Boks likely to drop Bekker!

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 By the end of each Super15 season, becker has played his maximium amount of games for the year. His back can only cope with so much. The only reason he is even playing now, may be that fact that he missed many of the Super15 games.

The Stormers play him into the ground, and by the time international season is here Bekkers Back is chronic. Maybe he is just to tall...

bekker had a bad game in medoza, but the pumas tight 5 are world class, their monster locks carizza amd albacete are IMO easily the equall of their counterparts around the world.

bekker does have a history with that back of his and if he is dropped, i hope its due to the issues with his back and not based on his performance.
back issues are common people for tall athletes and i hope bekkers gets better soon, would be a big loss for the Boks but j krguer really impressed me during the english test series, was surprised to not see him on the bench in the matches against the pumas.

 @sasuke- j kruger seems to have much more to offer than Flip Flop. His lineouts were strong and he seemed to have a work rate that could be observed. Unlike Flip Flop who ends every game with a cut above his own eye and only seems visibale when giving away when play has stopped.

@sharkbok,

i dont mind flip TBH, especially the work he does in the breakdowns. he could assert himself a little more around the field though, but that comment could be applied to most the Boks forwards in 2012, with coetzee and ezebeth the exception.

saSUE and sharkbok the abs were always delighted when we played wee matfield - 107 kg - at lock. Juandre at 110 kg is a better player than matfield of course and has a semblance of lock play in his repertoire. He is also very mobile. But when it comes to crunch time he is not the type of lock we need.

saSUE please dont try and drum up support ofr the inlcusuion of weak playes into the Bok test team.  Juandre was poor against England and hence Meyer dropped him. Meyer thinks agains tthe less physical Oz side and the more physical loose trio we have taking up any slack, Juandre can do a hjob for us. Could do but not to be played against the abs.

You cant fool Beeno saSUE

Oh for a young Bakkies Botha - now there was a lock!  We could also start thinking about Elstadt for next year and perhaps the year after Du Toit will come into the picture with guys like Willemse and Quinn Roux. Mostert was a lock we threw away in my opionion. 

Bekkers back trouble is a real concern. When fit he plays well. However please get Liebenberg in at hooker againsnt the abs!

Sasu

Mattfield was good in line-outs, but subpar in other elements of the game - normally standing around in the backline and doing nothing else/

I agree with Mike and Beans here, Matfield was a line-out genius, but pretty lazy and useless outside that. And especially later in his career, he spent half his time camping in the backline. Overrated!

@clevermike,

i thought he was a great defensive player, always had a high tackle count, but i do remember him spending a lot of time in the backline on attack, instead of getting his hands dirty in the breakdowns like all good tight 5 players should. maybe thats why he workes so well with bakkies boofhead botha??? between the two of them they had a very balanced set of skills which complimented each other.
also that little kick over the head against the wallabies in 2010 which he reagthered and then offloaded to fourie(i think???) was pretty awesome. :)

Yes, yes saSUE I am sure the abs were delighted to play against a bok tight 4 but lets not kid oursleves on this one. matfield could not cope with the work of  a genuine lock as he was not physically up to it. I would love to know the number of lineout steals he averaged against OZ and NZ per test.

Balanced set of skills!!!!!!!!!! - hahahahaahhahahahahaha no saSUE he made a poor center combo with Jean!! Bwahahahahahaha. Bottom line was he was no tight forward and tried to compensate in other ways.

Folk are talking of Bekker being dropped but is he in fact carrying an injury? Maybe Meyer is wanting him to recover and play against the abs? It seems as though he might have a chronic problem.

first off just have a look at beeno's ref to matfield and his weight just shows the same size obsessed mentality instead of his skills.

not to worry beeno is part of the prehistoric armchair warriors that cant believe that there teams never get any form of major glory. bekker and his back problem stems from being over worked by your boylover no cups coetzee in the super rugby comp

anyone that thinks matfield is anything less than a legendary player is really just idiot

@sas i agree botha and matfield complimented each other because they each offer something different. good luck trying to explaining it to beeno. might as well teach a brick wall to fix a car

Hi there muncher top of the afternoon to you.

Look I cant see how a foward living in the backline compliments a lock like Bakkies. Playing a tight 4 was never a good idea. I dont want to exagerate this thoug  as Bakkies did say victor doesnt always play in the backline (dare he say more) - poor Bakkies one for feels for the load he had to bear.

No victor has conned you and a number of others but could l not fool everyone. 107 kg - my that is Juan Smith weight and 1 kg heavier than marchell coetzee - and strung out. No wonder he was a complete flop as a tight forward. All he was good for was being tossed in the air by the pros - hardly much for him to do - and then he had to catch the ball  - which was something he could do - to give him full credit.

He and Smit ruined the careers of Bekker and Bissie. Bekkers best years were wasted in my view as these two manipulated ou pdv to keep them on.

Beeno's opinion on Matfield: "He was hanging around in the backline all the time."

vs

The facts: Matfield usually made more tackles and more cleanouts in the rucks than any of the other forwards. He was in fact ON AVERAGE the forward with the highest work rate in the tight-loose.

Beeno's opinion on Bekker: "He is very physical. He has grunt. He has huge scrummaging power, etc, etc,"

vs

The facts: Bekker's defence is pathetic and has always been. His scrummaging is weak and every  time he came on for Matfield, the pack suffered in the scrums. And Heyneke Meyer said the following too "Juandré played very well against England, [where] I was very happy with his performance. He may not be as experienced as Andries, but he does play more to the ball and that is what we will need on Saturday." And to translate that for Beeno... "Andries Bekker does NOT play to the ball and hangs around in the back-line too much, so I selected someone else who is more willing to get involved in the physical stuff."