Boks squad against Ireland

05th November 2014 11:32

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Ready to charge: Springboks

South Africa have stuck with the same starting XV that defeated New Zealand at Ellis Park in October, making one change on the bench.

The only change to the match-day squad is at replacement prop, where the injured Marcel van der Merwe is replaced by Coenie Oosthuizen.

"Although Julian Redelinghuys was also considered, he's still new in the team and not familiar with our patterns of play and especially the line-out calls, while Coenie knows the way we play well," said Meyer.

"Coenie is also in great shape and we know what he can do, especially if he has to make an impact off the bench. It's good to have him back."

Meyer was very happy with the continuity in selection from the last Test.

"It's only the fifth time in what will be the 34th Test since I was appointed as Springbok coach that we've been able to select an unchanged starting line-up," said Meyer.

"In this day and age, not making changes to teams is pretty much unheard of, but this is a great position we're in. However, we need to make it count against a very tough Irish side on Saturday.

"Although we won our last Test, the challenge this week is to make another step up. It's imperative that we improve in all facets of our play."

South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Jan Serfontein, 12 Jean de Villiers (c), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Tebo Mohoje, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Bakkies Botha, 20 Schalk Burger, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 JP Pietersen.

Date: Saturday, November 8
Kickoff: 17:30 local (GMT, 19:30 SAST)
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant Referees: Mathieu Raynal (France), Alexandre Ruiz (France)
TMO: Jim Yuille (Scotland)

Here is an analysis of the Springbok attack by Murray Kinsella

http://www.thescore.ie/south-africa-analysis-attack-1763298-Nov2014/

Makes for interesting reading

Here is an [removed]ysis of the Springbok attack by Murray Kinsella

http://www.thescore.ie/south-africa-[removed]ysis-attack-1763298-Nov2014/

Makes for interesting reading

Yes, thee are a lot of positives and to an extent I am tired of the negativity, but the problem is I am so "gatvol" of us being second best that my obsession with us being number one won't allow me to take a break on the perceived problem areas.

I have been of the opinion since 2012 that if we wanted to move on from the old school  Springbok mentality (Matfield, John Smit, Fourie du Preez, Jake white mentality etc) we must get rid of the players of that era and start from scratch.

I believe there is a new generation player in South Africa that can evolve our game with adding intelligent play to our existing strengths and we need a coach to see that.

I understand about valuing experience, but I also understand the limitations of experience as old dogs don't like to learn new tricks.

I also understand that whoever coach the Boks will always be criticised as we are demanding, it is important to remember though that there is good criticism and bad criticism in the sense of things we can criticise like the odd selection, or odd decision making or the odd execution error which is where we should be (good criticism) rather than where most of us question the selection of half the squad (bad criticism)

I take it that Bakkies is on the bench to help Coenie in the scrum when its time for both to go on as subs. The paw-paw will strike the fan if their is an early injury. Oh well, lets hope not.

I know nothing about the Irish squad except that their strength apparently lies with their pack of forwards.

Go Bokke.