its true the All Blacks have a full strength team to pick from, but they are well aware that test matches are a rare thing,hence the teamm they picked for scotland missing 6 incumbents and startin two brand spanking new debutants.
these matches need to be used to try new things and meyer will not get another better team like scotland to try out somethin new.
pienaar has all but solidified himself as the incumbent No9, but relegating him on thebench and giving hougaard another crack at halfback to prove himself would be the way to go.
i would also put veermak on the bench to cover for hougaard, but as an extra saftey net, i would make pienaar cover the backs.
hougaard at nine would then open the door for mvovo to come on in on the left wing.
meyer has to also see that alberts is offering very little and maybe he should start coetzee for this game and rest alberts altogethr and put botha on the bench, IMO marcel coetzeee plays more like a blidside flanker anyway and albert to mee looks like he could do with a rest.
strauss has been great for the Boks, with bizzy down for the count in 2012, hes stepped up and really played well, still plenty of things in his game to work on, but all in all he is SA best hooker at the moment.
i would bench strauss for this game and start chiliboy giving him a run, worst comes to worst, we can always call up strauss of the bench.
the props really have me worried especiall if jannie is out injrued, cos quite frankly thos props at the moment ar kak.
pat cilliers is prob one of the better props out there IMO and he has struggled all year in the Bok jersey.
with the likes of malharbe getting called in last min and kitshoff still at home, meyers squad selections in the prop area has been the worst.
i would also bring back morne for this match on the bench and start janties at 10. lambie has not had the best year in 2012 and hes had plenty of opprtunity, maybe not in gren, but hes had chances a plenty at spXV, where he was eventually usurped by the french maestro michilak.
IMO as great as lambie is, hes been poor in 2012. i know he polayed well in the CC, but thats a comp 3 tiers down from int, every international rep player should be nearly great at that level.
my team for scotland,,,
1 cj van der linde, 2 chiliboy, 3 f malherbe, 4 e ezebth, 5 j kruger, 6 f louw, 7 m coetzee, 8 d vermeulen, 9 f hougaard, 10 e janties, 11 l mvovo, 12 JDV, 13 j taute, 14 jp pieterson, 15 p lambie
16 a strauss, 17 h van der mewe, 18 p ciliers, 19 f van der mewe, 20 a botha, 21 j vermaak, 22 m steyn, 23 r pienaar
if JDV is injured, then i would put krichner at 14 and move jp to 12.
