There are a number of lessons to be learnt from the AB's when it comes to team selection. Hansen does not look at age as a factor in selection - he places an emphasis on experience but there is a serious negative borne in mind by him - experience without performance counts for nothing. In the WC last year Hansen selected a top class squad based on performance and not anything else. Experience was a valuable addition - age did not count.
So lets look at the present Springbok squad and especially the more experienced players – ie the over 28 category:-
Lwazi Mvovo – atrocious failure
JP Pieteren – serious failure
Duane Vermeulen – serious failure
Francois Louw – serious failure
Adriaan Strauss – serious failure
That means a high failure rate in the starting line-up of one-third of the players. If they were the only failures that could perhaps be off-set by other players. But the team has to contend with other sub—standard players as well, the foremost of which are Mapoe, Jantjies and Kolisi.
There remains only one ultimate criterium for selection – namely performance. We are in the process of team building and the above is not a good foundation to build on. If Player fail in performance they must find other candidates to ultimately in 18 months time come up with the key components for the 2019 WC.
