Rassie's Alignment Squad

The first and second "alignment" squad combined:

FORWARDS

Prop

Lizo Gqoboka, Trevor Nyakane, Ruan Dreyer, Steven Kitshoff, Wilco Louw, Frans Malherbe

Hooker

Malcolm Marx, Bongi Mbonambi

Lock

RG Snyman, Jason Jenkins, Lood de Jager, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Franco Mostert

Loose Forward

Roelof Smit, Cyle Brink, Nizaam Carr, Siya Kolisi, Sikumbuzo Notshe, Cobus Wiese, Warren Whiteley

BACKS

CC

I am very disappointed that Rohan and Vorster has not been included,   There are a lot of player who are sub-standard and most o those are quota selections.    

CC

I am very disappointed that Rohan and Vorster has not been included,   There are a lot of player who are sub-standard and most o those are quota selections.    

CC

You left out Le Roux from the foreign club players list,   He is likely the only club player making it into the squad - the other players you actually mention has even playing for their clubs being sub-standard and some of them are too old to make the 2019 WC anyway,  

Mozart would love to see all these oldies in the squad - but nobody else would.  Morne, Fat Fransie, Ruan Pienaar and Flo -  you must be kidding!!!!

Rassie's been visiting with players abroad. He clearly has an idea of who he wants in the mix.

Le Roux is probably one of them.

Who else?

Bluebok

I think some of the attendees was only there for show and those include Dreyer and Jantjies.  They had their chances and failed and I doubt whether they would get further chances,   They are in competition with real players who can perform  and for he first time in years we have  reasonable picks for instance at flyhalf,     

What is going to happen when Erasmus call up layers for the third alignment programme?

I think the following may be amongst the Sharks players called up:

Sharks Players

Tendai Mtawarira, Thomas du Toit, Akker van der Merwe, Jean Luc-du Preez, Dan du Preez, Louis Schreuder, Robert du Preez, Andre Esterhuizen, Mapimipi and Nkosi.

Cheetahs Players

Venter, Mohoje, Cassiem

Foreign Club players

I do not think that as a rule any over the age of 30 players will be called up since it would be counter-productive from the point of view of team building for the 2019  WC.   Duds will also be out.

Under the circumstances here may be only a few players called up and those can include the following:-

Le Roux, Marcel Coetzee, maybe Vermeulen (unlikely). Labuschagne, Ackerman, Goosen  

Lets see how near to the mark am I.

When I was doing the list I was thinking about the fact that Rassie rates thinking players and not duds – he leaves that to dud coaches like Meyer and Vermeulen.

Goosen was in 2017 the French club player of the year and then had a fall-out with his club and has not played since that time.   However, he is so highly rated in France that Montpellier is prepared to pay R20 million to Racing Metro to get him released so they can employ him.

Labuschagne is most likely the only SA loosie that has ever been go od in ball protection and recovery – most other loosies have yet to discover what that phrase means.   He is probably also a loosie who can read the game better than most others.

Problem is you will not understand anything about thinking payers – since you routinely support the selection of dud players.   

Dreyer again LOLZzzz! I suppose there will be enough players for 3 to squads, so lots of dry wood to cut, but still, Dryer???

Don't be surprise if Rassie selects Adrian Strauss. Rassie worked with Adrian for quite a while at Superrugby level and it seems Adrian is again in top form. His leadership may count in his favour if it turns out that Whiteley is a bit too light in the #8 position, or Etzebeth is outplayed by any of quite a few contenders (Mostert, Lood or Snyman) with PSDT the other lock (PSDT is not fast enough as a flank).

If Rassie can get Vermeulen to fire, he will be my choice as eightman. 

I honestly think Adrian is a better leader than Eben Etzebeth.

I don't think Strauss will play international rugby again and his age count also against him.   They would rather use the bench for a quota selection;

I think the no 8 position would be filled by Jean-Luc du Preez or Marcel Coetzee and the 7 by one of the two mentioned.   That is if Coetzee is fit to play again.  

Blikkies - my problem is that a 32 year-old starting to fire after two years of questionable performances is near to zero,

You must be careful - even just mentioning that Etzebeth could be outplayed will give Mozart a seizure.   

Bluebok, I was not aware that he retired from international rugby. If that is the case then there is nothing further to discus. 

However, in principle, form should be the only denominator and should be independent of age.

I reject any form of non-merit selection and like Saffex, will only list my best players.