Robert Ebersohn has been placed on standby for the Springbok squad following injuries to Jean de Villiers, JJ Englebrecht and Juan de Jongh.
Sounds as if Juan de Jongh will definitely miss the opening test match but it's good news for the in-form Ebersohn who can consider himself very unlucky to have missed out on selection for the initial squad. You can read the full article here.
Awesome news - guy turns down money because his stated goal is to play for the Boks and it looks like he may get that shot.
Serfontein / Ebersohn midfield combo would be interesting although one has to wonder about the chemistry that can be expected.
ebherson should have been selected ahead of de jong IMO.
IMO if ebherson continues to be treated as a fringe Bok player who only gets in via injuries, it wont be too long before he just chooses to go after the $$$$ overseas.
if jean, de jong and englebrechtt are all out, would ebehrson be starting at 13 with serfontein???
or would the lack of experience in the midfield force meyer to go down another path, like playing habana at 13??? O_o
Sasue
I think that there are two issues here - namely the facts that -
* Meyer apparently doies not rank Engelbrecht very highly as an outside center - based on what happened last year; and
* Habana can never be considered as a center - he was piss-poor in Super 15 tis year as well.
You would never know when the real Habana is going to pop up - his formlast year in Super 15 was not jyst about average - but in the Springbok team it was top notch. Be it as it may - he is a wing and no center,
Now back to another problem - any SA squad shall contain a ANC Government requirement of around 25% what they term as Black representation, That is why a number of under-performing players like De Jongh, Kirchner et al will be in the squad. There will also have to be at least 4 players in the match-day squad of 22 players. That in the main is the reason why a useless player like De Jongh is selected ahead of Ebersohn.
The so-called Black community in the main supports the Springboks as a team representing the country - but otherwise the interest in playing the game is fairly limitted, qwith the result that the number of rally capable players coming through are also relatively small. That accouns for the present scenario in team selection and Meyer must use a fine political balancing act not to ne undermined like Jake White was.
My personal view is that if De Villiers is not available - Meyer woiuld rather start with Ebersohn at 13 and not with Engelbrecht - but I may be wrong in that.
Mike I think you are throwing about wild assumptions here. We know nothing of what Meyer thinks of JJ at 13. Why he dropped him from last years Bok squad after 10 min on the wing, we will never know.
What we do know is that JJ has been in sublime form this year at 13 and that it was Meyer that signed JJ from WP for the Bulls, so my view is that Meyer is a big fan of JJ's.
Maybe he did not think he was ready last year, but he is a different player this year.
Saffex
We will never know about it before the team is announced - now do we? Even though Engelbrecht had a pretty ordinary game on Saturday - I still think he should play if De Villiers is not available.
