It's no rocket science...

that the French on home soil present a huge challenge....the AB's will testify to that after scraping a win. It's going to be even harder for the Boks in the absence of FDP and a carthorse in Fourie at centre, adding to our lack of energy is the pensioner Bakkies Botha. Fortunatly we have the resources to substitute the latter.

 

Jake White made a dreadful mistake when he brought back Andre Snyman, it seems to me HM is going to suffer the same fate with Fourie. If Fourie was a carthorse then, then he's a snail now.

 

 

I'm predicting a narrow win and that's mainly because this game is going to be won by a great Bok defensive effort and BokPower in the forwards.....I don't believe they'll score a fistful of tries, clearly the backline has not been formatted to play attacking rugga.

 

 

This may be the most powerful Bok pack ever....the only question is whether Coenie will scrum. In the end power will prevail I think. The Frogs are no great shakes. Jean will handle their one danger man Fofana much better than Nonu did. Fury may be slow, but no slower than the Scottish wing....and at leat he knows when to come forward. The loss of JJ and his porous defence is a plus.

 Agree on JJ.....worst Bok defensive centre ever, it's just a pity that there's no long term solution. It doesn't matter how the Boks win as long as they win. I reckon there's enough confidence in the side to do the business.

 

 

Hey mate, what's the weather like in CT?....it's back to winter in Sydney, been pissing all day/week.

 Glorious Denny...a bit of wind yesterday afternoon. Today is quiet, about 75 degrees F, and sparkling, negligible  humidity.

Sorry Denny but you are speaking shit about JJ's defence for its not possible that he is the worst defensive Bok centre ever if Jean is worse.

Unless you have another explanation for JJ's better defensive stats against Oz and NZ this year than Jean's, I cant begin to understand the conclusion you have reached.......much like Moz's conclusion that donkey Fourie is a better option than JJ.....its madness.

How the hell can a centre make 23 tackles in the 4 tests against the best sides in the world and only miss 3 and be labelled a bad defender.......the sums just do not add up.

Because not one them was a dominant tackle. Here's another question, if JJ is a better defender than Jean, why did the opposition - best teams in the world as you rightly point out - target JJ's channel and not Jean's?

As for the Syman reference? Jake had little choice die to injuries and a scarcity of talent at centre; he opted for experience rather than an easy cap. As it was Snyman did a solid job. The loss to Ireland was the result of Spies jumping the line twice and another jump by Jaco Pretorius. So the loss can't be contributed to Snyman thus the comparison is moot.

Two areas that could kill our game are 3 and 9. Pienaar saps an enormous amount of sting from any attack. I hope the anti-Bull fans are happy with this selection; Meyer gave them what they wanted when the far superior Hougaard was dropped! And to think, Hougaard made two try saving tackles in the first test last year alone. Hougaard should have been Du Preez's understudy.

 "As it was Snyman did a solid job"....really??? You can't be serious!

 

 

Wonder why Jake dropped him from the squad soon after?.....care to explain?