Speak up for the worthy players not selected....

It's tempting to simply support the team. I pretty much always have. But the injustice in this latest selection is indecent. How can Marx be left out for two very ordinary hookers. How do Kolisi and Notshe  beat out players like Kirsten or hell, even Lappies. How is Paige better than the man who has kept him on the bench.

And this is just the first step. The playing team is next. It seems likely opportunity players will comprise almost the whole backline, be represented at prop, hooker and loosie. Those looking forward to seeing Kriel and Whiteley should consider one loosie spot of 4 has to be kept for Kolisi, maybe 2 to include Notshe....that means we can only pick 2 of Louw, Vermeulen, Kriel and Whiteley. And PSDT is being talked about as a possible 7.
I have rarely commented on this stuff. It is what it is. But what makes a 50% opportunity player mix right? If I felt the opportunity players in the consideration set were not getting an even chance, I would comment on it......if anything they are already getting a better than  even chance.
Our young guys are going overseas because in positions like wing they are playing against a stacked deck. And then if they are a test consideration another wave of bias sweeps in....Coetzee says he certainly wouldn't choose his flyhalf or captain from the overseas ranks.

We all want our players to have an even chance......players like the Beast and Habana are the right example. Not Chili and a host of other players chosen over better alternatives.
There is no compelling need here. No kids that won't  have food on the table if Marx was preferred to Scara. The country should be able to compete evenly with NZ and Oz, players should have a sense there is an even playing field. Above all black rugby players should have an uncompromised sense of achievement when they make the team
This is a move in the wrong direction and not one that serves any honorable purpose.

Agreed Moz. I'm speaking as a non-white South African, I don't see how the people in power who were equally discriminated against when they were younger can impose a racially dividing policy now. 

Players, staff, anyone should never be picked because of the colour of their skin. It shouldn't even be something that enters the mind, as irrelevant as eye colour. 

Unfortunately, the people in power have seen this as the way to even the playing field and get a great % of POC in the squad but in reality they've missed the real problem, if their aren't enough POC who are good enough in their positions it isn't the fault of the selectors who pick the squads, it's the fault of the system who failed to give them the proper rugby schooling because of where they were born. 

The real fix to the problem would be to fix the grass roots level, get everyone on the same footing and the rest will take care of itself. 

Pick players on merit, if it so happens that the best 30 players are white then fine, pick them. If the best 30 players are POC, then pick them. As long as their South A frican, I don't fucking care!!

There are some very good players who never shake the tag. I always thought Adi Jacobs was very good for a few years, notably 2008. I have demonstrated many times that he was statistically the best centre in the TN that year. But he was always viewed as an opportunity player....in fact he made a very good combination with Jean.
There is no way to manage this thing neutrally , to not introduce something sinister into the simplest decisions that should be automatic. It sours the game.
I am convinced that at the Bok level, and at Super Rugby level there is an even playing field. But I agree APD, every effort should be made to give all kids a similar level playing field and it's hard to be sure that exists.  

 

In a field one summer’s day a Locust was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content.

An Ant passed by, bearing with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

“Why not come and chat with me” said the Locust, “instead of toiling in that way?”

“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant “and recommend you do the same.”

“Why bother about winter?” said the Locust, “we have plenty of food at present.”  ... but the Ant went on its way and continued to toil.

When winter came the Locust had no food, and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the Ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.   

The Locust went to its leaders and complained about the Ants and their vast stores of food. “Why should they eat from their stores of food while we starve?” said the Locust.

The leaders agreed and forced the Ants to give up their vast food stores.

The Ants grew tired of supporting the lazy locusts every year and so packed their bags and left for distant shores, where they prospered and lived happy and secure.

The Ants now exports their corn and grain to the land of the lazy Locust, prospering more and more each year.

Moral of the story is that we have a people in this country who feel they have the right to take what’s not theirs.  

They demand to be given what they didn’t toil for.

Many an Ant will continue supporting the lazy Locust ... and the Locust will prosper because of it ... forever demanding more and more from the oppressed Ant.

There are a few Ants out there that no longer feel the need to feed and enrich the lazy Locust.  

And I am one of them.

 

 

But there is some real competition for places in the match-23 for the first Test against Ireland, with the likely back-up to Adriaan Strauss at hooker one such situation. Stormers duo Scarra Ntubeni and Bongi Mbonambi both made the Bok cut, with the Lions’ in-form pair of Malcolm Marx and Akker van der Merwe missing out.

Marx was included in the SA A squad that will face the England Saxons in June, with Southern Kings No 2 Edgar Marutlulle – who has also been in excellent form – the other hooker.

Coetzee, though, said that the 21-year-old Marx will have to bide his time. “Marx is an unbelievable player, and I have no doubt that he will become a Springbok one day. But we are quick to build something, and we just break it up and throw it away. When Scarra had the opportunity (under Heyneke Meyer) – he didn’t have the opportunity really (having not won a Test cap) – he played superb rugby for a number of years,” the coach said on Sunday.

“And so is Bongi, he’s been there for a number of years. And I don’t say that Malcolm doesn’t warrant being in the Bok squad. But we need to reward players also for not just doing it in a once-off season – they’ve been consistently performing well. And one has got to reward that.

“I’m just happy Malcolm will be in the SA A side and must continue the way he is playing. There are other players who fall into the same category who aren’t even in the A side. They must just be prepared and ready to make the step up when called upon.”

 Bongi and Scara have one thing in common - they cannot throw in balls into line-outs accurately and it results in unnecessary line out losses.  Both contribute near to nothing to the scrumming as well,  Ntubeni weighing a 100kgs and Mbonambi 97 kgs.  Marx weighs 119 kgs and Van der Merwe 108 kgs.  The Stormers suffers badly in scrumming because of the two light-weight physically-deficient hookers and the complementary light-weight loosies makes life even more difficult for them in that department of the game .    

 I warened of this racist stuff years ago Moz and spoke out against it. You spoke then of social necessities was it.
All this stuff as well as the racist affirmative action poliocies have been devastating to SA interms of lost capital and skills and efficiency/competitiveness.
What has been amazing is how long it has taken for some to find avoice in the afce of this outrageous injustice so clearly revealed in the lastest Bok selections. 
Of course my good friend rooitwitterbug thinks its is a well sele cted side. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

 This is all just too pathetic for words. We've known for months about the transformation targets that the new coach would be expected to achieve and we've debated quotas in sport (and business) ad nauseum. Only the very stupid or hopelessly out of touch would have expected a team picked purely on merit. . . but now when Allister Coetzee picks the transformation team everyone else was expecting, we get dimwits like Baboon-ou and Moffie stamping their feet and wanting to debate whether race based selections are fair or not.
I say the real SA rugby supporters should leave these backward and delusional dinosaurs to cry on each others shoulders and move on.
Well done Allister. GO BOKKE! 

 Well said APD and CC!

 One wonders why dense denise supports the selection of these quota players. He must be a racist.

 So there we have it ou rooitwit comes out of his racist closet and declares his undying support for quota selections. Further the halfwit demands we support this racist behaviour. Haha hahahahahahaha why does ou rooitwit insist on making a complete twit of himslef like this. 

 Baboon-ou, if you want my opinions of quota selections and BEE appointments, scroll back and look through the archives. My comments on this thread and other threads since the squad announcement are in the context of the quotas we have debated for months already. Move on for goodness sake.

 Time you ditched your support for quota selections rooitwit and joined in the stand for merit based selections.Be assured its the right thing to do. I should have to be explain this to you but as always you appear lost! hahahahahahahahaha

 Don't worry Baboon-ou. If it's any consolation, I didn't expect your primitive little brain to grasp the rather simple point I was making.

 Yes ... we all knew this would happen.
I guess I was hopeful that some kind of sanity would prevail.
Just because we knew it was coming doesn't mean that it's acceptable.
It isn't. Not by a long shot.
Feel free to support this racist team and it's quota coach.
I am comfortable with my decision not to.
Go Ireland!!!!!!

Well HasBeen there is a need to be fair, and a need to be perceived to be fair. In a nation that is credulous about motivations for good reason, the 50/50 call goes to the opportunity player. But to set out an arbitrary goal of 50% opportunity players is palpably unfair. And then when you act on it (spot the difference AAS)....it's time to object. That won't change anything but it's better than nothing. This squad is shameful and breaks the basic rule of fairness in sports.

Marx will probably make the step up from the A team- to the bok team and leapfrog the likes of scara and mbombi.  Marx is still pretty young so plenty of time for him.

Beeno, as you are such a strong anti racist this must mean you campaigned against racism your entire life?

 "Beeno, as you are such a strong anti racist this must mean you campaigned against racism your entire life?" 

 I grew up in the Boland during the 80's. We were brought up to believe that segregation and Apartheid were necessary wrongs to protect us against a bigger wrong of total black dominance that would ultimately lead the white South-African to extinction....a big fat lie, disguised amongst some minor truths. I see the same lie being propagated again, by the other side. Never mind the motives or objectives,  wrong is wrong and will remain wrong forever. Racial profiling remains wrong regardless the author. The current government in SA is repeating the sins of their hated predecessors, falling into the same pit of fear. Trying to moderate their act won't make it any less wrong. The wrongs will only get worse by small increments,  as in our past. There is no sugar-coating this. The sooner all South African sports lovers and people in general condemns this, the better for all. We are heading for another disaster if this isn't stopped immediately. WE HAVE TO SAY NO NOW!

I feel for Marx, Kirsten and Marcel v/d Merwe in terms of worthy omissions.
Marx not being selected ahead of Scara or Mbonambi is laughable in terms of merit but quotas rule here.
At least Scara and Mbonambi are good players......my guess is Strauss will start and therefore Marx will not miss out on much, as he will hopefully start for the A side.
I dont get the non selection of Kirsten at all......not even for the A squad.....absolute madness considering how good he has been. The find of the season really. I dont get why the Bok squad does not have a true 7 on board.
Marcel v/d Merwe has been in dominant form all season and adds more value in general play that Redelinghuis.......I dont buy into these smaller props making it at test level.....Marcel is far better.

Let's see what happens with the match squad. Loose forwards, scrum half, props and wings....it hinges on those positions.