the weak Scottish centers he showed nothing in attack - but at least he made his tackles.   The French centers are of a different class - so the question is - will it be another Davies  day" on Saturday.  Quite likely to happen.

I would have go ne for a win by the Springboks - but that backline is a major headache and one can only wonder whether the test will be won or lost.   However, a loss is a real possibility as a result of Meyer's unreasonable selections - especially in view of my comments above.