Fariy play on Akkers call by Rassie

Erasmus coped criticism in several quarters when he excluded Sharks hooker Akker van der Merwe from his 36-man squad named last Saturday.

The Bok mentor said that Van der Merwe was not always the first-choice hooker at the Sharks, as Chiliboy Ralepelle often wore the No 2 jersey and also captained the team.

“They rotated at the Sharks and Akker was not always first choice,” Erasmus said.

Erasmus opted for Malcolm Marx, Bongi Mbonambi and Schalk Brits as his three hookers in the squad.

Van der Merwe was in scintillating form for the Sharks in their Currie Cup final win over Western Province at the weekend.

But Erasmus added: “I also think we must not put too much opinion on the basis of one Currie Cup game. Akker is promising and he has been part of our squad this year, but I chose Schalk for a specific reason.

“There are young props in the squad that need leadership and Malcolm and Bongi are not older or experienced hookers. You need that experience and I also think Schalk is the right choice for a tour in Europe. It does not mean that Akker or any other hookers won’t get a chance of going to the World Cup.”

What I really like about Rassie is, whether we like the reasons or not, he validates decisions.

Unlike other coaches who never gave reasoning behing decisions, he is usually quite clear.

The last straight shooter we had was Jake White.

“There are young props in the squad that need leadership and Malcolm and Bongi are not older or experienced hookers. You need that experience and I also think Schalk is the right choice for a tour in Europe. It does not mean that Akker or any other hookers won’t get a chance of going to the World Cup.”

Then have Schalk there as a consultant.

No team Marx has played for has struggled at scum time.

People are not calling for Akker to part of the Boks because of the CC.

It's because he has been good for a period of time and easily the best behind Marx.

The fact that Roidboy captains the Sharks should also have nothing to do with Akkers potential incolvement with the Boks.

It's about what happens on the field...when the payer is playing. Nothing else.

These are silly excuses and anyone with half a braincell can see through them .

Plum

I am not sure whether Rassie is 100% real in this case.   I cannot see how most of the props need scrumming assistant advice from Brits.   In any event the Springbok scrumming was generally good - with some problems with Beast and Louw - but not as a major problem. 

Reality is that Mbonambi was never a ho use on fire and on Saturday was viciously poor when it concerns line-out throw-ins.   He is obviously  a quota selection - rather than a competitive selection.

Our most dominant scrums were with Beast. Malherbe struggled a bit against the Pumas. Louw was fine against New Zealand, but had a few iffy moments against Australia. 

When all is said an done, Rassie has made his decision and we'll see how it plays out. 

Take Brits along as a consultant perhaps not as a player. Akkers is second only to Marx and should have been selected.

@ Mike

I knew it!

Rassie is a droid. Those weird twitches.

Defos not a real human.

Agreed Rooi. Bongi isn't bad. It's not that he doesn't get a fair shake here. He doesn't get a shake at all. 

AO

It is always weird to see your player assessments indicating that what really happened in games is not important - what is important is what you pretended you saw.

Looking at the scrumming there are two important issues, namely -

  *   the number of scrumming penalties given away by the prop concerned; and

  *    the number of penalties given away by the opposing prop

The other two major issues are -

  *    whether the scrums are strong enough to withstand pressure from opponents;

  *    performers of props outside of scrumming  

Looking at the above four elements combined, the fact is that the props will score as follows:-

Louw          -        4,5/10

Mtawarira   -        5,5/10

Malherbe    -           7/10

Kitshoff      -           7/10

Louw's  main problem is his scrumming  staring off very well in all games - but after about 30-40 minutes he was getting weaker and rapidly so resulting in weak scrumming  after about minute 50.   It would from performance becomes clear that he may have fitness problems.   He was after two tests relegated to the bench position and in two cases instead of him Du Toit and Koch was used from the bench,   He is producing very little outside of scrumming.

Mtawarira started off like a house on fire and was not only good in summing - but did very well outside of scrumming.   As the tests progresses his scrumming got weaker and his work outside of scrumming also deteriorated,   In the end he was relegated to the bench position.

Malherbe was always strong enough to withstand pressure from his opponents and in some scrums actually gained penalties from his opponents.   He was also very active in performance outside of scrumming,    He became the fixed tight head prop in the team.

Kitshoff took over as starting prop  when Mtawarira slowly faded out from a competitive point of view.   He was always not only a strong enough scrummager - his performance outside of scrumming was very good.

Now why did you not look at the factual situation and came up with a half-baked story ?  

I smell a quota reasoning. One can not argue to say that you can't judge a player in one game.

There is also a clear contradiction that Bongi had to be subbed early on because he was exhausted. We also saw this during the test match against Australia. Not to mention that he probably had fewer games than Akkers. 

Not sure Bongi is fit enough or has the condition to last a whole test match. 

So for me Akkers should have been there, but Bongi is useful bench player and meets the quota target

I smell a quota reasoning. 

Ding ding ding!! 

WINNER!

Louw took the full force of the All Black scrum, trying to break us for the win. The best scrum in the completion. Malherbe was buckling against Los Pumas. Beast was very dominant. No prop dominated in every test, or in both games against an opponent. 

ccl

Take out Papier, Mbonambi & Aplon & our transformation representation drops from 33% to 25%  ...... a far cry from this year's target of 45%. How the hell we fulfil the promise of 50% at the RWC next year gawd alone knows.

Akkers offers a lot more than Bongi.....Fact! Is a better player than Bongi....Fact! Akkers deserves to be in the Bok squad more so than Bongi and even more so again than the useless, Brits.

Only a fool will buy Rassies bollocks as to Brits's inclusion in the squad.

Don't worry Denny, Mike reassures us that he isn't a geriatric. He is a mentor. Rassie is assembling der Berater-Springböcke. 

Mentor ?...... we've got Beast, Eben, Vermeulen ..... wonder if Brits played the full 80 in any of his unmemorable 10 tests?

DiscoDassie's like Trump ...... thinks his audience is stoopid .

I did not say anything about Bongi other than to say that the reason given by Erasmus is not real.  It is obvious he is under quota pressure,

The thing is that I just indicate the real position as to the props and just try and clarify the situation as to what happened in reality.   It put a spanner in your day dreams.

In the one poor scrum against Argentina fact is that Etzebeth was carded and  the scrum was still OK until Francois Louw opted out of providing any assistance in the scrum by  standing  up with his hand resting on the back of the interim lock - a total flop as per normal.  The combined result was an effective 6 man pack scrumming.

Louw - with very good reason - was eventually dropped by Erasmus to the bench and even there he was not a regular  - since two other players got bench selection in tests ahead of him.

When he was returned to the bench in the AB test he flopped when a scrum penalty resulted from the first scrum he scrummed in.

It is time that you start analyzing games properly and stop making general statements which indicates that you a have a deficiency dealing with issues properly.              

Bongi is a both powerful and quick. 

He lacks stamina and brains. He also goes missing a bit. Not a bad player. But not amazing either. Just solid.

If Marx is injured then we have to start with either a guy that won't last 40 minutes or a guy that has precious little Bok experience and has never really deserved a Bok call up...while never having played with anyone in the present Bok setup.

Rather take a player that will last 80 minutes, make regular positive contributions, affect steals, has an above average ruck attendance while arriving early, is  extremely opportunistic, hard to bring down, puts players in space and supports runners.

Marx is a phenomenon, but Akkers is not a million miles behind him.

I hope Akker goes to Europe and forgets this racist country.

Plum

His brother Duhan is already in Europe for three years and may qualify soon to play for Scotland - a really great outside back.  Akker has renewed his contract with the Sharks - but if he wants to play international rugby, he does not seem to have a chance in SA at all.

Tragic really.  Losing those two would be a disservice to SA rugby on test level and those losses would be the result of the quota system.