Ex Sport 24
Tank Lanning
The last time the Boks played, they beat the All Blacks! The week before that, they left it late, but powered to a convincing win against the Wallabies. Prior that that, they ran both sides properly close in their own back yards. (RAWS awarded to oz and wee abs)They are embracing a more ball in hand approach that sees players playing
what’s in front of them rather than what is in the playbook, yet maintaining
that
industrial physical presence the men in green and gold are famous for, they have
world class human being as a captain, and they are playing with smiles on their faces
There is so much to like about Springbok rugby right now. Yet all I want to do tear
up my tickets for the game on Saturday evening at the Aviva Stadium and
instead head tothe Temple Bar to try and temper my anger with a few swiftly
taken Guinness!
From a balanced bench that saw specialist props Trevor Nyakane and Marcel
van der
Merwe covering the stalwart all Shark front row, we are now back to playing
Grade 5 mad scientist experiments with Coenie Oosthuizen as the backup
tighthead prop!
Truly unbelievable!! (Please note snapster!!)
Post team announcement, Heyneke Meyer was quick to remind us that the Boks have
lost two quality tightheads in the space of a few months, those being Frans
Malherbe and Marcel van der Merwe. Spot on coach. (Please note Dr Mozzz)
Where he was less spot on, though, was in his belief that there aren’t many
tightheads performing for their respective provinces at present, and that South Africa
has a dearth of Test-quality No 3s. (Jannie, Malherbe, Marcell and Redlinghuys are hardly a dearth!)
Apart from Julian Redelinghuys, who is on tour and should have been an
automatic selection this week (As noted by Beeno!!), what the hell has Ruan
Dreyer been doing in the Currie Cup?
Destroying the likes of Thomas du Toit, Dale Chadwick and Oosthuizen according to
my TV. Lourens Adriaanse might not be the world’s most dynamic player, but there he was shoring up a BaaBaas pack against the Wallabies on Saturday. Perhaps the coach gets a different signal via his sponsored Explora decoder?
Meyer’s reason for not picking Lions scrum guru Redelinghuys is that he hasn’t spent
much time with the squad and doesn’t know the calls or the systems just yet. How
many calls or systems do you need to know to scrum the crap out of the Irish in the
last 20 minutes of a game? (It was a lame excuse)
Yes, you tend to get fewer scrums in the last 20 minutes (another reason for front row experimentation given by the coach), but what happens if it’s the single scrum the Boks turnover on their own line that leads to the game winning try?
But what really gets my goat is that Meyer is happy to admit that Oosthuizen’s best
position is loosehead, yet he has faith in him given his ability to make an impact
outside of the set piece.
There is no disputing Oosthuizen’s amazing ball carrying, tackling and turnover skills.
I would also have him on my bench, or even in my starting XV. But as a loosehead
prop! (Agree re hios performance outside the scrum and that he ios better at loosehead!!PLEASE NOTE CC. QUOTAS COULD BE CAUSING CONFUSION HERE? WHO IS BETTER AT LOOSEHARD cOENIE OR TREVOR))
Meyer believes that at 25, he has time to develop into a good tighthead, and if he is
going to be considered for the World Cup, he needs game time there now. But
development does not happen in the national side (EXACTLY SO TANK.
PLEASE NOT BLUEBOK - NEITHER COACHES OR PLAYERS ARE DEVELOPED AT NATIONAL LEVEL. THEY COME IN READY TO DO A JOB!!!). It happens in the
Vodacom and
Currie Cup, where you prove to the coach that you can do the job asked of you.
Oosthuizen still looks like a fish out of water on the right hand side of the
scrum at
that level.
It’s a classic coach trap. Gifted a few world class players in one position, instead of
having the balls to let them fight it out, you try and fit one of them into another
position. Not only do you prejudice the player being asked to play in an unfamiliar
position, but you also stifle development of specialists in that position.
No specialist tightheads in South Africa? How would you feel if the national coach was picking a retreaded loosehead who can’t scrum ahead of you?
Well articulated Tank, if only Meyer woould take note of what we are saying. Tank and
Beeno on the same page.
I hope this is quite clear to all the oaks.
Tank is a former Western Province tighthead prop who now heads up
Tankman Media, and sprouts forth on all things rugby on the Front Row Grunt.
