Chilli boy going nowhere fast

Ex Keo

RYAN VREDE looks at Chiliboy Ralepelle’s plight and asks some pressing questions with the hooker on the cusp of his 50th Super Rugby appearance.

This milestone seems a logical place to stop and assess Ralepelle’s career. As a schoolboy and junior international Ralepelle was widely regarded as among the best in his position in the world. (He never really grew after that  -matured early) The Bulls proclaimed a massive coup upon securing his signature and former Springbok captain John Smit later anointed him as his successor, an offering he should have been more conservative with in hindsight.

It hasn’t helped Ralepelle’s development or personal ambition that up until this current Super Rugby campaign he hasn’t started regularly when fit, or missed large chunks of the tournament through injury. However, despite his lack of game time in Super Rugby he was continually selected for Springbok teams under Jake White and Peter de Villiers’ watch (as a quota player no doubt - this guy is misisng the obvious)) , the coaches justifying his selections with glowing assessments of his talent, which in turn created an unrealistic standard against which Ralepelle would be measured from thereon.

His elevation to the Test stage was undoubtedly premature (He was a quota selection dispite all the obfuscation), and while he has never looked completely out of his depth in any of his 21 appearances (the majority of those as a substitute), the aforementioned created expectation was never met. As a result he has been unfairly branded a mediocre Test player by large sections of the South African rugby fraternity. (Why unfairly - he was worse than mediocre. He should never have allowed himself to be used like this if he had any self respect)

However, injury-free and backed by his coaches at the Bulls this season, Ralepelle has impressed and shown glimpses of the player we were told he is (has never impressed me). But now his Test career has stalled, with no prospect of it progressing in the manner he would have hoped for unless those ahead of him in the pecking order – Bismarck du Plessis and Adriaan Strauss – are injured or suffer significant losses of form. (Quite righly as both are far better)

This was supposed to be the year Ralepelle’s intimate relationship with the Springboks’ tackle bags ended. But Meyer’s appointment saw a deviation from the script. Meyer has always been a great admirer of Du Plessis, and, form and fitness permitting, will commit to him for the duration of his tenure. And while even Ralepelle’s most ardent supporters would find it difficult to motivate for him to start ahead of Du Plessis, he had realistic ambitions of being his deputy (Not on merit).

Not so now. Meyer deeply lamented Strauss’ departure from the Bulls during his time as head coach at the Pretoria franchise, and had actively worked for his return thereafter, maintaining he was a world-class hooker who would amplify the team’s threat (Meyer wa so fcourse correct). It was therefore no surprise that Meyer opted for Strauss ahead of Ralepelle for the England series and will do so again for the Rugby Championship. (Excelent news)

So where does this leave the 25-year-old Ralepelle? He is set to remain the incumbent at the Bulls until his contract expires in October 2013. Meyer has stressed that form will always be his primary criteria for selection. Ralepelle could endeavour to force Meyer’s hand through consistently outstanding form. But what is the ceiling of his potential in comparison to that of Strauss? And if both players are at or close to that ceiling, is Ralepelle better than his challenger? I’m not sure he is, but it is an indictment on Bulls and to a greater degree Springbok coaches White and De Villiers that 50 matches into his Super Rugby and 21 Tests that nobody can answer this with any certainty.

What rubbish what is certain is that we have a number of better hookers right now than Chilli Boy and fortunately Meyer knows that.

End of story.

Bismark is the standout, there is little to choose between Strauss and Chiliboy. If I was Meyer, I would rotate these two on the bench

 Correction guys.

Chilliboy is going in the right direction....OUT.

The last time I watched him as a Bok he threw a bad ball into a lineout which resulted in a try against the Boks.

Many, many more similar incidents have been costly for the Boks.

Perhaps you guys like and support that amature type of play but me as a SPRINGBPOK supporter cannot support average players in the Green and Gold.

In closing ....he ain't the only one. There are quite a few more players that fall into the same category.

 I must admit I do not get the chance to watch all Super rugby games, but I do watch the bok games.

Initially I allways saw Chilly as a quota player. However after years sitting on the bench playing the last 1 minute of a test- to become the most capped player to have never played more than a total minutes of a couple of tests- my opinion of him changed. 

He played some good games for the Bulls at the start of the Super15. Also some of his most recent games for the boks were pretty good. 

I have seen nothing from Straus. The lineout throwing felll apart as soon as he came on. The scrum even more fell apart- and this is when the same props were on the field as  Bismarck du Plessis was one the field.

No doubt, Bismark is much better, but I saw nothing from Strauss this whole series against the Poms to suggest he is better than Chilly boy. 

If anything Deon Fourie or the Sharks 2nd choice hooker would be a better bet than either Strauss or Chillyboy. Perhaps not is scrummaging- but in other areas for sure.

Again I dont watch all the games in the Super15- never the Lions and rarely the Cheetas - but Strauss seems to be another player that cant take the step up to International Level

Sharkbok

Funny that you have the same feeling about Strauss then I expressed earlier.   I think he was disappointing when he came on for Bismarck in the tests against th Lions.    I believe that hookers have a major role in scrummaging (not only hooking - but also pushing in the scrum - a fact portryed by referees who persisitently talk to the hookers, when there are problems in that phase of the game.    When Kruger and Strauss came on in the tests - the scrumming of the Springboks disintegrated.   People blame Kruger only for that - but is Strauss really blameless?   I believe not.

Strauss also  in the relevant tests showed no class in other facets of the game - and may in fact be overrated.   

To come back to Chilliboy - I was a great admirer when he played junior rugby and I believe he did nothing wrong since then.    Really a good Super 15 player - but he would never be able to be a Bismarck Du Plessis.    Since there is no real difference between his performances and those of Strauss. Liebenberg and Fourie -- my vote will go to Chilliboi.

 Mike, the reason the ref talks to the two hookers is because they are the two who "takes the mark" from where the scrum has to be formed. he gets the two hookers the correct distance apart, to ensure that the distance between the two frontrows is correct. You will see that two hookers take up their position, at the mark, first, and then the props bind onto them, wherefter the locks and the rest of the pack binds. Watch this video clip of a discussion between Naas Botha and Nady Turner about refs and the scrum (they are both Boere, so try and ignore the Boere English, and note that I am Afrikaans speaking myself. LOL):

www.youtube.com/watch

PS. Listen to the roll of the refs and the coaches/players in getting the scrums sorted.

There is not much between Strauss and Chili, so as Saff said, rotate the two of them. Just on Bismark, he is a freakish player that can be a huge asset, but he often is not as good as everyone thinks. He gives away plenty of penalties, and has done aboslutely nothing just as many times as he has set the stage on fire with his massive games. He is a relatively inconsistant player, with a tendency to do stupid things. He is still our number one hooker, but he needs to be tamed a little bit.