Bongi Mbonambi - The Elephant in the Room

At one stage he was competing with Marx for the starting position and he was in excellent form. His lineout throws were exceptional, and his work rate was strong around the park. Then around 2021, his form started deteriorating, and has progressively gotten worse.

He makes no impact off the bench, and looks tired after 10 minutes. He is 34 now, and will be 36 at the next world cup. Their is no way he should be in the squad. A bench hooker and squad hooker is needed now, and to get more game time for the next world cup.

It is time for him to join Mapimpi and be put out to pasture.

The older guys do look to be struggling with the pace of test rugby. Maybe the other elephant in the room is these 12 month rugby seasons we have now. Injuries galore, players looking gassed after 40 minutes of rugby in test season.

So Bongi has been dropped, perhaps forever. He has come off the bench for much of this season, and made xero impact. We have seen the last of him. A good servant of Springbok rugby, but it is time to move on.