Good news for SA rugby followers is that Esterhuizen is returning to play rugby back in SA.

Trust he goes back to the SHARKS.

AJ, your Sharks are not the team they should be...something wrong there....hope AA can help turn things around for them.

Agree, that makes two of us DbD.

 AJH

Esterhuizen is not the player a few made  him out to be on site.   If he was as good as some claim - why did  his English club not renewed his contract.   They got Van Rensburg as inside center and he flopped - so now they want Esterhuizen.   For the sake of the Sharks I hope he succeeds .     

Mike AA is better than just a fine player...there's a good reason why he's the 2nd choice Bok 12...

I think he is on his way out - Willemse is likely to be the second choice one.    

Mike you are completely wrong about Esterhuizen, he is a class act

Willemse looks set to be the Bok fullback now that Willie is done so can’t see him featuring at 12 although I’d like to see him there as I think that’s his best position

That will only happen if Fassi or Gelant get to start at 15 for the Boks - Horn is in the alignment camp but I don’t think he will progress any further - he is good but too small

Mike keeps gnawing on the Esterhozen bone….mostly because I once said something positive about the big fella.

Mozart 

Said something  once  - the joke of the year - you must have repeated that statement a thousand times.      

Once or a thousand times.   I also said why I think  De  Allende is preferred to Esterhuizen and Pollard always said De  Allende is the best inside center he played with in h is international and provincial careers.   Would rather believe Pollard th an Mozart in that case.        

It's been about 4-5 years that Moz and I have been complaining about the biggest Dud of 12 the Boks have ever had.

Over time, one by one, other Ruckers members have crossed over.

I've sort of kept track and it seems that on this board it's only Saffex, Mike, and think Beeno, that still support DDA ahead of AE.

Is there anyone I've missed?

I'm on the fence but I do want to see what will happen if AA is given a solid run @ 12 for the Bokke. 

I agree RE Faf, Smith and Mostert(obviously).

Replacing Kwagga is a serious problem though. We don't have another player that comes even close. Mostert and Faf are great players but we have adequate replacements waiting in the wings.

But there isn't another Kwagga. Not in SA and not anywhere else in the world. 

Saffex and co can say what they like about Deus, but he was 100% on Kwagga. 

I'd list Swys and Ackerman as unsung heroes too. It was them that brought Mostert, Faf, Kwagga, and Marx in. And I think that without them , we'd likely not have won these last two WCs.

No doubts about your post Plum the four players you mentioned are without doubt the players who delivered each time that represented SA and more.

Yes, in the two RWC's that the Springboks recently won these guys stood up and laid everything on the line with outstanding performances.

Unfortunately, not respected by some of our Springboks and friends on this site.

Sad but true.

After the previous RWC Allende was lauded by verybody but a few  jobs posting on Ruckers. 

Unable to admit they were dead wrong the doubled down on stupid and continued their attacks on Allende. That Kolisi and Pollard rate him so highly mattes not a whit to these ignorant oaks lacking rugby acumen. 

Allende is highlyy respected and nothing these halfwits say will change that. He has had a long and distinguished test career. 

Ditto Du Toit another target of the loons. How wrong can you be. 

Rassie, Du Toit, Allende and Malherbe have all be attacked by oaks who struggle to understand tbe game. 

Doos was perhaps the guy who least understood the game. He had heaps of data points but couldn't make sense of what he saw. He and mozzietard made an hilarious pair. Ah those were the days, a laugh a minute! 

Come back Doos your Laurel and Hardy duo with Mozzietard is missed! 

Beeno, much like you with everything else, I don't allow "experts" to tell me what to think.

I've watched and played enough rugby to know what I'm looking at.

Plum I just enjoy the comedy. They come all serious like to tell us Du Toit is Useless and ditto Rassie. The Boks have a soft underbelly etc. 

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha. 

The Boks don't have a soft underbelly.

Marx, Eben, Smith, Mostert...a bunch of absolute soldiers.

Faf probably being the toughest of all of them.

I'm gonna miss him when he goes.

Anyway, it's a lekker time to be a Bok fan. We have bunch of very good players and plethora of great players waiting in the wings.

2 WC wins and great arrangement with the URC.

Nice time indeed.

Hoor, Hoor.