Rugby 365 - Hints on team Selection against England

After remarks made by Erasmus the team for Saturday may according to Rugby 265 be the following:-

15   Willie le Roux, 14  Sbu Nkosi, 13  Lukhanjo Am, 12  Damian de Allende, 11  Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10  Handre Pollard, 9  Faf de Klerk, 8  Duane Vermeulen, 7  Jean-Luc du Preez, 6  Siya Kolisi, 5  Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4  Franco Mostert, 3  Frans Malherbe, 2  Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

There is no real hint from Rugby 365 as to who would be on the bench, but personally I think based on some comments by Du Preez that it would be the following:-

16  Akker van der Merwe, 17  Stephen Kitshoff, 18  Trevor Nyakane, 19  RJ Snyman, 20  Dan du Preez, 21  Ivan van Zyl/Papier, 21  Robert du Preez, 22  Andre Esterhuizen, 23  Makazole Mapimpi

There is no certainty that Malherbe in fact did go to Washington - even if he did he did not play in that game.  The starting props in the Washington game was problematic (both of them) and the bench players were much better  

I do not think Erasmus likes the Jantjies way of playing and his positive remarks on Du Preez is an indication of which way he is likely to go.

There is as yet no indication as to which players in the Washington squad will be released - so as to reduce the squad top 28 players.   We will probably have to wait till Thursday to get info on that one.

The other issue is that Erasmus said he would only consider Bismarck and Steyn for selection after having a look at them.  He may be in for a bad surprise.   Bismarck according to his recent photo's gained a lot of lard and Fat Fransie is notoriously unfit at the best of times.

In the meantime I think that Erasmus is looking at the future and neither of Vermeulen, Bismarck and Fat Fransie are  likely to be considered for longer term selection.   I would be surprised if all three of them will still be in the RC squad.        

I will probably choke on a piece of droe wors if Rassie plays Mostert at 4.

Then again ... he thinks Ralepelle is a test quality hooker.

Has he really got a choice with all of Schickerling, Etzebeth and De Jager not available.   Snyman is not international material and Mostert would not be in the squad if the three locks mentioned were available.    .      

Leys wait and see what comes up.   I do not agree with you and Mozart about Malherbe being a belly-flopper.  This story/myth was started by Mozart because Jannie was under thread and in this  case Mozart in his normal fashion lied about what happened in matches.  He in fact based his whole story on the Wales test match and lied outright about the match scrumming issue. .

So Mozart was the liar who started the Malherbe story as mentioned above.  He disregards what was based  on remarks made by Erasmus and came on  with his own team he provided previously.

Must keep this thread alive until tomorrow and then comment on his team proposals.   

One would think that a little momentum would be highly sought after. Esterhuizen had a good outing and should by rights continue at 12. Instead we're looking at De Allende there.

Same goes for Kitshoff, Akker and Tank Du Toit.

One starts to wonder whether Rassie has any smarts at all.

CC

You dislike De Allende - but he performed better than Esterhuizen did in Super Rugby in all aspects of the game.   So one accept your comments on that score as strongly held personal opinion - perhaps based on prejudice.

I agree with you largely o some aspects - but if Erasmus is going to play Am at 13 another inexperienced player with one test to his credit - could become e real problem during the match.since both wings will most likely also be newbies.   I would perhaps have played Esterhuizeb at 12 and De Allende at 13 and then see hw that combination works.   You cannot have a backline where there are three players with no or very limited experience on test level and expect from them to function properly.

At thi s stage it is all guessing and Ithink we would see tomorrow what theactualteam would look like.     ...   

I am not particularly worried about Esterhuizen being a thread too De Allende or anybody else in fact.  I like Esterhuixen in any event - but my own idea is to play the two together.   Te days of small centers are gone and I do not think it will return - same as with wings,

I think that put in space Venter and Serfontein are good - but they cannot create space.   Odendaal is not in the same category as the other two - he tries to emulate Esterhuizen and De Allende - but he is ineffective in doing that.   

A lot of members on site wrote about Pollard as a 12 - but when tried in that position he failed.   

Personally I am happier with our center situation than with the loosies (even though I do not think Am will make the grade) - nd I hope Esterhuien is on the bench and if Am fail he comes on together with De Allende.

Our loosies has been pathetic for many years now..  Meyer was more interested in using loosies as an addition to the Tight 5 than he was in them meeting the basic requirements of loosies.   His loosie selection was bar Vermeulen was allways atrocious and Coetzee was even more clueless.  That is why we got two absolute failures as loosies under Meyer.

The latest lost is as bad,   None can be sure whether Vermeulen is still the player he used to be.  He was not a top performer for Toulon - if he was they would not have let him go.    He is at an age where performances deteriorates - so we must jopeWhiteley gets back soon.   Jean-Luc u Preez is an exceptionally hard worker - but he has poor ball skills and desite efoforts omn his part it has not not improved.    However, I would not mind him that much.   My main problem si with Kolisi - he is bad news from a performance perspective.    One thing all three the loosies mentioned lack os reasonable pace - which coupled to ball sense beimng missing make the unit as a whole ineffective,

If you listen to NZ commentators the best loosie SA produced icver the last decadse was Labuschagne - he has pace and ball sense lacking in all the other loosies played by Meyer and Coetzee.   He also is a ball protection specialist and makes more turnovers in Siper 15 than all three SA loosies as indicated above have done for rhie franchises and clubs in a full year of rugby.

Mozart hates the guy because he was so much better a player than Alberts that he invented a new term on site - process tackle - to try and diminish the fact that in three games in Super Rugby Labuschagne made more effective tackles than the three other Meyer loosies made in a season.   Be it as it may that was where the Springboks were always at a short end for years now.          .     

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So are you suggesting that De Allende creates space for his outside man? Since when?

Come now, Mike ...you and I both know that De Allende doesn't have the ability to create anything.

He's a dumb brute that knows only one thing ... crashballing

You miss a lot of games gents.   The fact tat he recently wiped the floor with SBW told you nothing?   

Exactly Shark ... and there's the difference between the two.

The one has grown as a player ... and the other hasn't.

See my comments on the team as selected.   Mostert and Matfield - bird of a feather - both were poor in 2015 and Mostert was worse in Super Rugby in 2018.

Mike tossing his opinions out there.