Genius not far from madness: Marco a hooker, Pollard back?

What a bizarre squad that was selected for SA. Normally you would cover your props, hooker, scrum half and flyhallf as the most critical positions in any World Cup squad and you always want to have at least 3 in each. Yet, with the World Cup we have 4 scrum halves, only 1 recognised flyhallf and had 2 recognised hookers. 

A lot of journo's believe Rassie is a genius, but he is also borderline mad genius. Those who knows Frankenstein, the mad scientist that created the monster, coming from the mind of a 17 year old French girl. 

I too start question whether there is a method to Rassies madness. 

1. Marx injury - probably the biggest blow to the bok squad. But now they are talking of bringing Pollard back and no dweeb, for which I'm grateful for. But, we have Deon Fourie that have never been able to hit the side of the barn with his poor throws. What is worse, Marco van Staden, 26 year old could pack down at hooker. Has anyone ever see him play at hooker at all. We've seen retreaded hookers become flankers and Fourie being the prime example of that given that he is 37!!! We also had Schalc Brits that was a hooker and then got moved to Flank and then back to hooker. Those small forwards that doesn't quite have a home as they are either too short or too light to back down in the front row. In Marco's case, the guys is 184 cm but also weighs 107 kg. He is very similar to Marx and can fulfil Marx role. But has he ever played hooker? 
2. Magic Midgets - Yes, we have 4 scrum halves, 3 being really small, but then we also have Arenas and Kolbe who are also on the smaller side. Faf, Kolbe and Arendse are fierce defenders and all punch well above their weight. Reinach is solid too. Just Williams that has lightning quick feed. Yet, there are talks of Kolbe at 10, 15 and 14. Faf can plan 10 and Williams shifting the wing. Not sure how well a team with so many small backs can actually play. We know if it is wet and the field is muddy that these guys lose all of their advantage. 
3. One Flyhalf, I don't care what people say, Willemse is not a 10 nor any specialist backline player at all. He hasn't bene the best in any of the positions he has played in the last 4 years, be it full back, centre or flyhallf. He did the job, good general play and cover defence but that is about it. We know that when Manie has his red drink his kicking comes back. He miss fired against the Scots and left 9 points out there, maybe one of those kicks were out of his range, but you expect your 10 to get the straight ones, yet against the all blacks he was knocking them over from all angles. We know Pollard will be back, hasn't played since April and all of a sudden there is talks that he would join. Will they start with him against Ireland and drop Manie completely given that Willemse allows them to have the bomb squad or would they be brave and safe pollard for Tonga and the Quarters. Don't see how he will fit in. He is our best ten, but Manie on his day can be better. Do you risk a mediocre player with a 10 that hasn't had any action for 6 months. 

Libbok is no better than Earl Rose. He has flatlined in every test. Pollard is the only chance we have at 10. The Scots made Libbok look worse than Libbok, aside from once kick where the pendulum defence wasn't even in place at all. We showed no ability to break a defence open at all. 

Arendse is a flop. If you want a man who can run into empty space... sure, he can do that. His defending is awful, his positional play is awful, his skills are awful. He can't read play at all. Kolbe does punch above his weight, but he also gets brushed aside a fair bit. He is a lot smarter than Arendse though. 

Marx is not a great loss. He hasn't really excelled at anything. This is just becoming a setup excuse for any loss early in the tournament. He is slow getting around, as he doesn't have oomph to his game right now, and gets knocked around most of the time. Our woeful stats on the gainline are not entirely the product of the midgets in the backline; the likes of Steph, Marx, Kolisi, Thor, Lood et al have actually been a bit soft in contact on both sides of the ball. 

So it was interesting to see the boks flex their front row yesterday. I wouldn't say it was the most fierce pack that we faced and I still do have some questions. 

Normally Bongi is only a 40 min player before he is spent. That said, Van Staaden did seem to tick most of the boxes even though we haven't really seen him in action. 

Our scrums were strong with Kitshoff, Malherbe and Staaden. We actually got a scrum penalty try and marched the mighty oaks pack backwards at times. 

Van Staaden throwing hit all the jumpers but it did look a bit lobbed and didn't have any zip on it. 

Fourie who has more time in the jumper seemed fine and he actually did hit his jumpers well. 

So the question will be who will back up Bongi and knowing he has to play for 60 min. 

Bongi throws weren't as good either and we lost 2 if our line outs, but that was to Orie. So go figure. 

Pollard for through 40 min in a university game. 

Will be interesting to see who they pick for the Ireland game. 

We need to beat Ireland to knock them down a peg as they are on 15 match winning streak and it will give them so much confidence. 

On one hand Rassie will keep the Irish guessing, but if he names his team early then all the surprise is gone. 

So this is the one time I would delay announcing the team. Keep the Irish guesses as they would have no idea how to prepare for this team

Then, what to do with Pollard. Put him on the bench? What happens to Willemse and our bomb squad?

I think it’s still a huge risk playing him at hooker.