Players that missed out
Roos is a generational talent
Oh really? Where did it show in his performances? 4 tests of nothing. Thomas is deserving of being at least on the bench, I'll give you that. Better than Malherbe easily.
Steph ahead of Dan d/P is ludicrous. The ponderous cart horse should never have been a Bok.
Yep, Erasputin is a terrible selector. Perhaps the worst we've ever seen. He is certainly no better than Straeuli.
One of those 4 scrumhalves is a place holder for Handre. Same as I expect Canaan is for Lukhanyo.
Well said Saffex, I could not have said it better myself.
This is a rigid system that only rewards players that have either played under Rassie or in the system for more than 3 years.
We don't really know how good kwagga is. He has been really flat in his test bar a consolation try. He has been playing in Japan for 4 years and we have local players that get overlooked.
We know Louw got dropped but we could also see that he was struggling and it is was right not to include him.
Vermeulen is hanging in there and one minor injury away from costing us the a chance at the world cup.
Rassie might be brilliant, but should we tolerate brilliant bastards. So much hope put into one person.
Then we have the brain trust of Stick and David's
No the Bulls Elrigh Louw. But Wilco Louw has been a solid tight head for years.
But is basically the same reason why so many players go abroad. They may be the 3rd best player in the country but because of politics which is now even at the provinces just decide to pack it in and go earn more money abroad.
But my real problem is that out of this squad, the youngest player we have in our pack is Wiese and Van Staden who are both 27.
Then we have Hendrikse and Moodie that our only two youngsters in the backline. Libbok is 26 and Grant is 26/27.
Where is the spine for the next generation? You need players with World Cup experience to take you through.
I know we all love to hate Meyer, but he built this team that won the 2019 World Cup. But I don't see Rassie leaving any decent players for the next World Cup. If the players that are going to the next World Cup we will have maybe
Willemse, Moodie, Hendrikse, Libbok, Wiese and Van Staden. All of whom will be either over 30 or close to it.
If you don't believe, visit this wiki page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_Africa_national_rugby_union_players
These are the players that Rassie won the World Cup with that Meyer brought through
Eben, Malherbe, Vermeulen, Le Roux, Nayakane, Kolisi, PSDT, De Jager, Pollard, De Allende, Reinach, Kriel, Koch.
These players were capped back from 2012 until 2015. Kriel being the last one making the team.
I don't see these calibre of young players being given the opportunity to go this years World Cup.
It is amazing to think that they are able to make it to three world cups.
Even back in the day when we were under De Strauli. We had the likes of De Villiers, Burger, Fourie Du Preez, Jacque Fourie to name a few that made it to the 2003 World Cup, we bombed out but we had enough players that felt that hurt and then went on to win it in 2007.
Even if we crashed out in the quarters, at least we would have it done it on our terms and these players would learn from it and come back stronger.
Which players will make it the next World Cup, Rassie has fucked the boks up that will last for decades now.
Why Fourie, we are well covered at 6. Why Vermeulen, we are covered at 8. Why Orie who is 30? I would rather see Nortje there.
No, we won't get a sniff of the World Cup this year or the following.
We will crash out, Rassie will quit and then Stick will take over. We will see the same results as the Junior boks until SA rugby is desperate and bring back a decent coach that don't buy into quotas but merit.
I just think you need 5 to 7 players under 23 going to the World Cup. Even if they don't get to feature at all, even if you have to bring your standby player in and they start ahead of the youngster. But we have to back them. Thee guys are professional players that just need to get use to the pace of international rugby and learn how to play under pressure. Handling pressure can be taught.
Just imagine having Roos, Louw and Nortje in that team. There are 3 boks that are all under 23.
Then you can go for a 7 players that are between 23 and 27. That only takes you to 14.
You have the magic number 27+ where you you have enough players that been at the World Cup or they might be their first and they are 27 and could potentially be there when they are 31.
They could have used the World Cup cycle to get players up to speed and gain experience.
So now our starting Flyhalf only has 7 caps. This is his 2nd season where he has been a solid starter for his province but also showing 2nd season symptons that so many players experience in their first year.
Where is the specialist backup 10.
No, just a load of crock from RasNie
