Meyer wary of huge Welsh backs

 Yep. I am also a bit worried about those lot. Particularly Geroge North. Are we still going to see Hendricks at 14 and JPP at 13? Will Hendricks be able to stop North if he gets going? If JPP moves to  14, will JJ or JdJ be able to help stop them?

 Beeno
Have to agree with you on the backline issue.  Davies ran around Fourie in the Welsh test like he was not there and for the Welsh unfortunately injured early in the last game.  
Lets look at the defense part.  In  Super 15 the poorest center tacklers were Francois Steyn and De Jongh - the first because of speed deficiency and the second because he s too small and players just run over or around him.     If Meyer persist with Morne - another very poor tackler -  at 10 we are doomed from a defensive perspective.  I am not sure whether Pietersen would be able to make all required tackles - when playing at 13 for the Sharks that also was a problem. 
The Welsh up front is slightly weaker than they were in the test last year.   However, looking at what happened on Saturday we will be fried up front and spit out.   Meyer needs to look at the lock situation and find players that can also contribute to scrumming and do some work in ball protection and recovery as well - so as to prevent the Welsh backline from getting too many good balls to play with.
How he is going to use the locks is another question.   Flippie's brother is getting married and he is not available this weekend.   I think the starting locks should be Willem Alberts and De Jager - but then the captain is left out.  Why Meyer always paints himself into a corner by favouring his pals - is another question.   
To counter the dangerous Welsh backline and ensure less balls being available to them - I would prefer to see the following team for the Springboks taking the field:-
15  Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen.  13  JJ Engelbrecht.  12  Jan Serfontein, 11 Bryan Habana.  10 Johan Goosen,  9  Fourie du Preez, 8  Duane Vermeulen,  7  Schalk Burger,  6  Francois Louw,  5  Victor Matfield (omg), 4  Lood de Jager,  3  Van der Merwe, 2  Bismarck du Plessis,  1 Tendai Mtawarire
Since Flippie is not available I would put Bakkies on the bench and replace Matfield with him - moving De Jager to 5.   You can then take a chance and put Coenie on the bench to cover for the tighthead and Nyakane to cover for Beast.  Another bench player should then be Marnitz Boshoff.
The center situation would have been solved if De Villiers and De Allende were available  - but that is unfortunately not the case.
Saturday proved again that the Steyn's, the old age locks and Jannie du Plessis should not have been in the squad.  I would much rather have preferred players like Lewies and Rhodes as number 5 locks - where Flippie could also play a role and Willemse and De Jager at no 4.  The locks combination we have at present is a rank disaster.      
                  

 Mike your side makes a lot of sense. Burger must start to provide some loose forward cover out wide. JJ/ De Jongh at center is a big worry. 
I agree with your pack and it would be best if Alberts played lock instead of matfiled. Pretty good lock Alberts makes. Bakkies could start with him for the experience point of view and Lood get a good second half.Bakkies and Alberts make a powerful lock pairing with good mobility.Du Preez is of course the preferred 9. I worry about the kid Goosen is it still a year too soon? Boschoff to start with Goosen on the bench possibly.  Give Goosen 30 minutes?The achilles heel is at center. Jan is okay but JJ will not hold on defence for 80 minutes. JP could hold on defence. I kile JP at center. Who knows he may stay there and Allende go to wing with Jean at 12 in the RC. Put JJ on the wing in place of Hendricks maybe. JJ in my book is bigger and more physical and pretty quick as well. Given the size of these Wales lads pumped on creatine one has to make a special plan. 
The truth is Beast and Bissie also need a break. It could be a tricky test. Key palyers out. What would be of great value is the weeding out of the chaff. Eg play Steen kamp. Brits and Coenie in the front row. Could they cope. If not what are they doing in the squad Have the Sharks front row on the bench as insurance. We have to find out if these guys are up to it. Brits is brillant outside the scrum, how good a scrummager is he being that small? Could he be carried in a strong scrum is another question.
Meyer has a lot of questions that need to be answered and Meyer has to box carefully. One loss and calls for his head will go up. 

 
Picking JJ to defend against Davies and Roberts is madness.

With the squad Dumbass Meyer has selected, I'd push Habana to 14 and bring Mvovo in at 11. I'd keep JP at 13 with Serfontein to 12. Du Preez ahead of Pienaar and Marnitz to 10.

Sadly I've come to accept that Alberts is too slow for southern hemisphere rugby. I would replace him with Burger.

Bakkies is so far gone you won't see him with a "verkyker". In comes De Jager. Would prefer Willemse but I guess De Jager will have to do.

I would also be tempted to start with Nykane at loosehead and Marcell on the other side with Bismarck at 2.

None of that will obviously happen.

We can expect his bulls favourites and a lot of praise for these hasbeens with comments of just how brilliant they were.

 

 Hi there Moz. Who do you think Meyer should go for?

 Mozart
They cannot be worse than Francois Steyn and Pietersen at center.  We need Pietersen to see whether he can defend against George North - Engelbrecht should be sufficient to cover Davies.   I would not play the center combination played on Saturday - since there will be too many gaps for the Welsh to run through.
OK we beat the Welsh by an off-side try a few months ago - but we did not have Jannie as a prop and we did heave a decent lock combination to support our props in scrumming.   That has gone down the drain with the present locks and we are going to find even a worse scrumming scenario on Saturday.
Botha and Matfield have let down our scrumming big time on Saturday and that will not change if they play against the Welsh.   Although Halfpenny is not in the Welsh squad - thy have enough ability to convert the free-flowing penalties that will follow as a result.   
And Goosen was a hell of a lot better than useless Morne.  At least he gained territory with his penalty kicks - Morne could not even do that.  
If Meyer picks the same team as for Saturday they are doomed and that is a fact.  

 

That' s what you said last week Chicken Little. 

 
Look forward to the match.

Hope Meyer keeps his boys as is.

Should be lotsa fun.

Go Wales!!!

I love these Bok fans who would rather have the Boks lose than win with a team they don't like.

Mozart
Nobody wants to see the Springboks lose - what they want to see is the silliness of geriatric selection going out of the game and the selection of performers picked instead of reputation players.  
With Meyer in charge losses are the only thing that would cause an improvement in his selections.  However, we will see on Wednesday what he comes up with - but I have nasty suspicion it will be the same old bag s he will try to recycle and our scrumming will be piss-poor and our backline will only dhow signs of life if Francois Steyn and Morne Steyn is not involved.    

 "And Goosen was a hell of a lot better than useless Morne.  At least he gained territory with his penalty kicks - Morne could not even do that.  "

So, what was so brilliant about Goosen's spell? He handled the ball seven times. Let's see.

Goosen came in in the 68th minute with the score at 33-13.

First touch. Kick from close to Boks 5yd line. Not out. Caught by O'Connor halfway between Bok 10m and halfway line.

O'Connor stopped in  his tracks by the "useless fat" Frans Steyn.

Second touch inside SA 22 sent away by Schalk but called back for a penalty against the Boks. Off-side.

Third touch. Penalty kick after Cowan was sent of. Good kick of about 40m.


Fourth touch was a straight forward receive and pass to Le Roux who sent to Mvovu away.

Fitfh "touch" was when he couldn't gather a pass from FDP.

Then tried his only tackle but got bumped off.

Sixth touch. Quick throw in. Straight forward receive and pass to Mvovu.

Seventh Touch. Receive the ball after a tackle and immediately pass to (looked like) Oosthuizen.

Eighth touch was the try when he went through a gap as wide as the Titanic.

Kicked conversion.

Apart from the conversion, he had no share in Le Roux's try.

That was the sum total of Goosen's contribution. Not bad but nothing spectacular either.

Oh, and it was one penalty kick.

 One can almost guarantee that Morne would've passed rather than run if he was in the same situation as Goosen was for his try. But hey ho we'll never find out.

Yes, Shezza, it is true that we will never find out, but we have seen Morne going for the try in similar circumstances for the Boks. Watch from  around 32s to 39, Then again against the All Blacks at 1:36, 1:45, etc. 

 Mozart - once a liar - always a liar.  "Morne was clearly undercooked on Saturday. But in the short space he was on Goosen was run over."  When did that happen?   Certainly not during the match when Goosen was on the field.   
Compared to Morne Goosen was a miracle worker.   The backline flowed and he was always making the right decisions.  He launched two kicks - one was pinpoint and O'Connor was caught with the ball in possession.  Where Morne made 20 to 25 meters when handling penalty kicks in his own 22- Goosen made 45 meters. 
You are the great inventor of things that did not happen on the rugby field and then cook up bullshit.  How do you manage to do it all the time?