Second Test Team

The following team will play on Saturday in the second test:-

Springbok team: Patrick Lambie, JP Pietersen, Jean de Villiers (captain), Frans Steyn, Bryan Habana, Morne Steyn, Francois Hougaard, Pierre Spies, Willem Alberts, Marcell Coetzee, Juandre Kruger, Eben Etzebeth, Jannie du Plessis, Bismarck du Plessis, Tendai Mtawarira.

Replacements: Adriaan Strauss, Werner Kruger, Flip van der Merwe, Keegan Daniel, Ruan Pienaar, Wynand Olivier, Bjorn Basson.

There are no real surprises here - normlly a winning team is not changed.   However, Meyer has retained the under-performers in the squad and effectively only replaced Kirchner with Lambie.   In Lambie's place on the bench he put in Basson.   

Personally i would have dropped Pietersen to the bench and also Hougaard - but I think they are both given another chance.   Next poor performance and they could go. 

Good thing you are not the coach then

Not sure about Basson, I'm not a fan but I'll give HM the benefit of my doubt, as for the unimaginative plodder Olivier there is no doubt. To his credit HM has not tinkered with a winning team.

Two unsolved problems remain:

1) The inability of our loosies to protect the ball on the deck, and slow opposition ball.

2) The painfully hesitant service provided by Hougaard.

The presciption provided for 2) ie the Boks forwards "firing" will also help with 1). The pack can drive over the ball on the ground. But these two problems are endemic and will remain. They will reappear in the TN for sure.

The solutions will require a change in players for sure in the case of our loosies....eventually we will be forced back to Brussouw or the equivalent. Marcel Coetzee is not going to compete with Pocock.

In the case of Hougaard, he may be trainable.....why not use F du Preez to teach him the finer points. Right now he is a long way from the finished article.....great a talent as he may be.

clevermike
Member
Posts: 342 Second Test Team
June 13, 2012, 13:12:01

"Personally i would have dropped Pietersen to the bench and also Hougaard - but I think they are both given another chance.   Next poor performance and they could go."

This is what Heyneke Meyer said earlier, according to an article on the home page:

"As I have said before, I am not a believer in giving chances, people have to take their chances, and I don’t want to make playing for SA cheap."

That would suggest that Hougaard has taken his chance and that Heyneke was happy in the way that he executed his job.

I doubt any coach with half a brain could have been happy with Hougaard's clearing of the loose scrums. More likely he has a vision for the scrumhalf Hougaard could become, and doesn't want to give up on that vision yet. My guess is if we lost that test Francois would have been one of the casualties.

Dr Moz I do trust you saw the second half. Two halves like that and we could win by a record margin. Marcell will out do peacock who is being pretty much countered as is Brussouw. Coetzee is the better athlete and very dynamic. Too much is made of peacock because he stole a few balls against us in the world cup due to Bl allowing him to play handsin ruch and not us. Some batty oaks think this happened to us because Brussouw went off injured early in the game! hahhahahahahahahaha

Question is with Schalk and even Vermuelen back who who will get selected in any case.

Nothing wrong with Coetzee thus far. Spies is not quite good enough and Juandre doesn't dominante but is a big  improvement on matfield. The backline is fine by me with some nice pace to come on in Basson  and variety in Ruan.

I am reasonably satisfied with the selections given the new start that is being made.

Boks to make it 9 in a row.

 Ceradyne, it does sound a bit hypocritical of Meyer not to drop Hougaard as Pienaar clearly played better. But the whole build up this week they have been going on about the break down not being cleaned out enough. I had a look at some  highlights from the SA and Aus games and there you can clearly see the difference. The Aussies are very good at rucks, comitting atleast two players, but very effective technique. Allowing a clean ball at the breakdown for Genia. No forwards lying over the ball. Where as with the SA game the forwards were just falling into rucks and there was no sense of protecting the ball and placing it for the scrumhalf. Although what I did notice is how Genia were bossing his forwards to thit the rucks. He was constantly in the mix directing the players while they were going through the phases. I didn't see this from Hougaard at all. The SA rucks were so bad that even one of our own players cleaned hougaard out, his own man. 

Lets wait and see this weekend and hopefully the rucks will be better and judge Hougaard then. But I also believe that he needs to take responsibility at the break down and start bossing the forwards around or he will be digging for the ball all day.

WE could hardly run the ball in the RWCQF because of the Pocock factor.....and 5 phase movement was a ball loser.

@kingcorn,

the way genia orders his forwards around and the smarts he has in using them and the referee as decoys for various attacks is why IMO genia is the worlds best halfback. i absoloutely love that facet of his game.
apparently during a reds game james horwill knocked the ball on at a crucial stage and genia ripped him a new one. during the welsh test when they were huddled on the field, u couldnt tell that pocock was captain, especially the way genia was talking  and pumping up the boys, hes a real leader and should be wallabies captain IMO.

the point with my genia lovefest is that even though u didnt see that with hougaard, u dont ever see genias general like commands in anyone, not even du preez at his most authorative best was that commanding.
hougaard really needs to work on that confidence to assert himself more, but i think as he gets a few more caps under his belt, he will not let the Bok fans down in terms of halfback skill level and leading the forwards, which all halfbacks need to do.

i also agree completely with the forwards letting down hougaard especially in the first half. i get a feeling that meyer has given this area special attention this week, so i would be surprised if the breakdown is any worse then it was in last weeks first half.

 @sasukeuchiha

Other general type players that spring to mind is Justin Marshall. You always saw him talking to the forwards. I agree that Genia is brilliant in using his forwards as decoys which is probaly the reason why he is able to make such fantastic breaks, hougaard just go in head first and hope that one of the big boys might fall off him. 

Other teams that has been good at the ruck for me this year has been the highlanders, Smith who is now an all black scrummy has been having a fantastic season, but it is due to the fact of how quicly the highlanders recycle the ball and present it on a plate to the scrummy. 

For all our forwards size and strength, they are really clumsy at the ruck, they are more focussed of moering the players out of the ruck than actually protecting the ball. 

@kingcorn,

true about justin marshall, a very great talker of the game. i kind of forgotten about him, cos i dont like himvery much, i thought he was a bit of a sook. IMO he only got picked for the ABs cos he was the best of what we had, but i am a little biased, lol, :P
gregan was another great general and a great captain too, he marshalled the troops very well during his tenure and he was a great captain, aussies produce decent halfback captains, albeit neither genia or greegan were born in australia, or pocock or digby and those 3 current players are the best in their positions.

i do disagree with the reasons why aaron smith has been playing well though. its true highlanders have been giving him good ball from the breakdowns, but the majority of those breakdowns havent been producing quickball, they have been ensuring great ball security, making sure that the ruck/maul is secure and smith is free to do what hes got to do.
there has been quickball though and there has also been times where hes been underpressure, but smith has done a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure his passing game is of the highest quality. IMO its the best passing game ive ever seen from a halfback,
look at the times the irish and spXV opponents got through the highlanders and ABs to pressure him, he would snap those passes out quick smart, very pleasing to see from an ABs fan point of view, especially as the wallabies have genia and the Boks have hougaard (who nearly every single kiwi rates very highly),