Injury tolls mount

Ex Keo

JP Pietersen will miss at least four Tests of the Springboks’ Rugby Championship campaign, while there are other injury concerns in the camp which could see the return of Bakkies Botha.

The winger, who was in good form, broke his thumb in the Super Rugby final against the Chiefs on Saturday. Pietersen will undergo an operation on Wednesday and will be sidelined for six to eight weeks.

This means he is certain to miss the Tests against Argentina and the trip to Australasia. He could possibly return for matches against the Wallabies and All Blacks, in Pretoria and Soweto respectively.

Stormers centre Juan de Jongh has been called up to replace him. ‘We decided to pick Juan as he provides midfield cover, an area where we are perhaps a bit thin now that JP is out,’ said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer. ‘JP was going to provide cover for us at outside centre, while JJ Engelbrecht and Francois Hougaard can also be used on the wing, especially as Bjorn Basson is out for another six weeks.

‘Losing JP is obviously a massive blow as he’s been playing some superb rugby lately (Agreed), but Juan has also been in good form for the Stormers and was one of the unlucky players to miss out on initial selection. It’s great to have Juan involved as he brings new energy with him. This call-up just shows again that no player is ever completely out of the equation.’

Engelbrecht’s speed and size appeals to Meyer but Lwasi Mvovo is likely to start on the right wing. Hougaard will start at scrumhalf in the opener against Argentina at Newlands, with Ruan Pienaar only able to join the side from Ulster next week.

Meyer also reinforced the widely held belief that Stormers wing Gio Aplon is not in his plans. Meyer feels Aplon’s size is a liability, fearing that he would be targeted with tactical kicks. ‘We have enough cover on the wing. We can only travel with a squad of 26 and my concern is outside centre,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Stormers lock Eben Etzebeth has torn cartilage in his hip and will see a specialist in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Bakkies Botha and Franco van der Merwe have been put on notice in case of an unfavourable diagnosis for Etzebeth.

Botha last played for the Springboks in the pool stage of the 2011 World Cup. He subsequently moved to French club Toulon, but had indicated his continued availability for Test rugby prior to that move. ‘You can’t really go into the Rugby Championship with U21 players and there aren’t many No 4 locks around, so Bakkies has become an option for us,’ Meyer said. PLEASE NOTE SNAPSTER - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)

Also on the sideline is Chiliboy Ralepelle, who is in the final stage of his rehabilitation from a knee injury. Tiaan Liebenberg and Craig Burden are on standby, with Meyer expected to take three hookers on tour. Ralepelle will be reassessed next week. (Tiaan should be there in any case! Away with wee chilli !)

This is not looking good. Too many injuries.  Hope Bakkies is up to it if he joins the Boks.

Beeno

I am getting thoroughly pissed off by Meyer.   Bakkies Botha - what a farce.   How the hell is he ever going to build a team for the next WC - by taking ten steps back and one forward.    And then he calls up De Jongh to replace Pietersen in the squad - another farce.   He should look at players with potential - such as Jordaan - but keep on flipping back to failing players.   When will he learn that expereience means zero in the game if the playing ability is minus 5.   De Jongh is the main reason for the poor performances of the Stormer backline.   He produced nothing in attack and although he is s a sound defender - he is really there to prove and re-inforce my previous points about Meyer's game plan.   Bugger the backline - we play 10 men rugby - and the backline is there to produce nothing but defence.

Otherwise backline players are purely decorative and just there to make up a full team of 15 players.   My forecast of more and more losses by the Boks in the next three years is advancing more and more rapidly. 

the thing is mike HM is not worried about building a team he just wants performance now. which i feel will not be a great long term plan.

dont worry de jongh will be in the line to defend. bet you 50 bucks he wont get any ball with the donkey kicking style that HM wants to play.

ladies and gentleman we are back in the middle ages of rugby tactics how wonderfull

What we expect from a new coach is new ideas, refreshing changes, opportunities to look forward to something that we havent seen before so that we know we are moving forward with the way the games rules and interpretations are moving.

Injuries are against us but so it is with modern rugby and we have to accept this. However the fact is that we posses arguably the biggest depth of player talent pool so shouldn't we be plugging these gaps?

Anyway my point here about SA at the moment is that "If you keep doing what your doing you will keep getting what your getting"....We are becoming so predictable that our game plan will become easier to counteract

As South Africans our Rugby team is sitting 3rd best on the IRB rankings and we have only won the Tri Nations 3 times since its inception and we trail the AB's by 13 games in respect to our win/loss ratio.......There certainly are some very good results for us i.e. 2 RWC wins in the modern era. However, I want consistency and for our Boks to put the fear back in to other teams that I know we had. This may be a long year or two but I so hope that HM builds solid foundations so that we can launch our new talent coming through.

However, I am unsure whether or not we are seeing a slow and steady from HM? Or if he is limited and conservative or even more worrying going to focus on what he knows best....which is the style of rugby that created a strong franchise in the BULLS.

The Boks as always will be competitive and passionate particuarly at home, whether or not this will translate it the dominance that we wont is another question and one that we will see unfold very soon.

 Radtad you've just said what I've been thinking.

I think that the Hougaard as scrummie ship has sailed and that he should start at 14 now JP is injured, but now after that I look at the probability of HM stopping using Hougaard at scrumhalf and I despair, Hougaard will either start at 9 or be on the bench for wing and scrummie cover.

And I also think that Vermaak should start to come into the equation of Bok scrummie as a sub for Ruan. I thoroughly hope HM gets Goosen at 10 ASAP.

I am worried about the number of injuries and some poor selections. Enough perhaps to scuper our chances no matter what.

Muncher the only way to reestablish the Bok legend that will again terrorise the abs as in the past is to build a traditional Bok pack -Beenos power pack of big strong mobile forwards:

Coenie, Bissie, WP Nel, Etzebeth, Bekker, Coetzee/Schalk Vermuelen and Albetrs. A 935 ,/940 kg pack of dynamite. Dont even begin to pick Daniels, chilli boy Juandre and nonsense like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with Mke that Jordaan looks more dangerous than DeJongh. Juan would make a fine wing. Juan does present a threat on attack so lets not dismiss that.

Meyer took some time to build the bulle - was it 5 years? This appears to indicate he does learn as he goes along.. Keep the faith gentlemen and mongbean and Beeno19 !

Beeno

Let me ask you one simple question - is it possible for us to develop physically stronger players than in other countries in the World?   My contention is that it is NOT POSSIBLE - so the answer of physical dominance up front is a pipe dream.   We need comprehensive dominance and that cannot be achieved through the present approach.   Look at what I wrote about the hsitory of rugby and maybe the answer would become clearer.

Of course its possible Mike - we have in the Africaner the best genes for forwards in the world. I quote again Sean Fitzpatrick who correctly said our competitive advantage is our BIG ATHLETIC MEN.

But no we make complete idiots of ourselves playing show ponies like matfiled!!!!!!!!!!! Even today there are some who imagine him to have been a great lock and not the disaster he was, Now itsJuandre a better player than matfield but still a pap lock, Then its daniels and chilli boy . We keep in a relatively pap number 8 like spies. A 40 minute player like Beast. WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Meyer must get in a Beeno Power pack and the number 1 rankling is ours.  If our players were all fit we could pick a devastating pack . It starts with the pack.We have to get this right. Hence my dismay at the injuries the Stormers suffered as this would have opened some eyes. Plumtree noted the power of the Stormers pack. Unfortunately fate was against us.

Beeno

You miss my point completely.   I am NOT against the concept of building up forward play - but what happens when the ball gets fed back to the backline?   No speed - no ball handling skills - no strategic play.   I say develop the skills of backline players comprehensively as well and together with that we can be tops.   Kicking the ball away IS NOT THE ANSWER.   Unless we can develop the skills of all players on a comprehensive basis - not only amongst the forwards - we are doomed.    

I agree with you about the showponies up front - but what about the showponies in the backline?   I always rated Habana, Pietersen (as a wing) and De Villiers highly and also have a high opinion about Francois Steyn.   However, the latter is nowadays a one-dimensional player with only the crash ball concept really practised by him.   Because he is so physically strong - it works to a limited extend.   However, can he effectively off-load the ball in a tackle situation - not ever.   Teach him that basic principle and the results would be spectacular.   A further enhancement would be a training programme in running faster, strategic play and the creation of space for the 13, the wings and the full back.   That is possible and could be done.

Our real weakness is at scrummie and flyhalf.   They really have no ball distbrution skills.   Morne is no Honiball - he is a kicker - whose kicking ability has deserted him.   His ball handling skills otherwise is non-existent.   Hougaard has potential - but his skills level is limited.   His knowledge and skills development is based on those of Joost and Fourie - nothing else is hammered into him.   No skills development and like Joost and Fourie - he stands behind the mauls and wave his arms at forwards to move up to receive the balls - thus allowing for lining up of defence by the opposing team.   No fast and effective passing - no strategic play - no distributional skills.   Meyer talks about developing the kicking skills of Steyn and Hougaard - but what about development of strategic and distributional skills?

There is one other thing - you talk about Mattfield and his line out skills.   However, a lasting memory of Mattfield's performances relate to a number of times when we were 5 meters out from the opposition tryline and Mattfield and Botha did not win the line outs concerned following throw ins by our hooker    That is never ever recounted - and that shows the so-called line out dominance up for what it really was - a modern myth.   Mattfield at times did win opposition ball - but mostly not by catching the ball, but by hitting it back - not always very effectively.   To my mind as you rightly said he was vastly over-rated.   Bakkies was at least a strong enforcer - but Bakkies also had a problem, namely the number of penalties resulting from his play.  However, despite that he was 10 times the lock Mattfield could ever claim to be.    

Mike you have to have a number of things working to be successfull at test level. I mention the pack first because it has to be first. However I fully agree with you regarding backline play. We are way behind when it comes to skills. It has been encouraging to see the sharks the cheetahs and yes even the lions show some nice backline skills.

But we must also remember the bulle have scored the second most tries in the comp. Hence the only conclusion one can reach is that our seven best backline players should be able to score ties for the Boks.

Good tactical kicking in a test is also important. Kicking away possession is not. necessarily good tactical kicking.  But kicking away possession does not happen much when you are dominating at forward and dominating the collisions. When you are on the backfoot and loosing the physical battle the kicking away of possession gets worse. Kicking away possession has aso happened because there was a beleif that the best way to win was playing off the other sides errors with ball in hand.

Yes I very much agree with your comments relating to skills etc. Hence my alarm at an untested backline  coach being appointed by Meyer  but hey who knows.

Bakkies in my book was an all time great. Huge pity for him that he didnt have a genuine lock partner. I fear however he has set a precedent hence the Juandre at lock story. Juandre as I have said looks like a 7 to me. He is pretty mobile and a useful player. Heck we have a numer of sevens in the making. Elstadt and even Steph du Toit can be added to Alberts.

Lastly Mike I do not think Meyer is a ten man coach. Again I say look at the bulle - second most tries  50. The "brilliant" chiefs scored 47".

I am pining my hopes on Myer learning and getting it right over a period of time.

@beeno your not getting the point...kicking the ball away to the likes of ab and wallies only feeds there game plan of building phases and attacking

 which is few and far between there biggest weapon

tactical kicking is important if its needed.....it should not be the first line of though nor approach only if your attack/running is not having the desired effect or the opposing team has a blatant weakness against it. that nowadays with the current skill levels things like the tactical kicking has had less impact than years come by. the odd crubber here and there does well to change up the attack but overusing kicking is just as inefective like running straight into oncoming traffic. its should only be used if you can gain advantage from it. ball posession needs to be looked after and used to attack. the mentality towards kicking and the approach that is the overseeing problem.

as HM as said he can coach morne steyn to kick better so that implies his other blatant weaknesses are not a major detractor.

carter and cooper and wilko dont just kick for the hell of it. in there skill set kicking is option b rather than option a....we treat ball posession with disregard and dont try to test opposing teams defence systems out enough. stats have proven that the SA style of direct rugby is by far the most best in terms of gaining meters than any other team in the world. that being said you need the ball to do it. not kicking it away with rubbish drop goals and trying to kick in the opposing teams half.

There is one golden general rule that should be hammered into the heads of both Morne Steyn and Hougaard - never kick while you are in the oponents half unless the kick can leave the line open for a try.   However, at present 80% of balls are kicked are kicked away in such a cases.   Ball is caught iand the relieving kick drives you back 20 meters or the opposition starts a n attacking move and your players are not in line to defend.   That is basically where the main problem lies - bad news that one.  

There is one golden general rule that should be hammered into the heads of both Morne Steyn and Hougaard - never kick while you are in the oponents half unless the kick can leave the line open for a try.   However, at present 80% of balls are kicked are kicked away in such a cases.   Ball is caught iand the relieving kick drives you back 20 meters or the opposition starts a n attacking move and your players are not in line to defend.   That is basically where the main problem lies - bad news that one.  

The argument about size is an interesting point...I for one do believe that a "good big man will always be better than a good small man"...............However, a better coached and more technically effecient player will always be better than a player that is not, no matter what the size

Point in case when you look at the AB front row which has always been smaller in weight and size to the Boks but have never been dominated by the Boks......Cant remember when the last time we smashed an AB forward pack with size and power?.......I am sure the gimp Beeno will allude us to when this happened with a "power pack" ...... afterall size and power is his answer to everythinhg bhwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Why dont we just get better coaching techniquies, or the best scrum coaches, why dont we invest into the support frameworks that wil make our future rugby sustainable. Look at the Kiwi coaching strength they seem to be able to call on coaches at will and they all have the pedigree of either super rugby, overseas experience, international coaching etc.......................They saw this years ago and now that strategy is paying divedends for them and other nations.

"If SA keep doing what they do SA will keep getting what they get" I dont know about you lot but I want more than what we are getting  at the moment.

Lets be really honest with ourselves. If we want to consistently be the best, then we have to have a plan of attack that can beat the best. If we want to take over mantle of the best team in the world then we need to observe what the best team in the world do better than us and look at better ways to counter this.

None of this is rocket science however I cannot for the life of me understand how the brains trust of our Rugby powers cannot see through their jaundice eyes and wake up to the modern era.

We keep saying that we are programmed into playing 10 man rugby only and I agree that is our strength.  But I fully disagree that this is the only style we can play. We have excitement in depth with the players availble....so sooner rather than later we will need to progress or we will see Bok rugby slipping behind the French and Welsh who are probably the biggest next threats to our current ranking.

As the ELV's develop so must we or we will stay firmly in 3rd spot behind a weak Australia.

Beeno, Draad wake the feck up!!!! If SA carry on with the rubbish you guys blurt out then start settling for the status quo....yes we will win a game against  the AB's and the Wallabies and be strong and compete with passion. But we will never be the very best and if we are not going to be the very best, then why the hell are we bleating on all the time about us always being the best................................