Fourie back in Bok mix; Rugby 365

New Kobe Steelers' coach Allister Coetzee has said that Springbok centre Jaque Fourie is available and keen to play for South Africa at the World Cup. Fourie had previously announced his retirement from international rugby in November 2014 which came as a surprise to Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.  Coetzee however, in his final Stormers press conference, said that Kobe Steelers' centre Fourie is keen to play at the World Cup but Springbok lock Andries Bekker is not available. According to Coetzee the Japanese club have made it clear to SARU that Bekker will not be an option for the Boks. "As far as I know Andries won't be available for Springbok selection for this year's World Cup. "I can tell you now that it is a decision that the club has made and has been communicated to the powers that be in South African rugby," he said. Although Fourie has retired from Test rugby, Coetzee said that he is keen to feature at his fourth World Cup, and has the blessing of the club should he be picked. "The club have decided that Jaque Fourie will be available should they require his services, and he does want to [play]," he said. With Jean de Villiers still returning from injury and Frans Steyn unavailable for selection Meyer is lacking experience in the midfield. Fourie's inclusion would definitely be a boost. The outgoing Stormers coach said he would like to see a Bok centre combination of De Allende at 12 and Jean de Villiers at 13, and added that captain De Villiers would be well-suited for the outside centre berth given his defensive capabilities. "Damian has been outstanding, and Damian with the experience and head next to him of Jean de Villiers will be even better. "Jean understand 12 and 13, and he is one of the better defending centres as a 13, he is almost as good as Jaque Fourie. "He is a clever defender, sometimes you have got to distinguish between a clever defender and a great tackler. Some people are brutal in tackling and others read and are good defenders. "If you ask me about playing Damian at inside centre and Jean at outside centre I won't have a problem with that," he said. He does not believe that De Villiers will have a problem playing at outside centre, despite the fact that he will be further from the action as captain. "If it is for the best of the team obviously he will move to outside centre, Jean will never, not in my experience of him, dictate where he wants to play," said Coetzee. Coetzee believes the Springboks are well-covered in the midfield for the World Cup, with the likes of De Allende and Jan Serfontein strong options at inside centre, alongside the experience of De Villiers and Fourie. "That is not a bad thing for South African rugby and our World Cup aspirations, because you have got Jan [Serfontein] who is also a good 12, you have got Jaque Fourie who is now available, we should be fine in that department," he added.

 Is Fourie the answer?

It is a bit slimey to not make himself available for the Boks- until right before the world cup. 
Unfair on the other outside centres (oh wait - we dont have any outside centres).

Playing overseas is one thing, but to only make yourself available for World Cups is poor.
 At this stage it is likely between Jean Devilliers and Jaque Fourie. The world cup is to soon to blood another outside centre- especially with with delande a shoe in for the inside centre position

 A club couldn't prevent a player from playing for his country at the RWC surely, unless the player had no interest in going, which I suspect is the case with Bekker ....... 'Parkbench Beks' has never expressed any interest in playing for the Bokke ....... since his departure he's been a regtige vokken Greta Garbo .

Hahaha.....blob you have a good turn of phrase.

 Bob, that might be true, but I'm sure that some of the Jap contracts were entered into with the condition that the plaýer has retired from international rugby with huge penalty clauses if such player would return to test rugby and a resulting injury makes them unavailable for their club thereafter.  Many ways to skin a cat and the Japs might have borrowed a few Chinese tricks from the book.

 Fourie was useless in attack when he played for the Springboks and he was run around twice by Davies in the Wales test.  He was extremely lucky that Davies was injured fairly early in that test - otherwise he would have been slapped down even more times. Fourie has a serious speed deficiency and he is not up to standard anymore.   His selection would be a serious disaster for the Springboks and would mean we have a dead backline for sure.   
This type of thing is what cost the Springboks more and more in the past.   We have seen how Matfield became a passenger as a Tight 5 player - reducing our Tight 5 to a Tight 4.  
Fourie is 32 years of age and when he last played for the Springboks he was 30.   That means that in the nearly 2 years playing "soft rugby" he would have gone even further back than he was when his all-round play was exposed badly in 2013.   This would be a continuation of Meyer idiocy if he select Fourie on no form whatsoever.       

"According to Coetzee the Japanese club have made it clear to SARU that Bekker will not be an option for the Boks."

i dont underdstand why the IRB dosent do something about clubs having a say over the eligibility of any player who might represent their country. its wrong and the IRB need to pull finger and just use freaking commonsense, especially as promoting the game is a top priority for the IRB.

personally, i have no idea why the Boks would even want fourie back in the squad, when u have de allende and serfontein ready to go.
no player will play every RWC test and the lesser pool matches can be easily taken care of by the fringe players like jj, jp and even f veneter and l mapoe who had fantastic spXV seasons.

So does this mean he can't play any of the RC, that would have been a good barometer to see where he's at but it's a bit risky to send him to the world cup when we don't know how much gas is left in the tank.

APD
 He would not play in the RC and walk into the WC squad totally untested.   That is why I think it is an exercise in stupidity and if Meyer falls for that one - it w ould be ridiculous.

Fourie was utterly useless in his last stint with the Boks but useless Meyer will no doubt have him alongside has been Jean as our centre combo.....pathetic really but it's on the cards.....he just needs to get the utterly useless Morne back at 10 and his dream 3 will be complete .

 
Hilarious stuff!!!

The geriatric actually thinks he can compete.

Haaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahah!!!

I'm sure Meyer's delighted.

I can see it all clearly now ... Jean (washed up and injured) playing with the snail paced Fourie on his outside.

Boy oh boy ... talk about world beaters ...

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahaa!!!

I wonder what James Small's doing come the world cup??

 

Fourie is statistically the best 13 under Meyer and his genius pulled the Wales test out the bag. Fourie has the intelligence and physicality, to have him in the squad would be a very smart move. He should be backup. 

Dave is only insulting Fourie because Meyer ditched JJ - the greatest 13 since readmission. 

Desert Fox
Welcome to the site - I hope you enjoy it here.
With respect Fourie was not up to standard in the Welsh test and could have easily lost the test for the Boks.   Davies ran past him twice without any attempted tackle and the rest of his tackles Fourie made.  That was the positive.  Much was made of the mistake of the referee to allow for the try scored by Du Preez in that game - but Fourie was off-side and under normal circumstances the try would have been disallowed and a penalty that could have been converted awarded to Wales.   If the referee did not make a mistake the Boks could easily have lost that match.
In the other two tests he played in Fourie did squat and the only thing noticeable in the tests was his lack of speed and inability to carry balls effectively.   He made all his tackles - but his contribution to the games for the rest was zero.   
I am afraid I differ from you on Fourie because of his deficient performances in 2013.  Now two years older at 32 years of age he is bound to be even less pacy and less effective than he was in 2013.
I believe that if he wanted to be in the WC squad he should play first in the RC to stake a claim for selection.   If not he should never be considered because it would be a reputation selection without any regard to performance.   
                       

 
Fox ... it doesn't matter which name you post under ... your "contributions" remain ignorant irrespective.

In short ... you are completely clueless.

Why bother?

 

Desert.....the point is......Fourie is a washed up has been......yes he was great in his day.......that day is long gone.  

Unbelievable how Meyer is still showing interest in Jean De Villiers who is over the hill like Jaque Fourie. This is the fundamental reason why the Springboks will fall short against top class oppositions this year. Meyer has too much of a obsession with experience which is preventing talented players from being in Starting XV who deserve the spot more.

 Jerome
The sickness here is the believe that reputation counts and performance does not.  Last night Mallett said on Boots & All that a lot of our Springboks had a poor record in Super 15 - so there are players who should retire and not seek glory at the expense of the team.   
The problem with a player like Fourie is nobody knows whether he still performs satisfactorily and nobody would know unless he plays on higher level locally.   When he played for the Springboks he was solid in defense and useless in everything else - so what will he be like 2 years later????
I dislike the idea to select players on their reputation without regard to performance  and in the final analysis the reputation players fail or opt out off international rugby because they find that they are not competitive anymore.   I think De Villiers is the honest one amongst the geriatrics.   He said he will not accept selection if he feels he cannot compete on the level he maintained in the past.   Wish the others do the same.