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Springbok squad for Brisbane

Started by Beeno120 REPLIES560 VIEWS· 12 Jul 2015, 11:09

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Beeno1

Captain40,032 posts

Beeno1Captain40,032 posts

12 Jul 2015, 11:09

12 Jul 2015, 11:09#1

Per SaRugby.co.za (official home of the Springboks)

The Springbok selectors on Sunday finalised the squad of 31 players that will travel to Brisbane for the opening match of the Castle Lager Rugby Championship, next Saturday at the Suncorp Stadium against the Wallabies.

The touring squad consists of 22 players who did duty against the World XV at DHL Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday.

The only member of the match-day squad to stay behind in South Africa is Jean de Villiers, who has been released to DHL Western Province to get game time in their Absa Currie Cup warm-up matches in the next fortnight.

The players who did not feature against the World XV, but will travel to Brisbane, are Lionel Mapoe, Lwazi Mvovo, Rudy Paige, Jan Serfontein, Morné Steyn, Schalk Brits, Lood de Jager, Frans Malherbe and Heinke van der Merwe.

“I would like to give as many of our squad members as possible game time in the build-up to the Rugby World Cup, so there will be changes against the Wallabies,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.

“We’ll re-assess the minor bumps and bruises when we get to Brisbane on Monday evening (Australian time). It’s a short week so the guys will have to find their rhythm quickly before we play what promises to be a very tough and intense Test match against Australia.”

Injured players Duane Vermeulen, Willem Alberts, Frans Steyn, Fourie du Preez, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Steven Kitshoff, were not considered for the week-long tour and will continue with their individualised rehabilitation programmes. The rest of the current Springbok squad who are not on the airplane to Brisbane, will move to Pretoria where they will continue their rehabilitation and conditioning work.

The Springbok squad that will travel to Brisbane is:

Forwards: Schalk Brits, Schalk Burger, Marcell Coetzee, Lood de Jager, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Eben Etzebeth, Vincent Koch, Francois Louw, Frans Malherbe, Victor Matfield, Teboho “Oupa” Mohoje, Tendai Mtawarira, Trevor Nyakane, Adriaan Strauss, Heinke van der Merwe, Warren Whiteley.

The three scored out players are definte no nos. Cant comment on Heineke van der Merwe. What Mohoje has done to warrant a place!! Zip he is a quota pick for sure. The public should name and shame these guys.

Backs: Damian De Allende, Bryan Habana, Jesse Kriel, Patrick Lambie, Willie le Roux, Lionel Mapoe, Lwazi Mvovo, Rudy Paige, Ruan Pienaar, JP Pietersen, Handré Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Jan Serfontein, Morné Steyn.

No Vorster and no Faf de Klerk and no Van Wyk - thanks to that halfwit Allistair Coetzee and quotas in play?

Saffolk

Captain30,741 posts

Saffolk Captain30,741 posts

12 Jul 2015, 11:25

12 Jul 2015, 11:25#2

Good old Meyer missing the boat again....what a useless coach he is

clevermike

Coach57,555 posts

clevermikeCoach57,555 posts

12 Jul 2015, 11:50

12 Jul 2015, 11:50#3

Beeno
This is donkey thinking by Meyer. Out of the squad of 31 players there are the following passengers:-
Forwards
Schalk Britz, Jannie du Plessis, Francois Louw, Victor Matfield, Teboho Mohoje, Heinke van der Merwe
That makes it 6 passengers which leave only 11 Match day players when we need 12. Stupid since the passengers will cost us the test against the Aussies.
Backline players
Rudy Paige, Ruan Pienaar, JP Pietersen, Morne Steyn - which also mean at least one passenger in the match day squad.
Meyer still miss the ship when it comes to squad selection. He should after three years know what to expect from the passengers mentioned above - but he sticks with them and that makes people worry about the selection deficiencies he has shown consistently over the past few years.

Beeno1

Captain40,032 posts

Beeno1Captain40,032 posts

12 Jul 2015, 12:10

12 Jul 2015, 12:10#4

Meyer has difficulty identifying talent.There is also undoubtedly racist quota pressure on him - eg mohoje.My big concern is the tight five as with matfiled in the mix it becomes a tight 4. That is a blunder of epic proportions. We need a dominant tight five not one on the back foot because wee matfiled 105 kg is moonlighting in the backline!!! Given a domin ant tight five we can then pick a well balanced loose trio. This in turn helps our attacking game etc etc.

Beeno1

Captain40,032 posts

Beeno1Captain40,032 posts

12 Jul 2015, 12:18

12 Jul 2015, 12:18#5

I am not convinced jannie, JP and Louw are done. Jannie was quite energetic. Louw was okay and obviously needs time to adjust to a higher level of play. JP needs a good dfessing down and being told he needs to greatly up his work rate.
However I firmly believe we have to see what the young guns can do. They need test experience and may blow away all doubts. Maybe if the young guns have a chance to prove themsleves some older oaks will get motivated.

Beeno1

Captain40,032 posts

Beeno1Captain40,032 posts

12 Jul 2015, 12:28

12 Jul 2015, 12:28#6

Full nameLouis-Francois Pickard LouwDate of birth15 June 1985 (age 30)Place of birthCape Town, South AfricaHeight1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)[1]Weight114 kg (251 lb; 17 st 13 lb) [2]SchoolBishopsNotable relative(s)Jan Pickard (grandfather)Is 30 too old. Lets see how Louw goes. That said jaque Diu Plessis should be in the squad. He is an 80 minute grafter. Meyer though is looking for two flankers that play to the ball. At the moment it could be Louw and Coetzee with Burger at 8. That is not at all a bad loose trio!! All around the 114 kg mark and real grafters.Just get the tight five right Meyer and ditch the show pony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

clevermike

Coach57,555 posts

clevermikeCoach57,555 posts

12 Jul 2015, 17:26

12 Jul 2015, 17:26#7

From that squad announced by Meyer - I think that the team to be selected should be as follows:-
15 Willie le Roux14 Lwazi Mvovo13 Jesse Kriel12 Damian de Allende11 Bryan Habana10 Handre Pollard 9 Cobus Reinach 8 Schalk Burger 7 Marcell Coetzee 6 Francois Louw 5 Lood de Jager 4 Eben Etzebeth 3 Frans Malherbe 2 Bismarck du Plessis 1 Tendai Mtawarira
16 Adriaan Strauss17 Trevor Nyakane18 Vincent Koch19 Victor Matfield20 Warren Whiteley21 Ruan Pienaar22 Patrick Lambie23 Jan Serfontein
The problem is to beat Australia we will need to be strong in the Tight 5 combination and that would only be possible if we get rid of the two weak players in that combination - those being Jannie du Plessis and the gruntless Victor Matfield. That would never be allowed by Meyer. He has painted himself into a corner with Matfield and we now will have only a Tight 4 combination.
Meyer may also include the atrocious Morne Steyn in the starting 23 - but I hope that does not happen because it would destroy the structure of the backline. Meyer should also have nightmares about the Perth test and Morne's atrocious performance in that test. Despite his slow service to Pollard Meyer is likely to retain Pienaar at scrummie - a special gift for Poc ock. Reinach has always been tops against Australia and I hope Meyer thinks carefully before picking Pienaar.
I tried to think what should be done about Snail Pietersen (also known as JP) and with the players in the squad I could only come up with Mvovo. I do not think that Meyer would play Mapoe - he does not like midgets in the backline and Mapoe is midget-size.
I do not think we can beat Australia with a Tight 4 combination and am not at all optimistic about the Springboks beating the Aussies.

Mozart

Captain49,914 posts

MozartCaptain49,914 posts

12 Jul 2015, 19:17

12 Jul 2015, 19:17#8

The " young guns" will do exactly what they did in the CWC ....where de Kock's total mess of a simple run out led to our exit.

Beeno1

Captain40,032 posts

Beeno1Captain40,032 posts

12 Jul 2015, 19:29

12 Jul 2015, 19:29#9

Dr Mozzz needs to realise that youth is necessary. old time favourites cant last forever. Witness Roger Federer.

Mozart

Captain49,914 posts

MozartCaptain49,914 posts

12 Jul 2015, 19:34

#10

12 Jul 2015, 19:34#10

Roger played better tennis this Wimbledon than he has in the last three years....older but better. The Joker is just too sound defensively, but he destroyed the younger Murray. Then there is the small matter of 33 y ear old Serena vs the youngsters. Care to opine on that.....or is it game, set and match!

clevermike

Coach57,555 posts

clevermikeCoach57,555 posts

12 Jul 2015, 20:06

#11

12 Jul 2015, 20:06#11

Mozart
This happens to be a rugby site. If you do not know rugby is a contact sport where age does play a very important role effecting performance. The ideal best-performance years are from 25 to 30 and that after 30 performance levels go into decline. As the years over 30 increase there is a real decline in performances on a year-to-tear basis.
To live in the past and continuously quote past players is not realistic. That is for instance why a player like De Villiers in 2013 was tops - but his performance was markedly lower than he was in 2014.
In essence players are more include to be injured and on average the injuries are more serious and last longer to mend as years go by.
Another example is that there has been no repeat winners of World Cup because there is minimal team renewal in WC winning teams. In 2007 most players ware in their prime - in 2011 they were mostly failures - in 2015 they will be worse.
It is unfortunate but the above is an inconvenient fact of life. So sound advice is to forget the age, reputation, experience issue and only take note of it when present top performance is in evidence. And forget about getting around the performance requirement by building fairy castles not in evidence on the field of play.

Beeno1

Captain40,032 posts

Beeno1Captain40,032 posts

12 Jul 2015, 20:26

#12

12 Jul 2015, 20:26#12

The exception like Serena doesnt prove the rule. Serena is far stronger than the other females. Arms like Nadal. She is something of a freak.
Federer also in his own way isa freak to still be contending so well at 33

Wee matfiled 105 kg is 38. Yes 38. 38 and the papest lock ever!Its game set and match!

Ceradyne

Pro9,374 posts

CeradynePro9,374 posts

12 Jul 2015, 21:01

#13

12 Jul 2015, 21:01#13

Federer more than contended well. He did not just roll over. At 33 he is still the number two in the world and many of the younger players in this tournament will ever emulate him. In fact, I would go as far as saying that very few will. I would even include a player like Nadal among those who would probably never emulate Federer.

sharkbok

Captain23,283 posts

sharkbokCaptain23,283 posts

12 Jul 2015, 22:44

#14

12 Jul 2015, 22:44#14

Stereotyping players by age is limited.
Their is no set age formulae that can be applied- and even if their was- it is not taking into account injuries and playing time.
Look at Schalk Burger at 32- in the form of his life. Christian Cullen was better at 20 years old than when he was when he was 24- so was James O'conner and Frans Steyn and many others.
Injuries and the overall game time overtake players before their age. Sports injuries take their toll- so the more games a player plays- the less time they last.
Even just randomly replacing anyone over 30- their is often not a player better that is younger. Whitley was given a test lesson by Schalk- not because of age- just because Schalk is a far better test level player.
Schalk is a much better player regardless of his age. His time out of the game has probably helped prolong his form by not been overplayed.

Mozart

Captain49,914 posts

MozartCaptain49,914 posts

12 Jul 2015, 22:48

#15

12 Jul 2015, 22:48#15

Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup....beating 4 younger teams on the way. Sports is replete with older, but better teams. Speaking of contact where are the youngsters challenging Floyd Mayweather.

Our youngsters are being given ample chances....but so far only Etzebeth has a secure Bok slot.....Pollard, Reinach, de Allende, Kriel, Lomp, Coetzee are still trying to make that happen.

The crop of youngsters since RWC 11 have been young pop guns.

clevermike

Coach57,555 posts

clevermikeCoach57,555 posts

13 Jul 2015, 01:02

#16

13 Jul 2015, 01:02#16

The problem is the squad of youngsters have been pop-guns, the squad of geriatrics have been without any pop whatsoever. Wonder what is worse?

bluebok

Pro3,977 posts

bluebokPro3,977 posts

13 Jul 2015, 08:59

#17

13 Jul 2015, 08:59#17

Some of the younger guys do still need to prove themselves. Polard is fine, but his kicking is a problem! WC's are won by teams with very reliable kickers, and polard is not kicking the percentages required to fit into that category! Don't get me wrong, I still rate him as the best we have, but either he needs some serious work before the WC, or someone else needs to do the pole kicking.
I am not at all sold on Lood. He was good in Super Rugby last year, but prior to his injury in internationals, he looked off the pace. Mvovo, no thanks! Faf has the potential, but it is not yet proven, which is exactly why they should have played him ahead of Pienaar. Pienaar WTF!!!!

clevermike

Coach57,555 posts

clevermikeCoach57,555 posts

13 Jul 2015, 09:46

#18

13 Jul 2015, 09:46#18

SB
I do not categorize players according to age and what I wrote is a general guideline - but there are exceptions as well. However, exceptions are those that will show us that they are exceptional through performance.
My problem is that some posters do not care at all whether a player still performs satisfactorily and purely relies on experience and reputation as a norm for selection.
You are correct about the age issue - I was for instance over the moon when Steyn returned from France at the age of 25, because he was tops in his earlier years in rugby. However, since his return his performance levels have been poor and that is at the age when rugby players are normally at their prime. After three years it does not seem as if there is any improvement - matter of fact he is slow, seemingly overweight and seems to have problems with decision-making. That is really tragic because he had such massive potential when he was younger. At this stage he seems to struggle even on Super 15 level.

clevermike

Coach57,555 posts

clevermikeCoach57,555 posts

13 Jul 2015, 10:02

#19

13 Jul 2015, 10:02#19

Bluebok
To my mind all players need to prove themselves as belonging - the young guns even more so than the others.
However, there is a question I want to ask and that relates to Pienaar's game on Saturday. Did you see the match yourself? My impression was that Pienaar was slow in ball distribution - he seemed to stand looking at balls coming out of mauls - allowing the opposing players to line up their defenses. Another problem was that he never moved towards the back of the line-out when Whiteley won that opposition throw-in line-out before Burden's try. If he followed the ball he might have been in place to receive the ball and not leave it unattended. In general Pienaar was pace-deficient or so it seems to me.
Another problem seems to be that his slow service was putting Pollard under unnecessary pressure. When Reinach came on Pollard immediately improved in performance as well.
Confirm whether you agree with my impressions please.

bluebok

Pro3,977 posts

bluebokPro3,977 posts

13 Jul 2015, 10:56

#20

13 Jul 2015, 10:56#20

That is exactly what I saw Mike! Look, Pienaar was not terrible, but he just seems to be a split second too slow. And why settle for that when we have quick exciting players in the squad. I know they may lack experience, but that is exactly why they should have played. We know what Pienaar can do, so why not test the new guys at the top level? If they flop, fine, put Pienaar in, but they should have been tested!

Saffolk

Captain30,741 posts

Saffolk Captain30,741 posts

13 Jul 2015, 12:54

#21

13 Jul 2015, 12:54#21

Last I checked Roger lost the final to a better youngster.

Younger players are far better especially when it comes to rugby.

The likes of Kirchner, Fourie, Jean, Morne, Pienaar, du Preez, Jannie, Matfield, Louw and Alberts are past their prime......are liabilities now......we have 3 or 4 better youngsters per position than these washed up has beens and that's a FACT

Meyer and his geriatrics will see us end up 3rd in the RC and exit the WC at the quarters.

Fact is, had Fourie and Jean been fit and in shape, they would have been our centre combo this RC......as soon as Alberts is fit, he will join the side.

So by the WC we will see a centre combo of Jean and Fourie, with du Preez and Pienaar as our 9 options, Morne on the bench, Matfield at lock, with Louw (completely outplayed by Coetzee on the weekend) and Alberts in the side......add Jannie at 3 and JP and Habana.

All these washed ups are selling Bok rugby short.....but the biggest joke of all is that some posters believe these geriatrics are still the answer

As for de Kock losing us the WC game, what a load of horse shit...yet another lie

— END OF THREAD —

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