Quan

Another week and yet another virtually flawless performance from Quan Horn.

He seems to live right at the intersection of exceptionally high rugby IQ and expert execution.

The result, as I mentioned previously, is an almost non existent error rate and continual influential moments. It seems impossible to keep him from creating momentum.

As Moz eluded to on today's match thread, the guy doesn't have much more to prove at franchise level. In fact, I struggle to think of another SA back that is more deserving of spending the rest of 2026 with the Boks than he is. He's exactly the type of guy you want with Sacha, Hooker, Moodie and Crappies.

At this point, Fassi is pretty much out of the reckoning for me. He's been too injured and too out of form for far too long and in the brief period this year when he wasn't injured he didn't look like 20% of the guy he was in 2024.

For me, all signs point to Quan getting into the Bok squad and being their for all of 2026.

Does anybody disagree?

No not at all - Horn is a top class full back who should be in the team. Another class act needed in the Lions team is Van Wyk at center,

I would also/ like to see Venter in the Springbok squad - but Roos also shown why he is a better loosie than other competitors for the number 8 position.

Tell me when you'll play a test

tell me Quan-do Quan-do Quan-do

as a 15 you're the best

please don't make us wait again

There you go Plummie, since you wrote the essay I was supposed to write I had nothing left but to make up a stupid song. Thanks boet.

Mine was simply the entre...the opening act

There is more to say about Quan.

I'm reminded of Chippo's comments a few weeks back. He mentioned that Quan was constantly talking to the backs, organising them. Basically he seems to be the backline skipper and shot caller while Francke is busy getting in the mix.

If you keep that in mind as we look back at some of the comments regarding the Lions over the last few months. We've been saying phrases like "well organised" a lot. More phrases that have become commonplace are "positive rugby" and "playing with a plan".

One feels that outside of the coaching, once the chaps are on the field, it's very difficult to be that organised and on point unless you have intelligent on-field leaders that are reading the game very well.

Assume we can take Chippo at his word and that Quan is responsible for a much of that, one would think it adds a lot to the value he brings.

So you start adding it all up. Extremely educated boot, great defensive reader, momentum hustler, virtually not existent error count, efficient organiser...

It starts looking unavoidable that he's going be a Bok from here on out.

One more thing I would add is that, as mentioned previously, Fassi should not be in the reckoning right now. It would be crazy to think he can suddenly play for the Boks this year after being injured for that long and also being in horrendous form. So one would think that with the AE hybrid experiment seemingly solidified at this point, and Willemse looking like he'll spend his time between 15 and 12, Rassie needs another 15...ASAP. Quan looks to have the kind of rugby IQ that means his induction would be very short. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that would struggle to learn and fit into any plan. I'm guessing that all of that probably makes him quite an attractive prospect for Rassie at present.

Some supporting evidence would be Hooker's instant adaptation to Test rugby. It's arguable that when guys are that high on brain and skill, they don't struggle to hit the ground running.