Hard to choose 33 for the WC

Really good team, that said. I thought that the rule of thumb would be that you need cover the most critical position which is normally starting with your props. 

World Rugby has increased the player selection pool from 30 to 32 or 33 I think for world cups. 

But the most critical position would be 

2, 9 and 10. These are all specialist positions. 

My only concern is that Deon Fourie hasn’t played Hooker in more than 10 years even though he started there. He is is menace at the break down and shown great spirit, but why on earth have him there. 

Then, the boks have a really good schedule which means they have 1 week between matches. So they can play their best team in each game. However, the biggest ones are Ireland and Scotland. 

I don’t know, I feel that Marx is such a good player that he could almost double up as an open side flanker. 

Bongi nor Dwebe has the stamina. 

Dwebe ball carry abilities are great but he has lost so many line outs this season for the stormers. He keeps conceding free kicks and penalties at scrum time. So he is serious lacking the basics. 

Then, his introduction against the all blacks completely imploded. 

But, I know Rassie have to pick 50% black players. 

But I think we all know who the starting team will be

This is my starting team

1. Kittshof - Ox
2. Marx - Bongi - Grobbler 
3. Malherbe - Thomas Du Toit - Koch - Trev if is fit
4. Etzebeth - Jenkins
5. RG - Lood
6. Kolisi - Kwagga - Fourie - Van Staaden 
7. PSDT - Louw - Dyamani 
8. Wiese - Roos - Hanford Liebenberg(If Roos had more caps he would be my pick)
9. Faf - Williams - Reinach - Hendriks
10. Pollard - Libbok - Goosen (if he can get fit, super valuable)
11. Kolbe - Arendse 
12. De Allende - Esterhuizen (form dipped in the prem)
13. Am - Rohan Jansen Van Rensberg - Jessie Kriel
14. Mpimpi - Moodie 
15. Willie - Willemse - Gelant

We haven’t seen Dud Toit make any contribution since the WC, yet he still gets selected. Whereas Mostert has been hugely productive in every test his played and doesn’t make the squad even in 3rd place. The fair haired boy syndrome.

There's no denying Pieter-Steph has never come close to replicating his excellent 2019 RWC form. He'd be a very lucky selection in my opinion.

He made a contribution in the WC? That was arguably his worst season, which takes some doing! Barely a handful of Boks played well, and none of those players were media darlings like Steph. 

Best to keep yourself sitting in the corner Mrs Searle. Quick to criticize somene, but you are never able to defend your position. You have, to date, never been able to specify anything tangibly great about Steph. Of course, you do not possess the acumen to review a game in any meaningful depth, so you are left frustrated as your rather large ego cannot satiate itself. That amuses me very much. 

PS - No place for Notshe, Bok of the century? 

One doesn't see Mostert being dragged around, run over, fended off, crumpled over or pushed aside like Steph, Damian, Kolisi, Willemse, Lood et al. So, any discussion of his physicality is irrelevant. Statistically he is the most efficient defender of the Erasputin reign. He is a high value contributor. We have but a few of them. 

Mostert was in the engine room for most of the WC final after Lomp was injured trying to tackle Vunipola. That was the dominant scrumming performance of the Bok pack in recent years, The  Beast could never have dominated with poor lock pressure behind him.

Dave you assert:

‘Bok packs pride themselves on physical dominating the opposition, that is not going to happen when you have a Mostert in the engine room’

The rebuttal is simple Dave, the Boks did dominate with Mostert at lock….in the most important game of all.

I think the debate on Mostert is his high work rate. But if you look at the man’s face and especially his nose, you would think he is to cheap to get a nose job and instead, trying to hit as many rucks hoping someone would knock his nose straight. The guy is always bloodied at the end of match. 

I think it is time for Steph to go back to lock and allow for stronger ball carriers. I know Wiese is and 8, his been phenomenal at Leicester this season. In his last few games he was able to score a try by bashing players at of the way over 22 meters. His breaks off the back of the scrum is powerful and led to creating to some fanatic space for Pollard to run into which led to an amazing try. I do think Pollard is benefiting from and 8 like that. I haven’t seen teams use an 8 like that in ages. I think Duane was able to do that a while back and at same time we saw pollard run more with the ball in hand. In that case you don’t need a Dud Allende but you use someone like Willemse instead. 

Roos is another one that is at the top, but he just needed a few more caps. But thanks to Rasbar we won’t know.

Personally I’m not sure about Mostert. 

I watched the extended highlights of 2019 WC final again. Pollard was crucial to our win. 

If Snyman were fully himself I would choose him as well. But whatever Mostert may, and I say may,  give up to Lomp in the physical exchanges, he makes up for in lineout steals, positioning on defense, reading the game and if we would ever allow offloads, in handling.

He plays blindside in the tradition of Juan Smith and Piet Greying. 

Lood is like Steph, heavy, not strong. Lood is very often held up, driven sideways, knocked backwards. He is a very frail player in contact, and to make matters worse, he is one of the most lacking players in world rugby for even basic skills. Very slow and languid movement. His tackle radius is shockingly small. It's like watching a poorly programmed computer game, where the coders forgot to implement his hit box. Mostert is not an especially physical player, but he makes his tackles. He is also very cerebral. Add to these his high energy and work rate and you have a valuable player. If he was a soccer player he'd be a box-to-box midfielder. The kind of player you can build a system around. I've spent countless hours reviewing film, and I very seldom see Mostert pop up with mistakes. I have never seen Mostert being dominated in any game. I have seen Lood, Steph, Damian, Kolisi, Willemse and the like dominated often, if not every single test. 

Saffex, criticizing Mostert, yet goes so far as to lie to defend the flaccid physicality of both Damian and Steph. Kerevi literally runs over Damian, but that's not a problem. Better yet, it didn't happen. Life's grand when you just make it all up! How many Steph ruck fringe lapses before the penny drops? The most missed tackles of every Bok since 2018. Not a problem when you can simply say it never happened. Yet the two most successful defenders, Mostert and Wiese, must be dropped. Who needs facts, just lie, lie, and lie again. 

In all that sand? What sand? Saffex, I think you are reaching the age where an oldzeihmers test wouldn't go amiss. Added to that, your knowledge of Bok rugby is putrid, and your knowledge of the game is about on par with your mother and Michael. 

I'm going to make a change to my team after this weekend. I'll take Johan Goosen as my backup flyhalf rather than Manie Libbok.

Goosen is looking like the player we all thought he would become 5 years ago.