SARugbyMag's Springbok Squad

Over the last week, SA Rugby magazine’s writers have picked their best Springbok ‘dream team’ from the past 25 years, and here’s how the completed selections look.

OUR SPRINGBOK XV: The back three

OUR SPRINGBOK XV: The midfield

CRAIG LEWIS’ BOK 23 – 15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Butch James, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Subs: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Os du Randt, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Eben Etzebeth, 20 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 21 Joost van der Westhuizen, 22 Handre Pollard, 23 Frans Steyn.

OUR SPRINGBOK XV: The halfbacks

WADE PRETORIUS’ BOK 23 – 15 Percy Montgomery, 14 James Small, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Pieter-Steph Du Toit, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Subs: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Os du Randt, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Eben Etzebeth, 20 Juan Smith, 21 Heinrich Brussow, 22 Handre Pollard, 23 Cheslin Kolbe.

OUR SPRINGBOK XV: The back row

MARIETTE ADAMS’ BOK 23 – 15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Schalk Burger, Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Os du Randt.
Subs: 16 John Smit, 17 Beast Mtawarira, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Eben Etzebeth, 20 Juan Smith, 21 Joost van der Westhuizen, 22 JP Pietersen, 23 Frans Steyn.

OUR SPRINGBOK XV: The tight five

1. Nobody chose the Rolls Royce
2. How can some not have Os in the starting XV?
3. Jean and Jaque are unanimous choices - no complaints from me here
4. So is Victor and Bakkies - no complaints from me here
5. So is FdP, Schalla and Habana - no complaints from me here
6. Bismark seems to be the popular choice at 2. It must have been a close call.
   
7. HOW THE FUCK CAN ANYONE PICK MORNE IN THE DREAM TEAM

Beast is one of the greatest servants of Bok rugby. It would be hard at this point to leave him out. Os was special, but Beast takes that spot now. 

Jean was the longest-serving Bok 12. He was by no means the complete 12, nor the best, but he was a faithful servant of the Boks. I'm not surprised he was selected. Fourie is unquestionably the best, we really do struggle in this position, but Fourie could compete with almost any other 13 in any country. 

Morne is not an unreasonable one. His partnership with Du Preez was lethal. We never got to really see the prime years of that combination thanks to Peter. We never really got the most out of our golden age of players. Not even close. If we are selecting for talent alone, it has to be Butch. 

Bismarck had many, many problems. Not the most complete 2 by a long shot. He was popular, and a lot of that was media-driven . The media create external pressure to drive out an unwanted selection, and too many myths have been created that way. Bissie was a fantastic bench hooker, but never matched his reputation. He was all about physicality, brute strength, his game lacked the technicality that could have made him the best of all time in the game outright. We saw glimpses of what might have been in the 2015 Super rugby campaign, and that's a shame. 

Smit never was even remotely a good enough prop.  I watched the tri-nations 2009 tests and the scrumming was horrendously poor.   One could understand the Mtawarira situation - it was hos first tests - but Smit was the weak link.   D efinitely poor. 

As to Morne - blaas my siel!!!!  LMAO. 

Choosing Dud Toit over Juan Smith tells you how little these guys actually see......a bunch of process tackles and 1 metre runs.

Watching the 2009 Tri-Nations tests showed me something about Juan Smith which I mentioned  before,  He and butter fingers and too frequently lost ball possession in the tests when tackled,  A good player - but definitely not on par with Du Toit.      

If you can believe Tassie, PSDT brought heart and spirit to the team. There is a reason why Rassie made room in the team for him. There's also a rather good reason why he got World Player of the year...AND a bunch of other accolades...you can fool some people all of the time...and all the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the time...and Moz and Card are the only two people on the planet who does not rate PSDT as one of the best Boks last year, never mind POTY...I think they might be wrong on this one.

I thought Kolisi  was the heart and spirit man.....but let me add that....Dud the man for process tackles, 1metre runs, dollops of heart and spirit.

Monty

Kolbe

Joubert

Jean

Habana

Pollard

Faf de Klerk

Beast

Bismarck

Adrian Garvey

Etzebeth

Matfield

Schalk

Juan Smith

Vermeulen

Flyhalf mostly....but a keen observer of flank play Shezza....hahaha. Also an expert on the scrum!!

There has been people with serious memory problems - the period covered was 25 years and selecting De Klerk was and remains a problem.