Springbok squad vs Wallabies and All Blacks

 Four players have been called up to the Springbok squad of 30 for the final two tests of The Castle Rugby Championship, in South Africa against Australia and New Zealand.

The four new faces in the squad who did not tour to Australasia, are the uncapped MTN Golden Lions duo of Jaco Taute (utility back) and Elton Jantjies (flyhalf), their experienced provincial teammate CJ van der Linde (prop) and Coenie Oosthuizen (prop) from the Toyota Free State Cheetahs.

“I’d always wanted to include Jaco in the squad but an untimely injury meant we could not select him earlier. Jaco is big, strong, fast and versatile and it will be good to get him involved,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.

“Elton was part of the squad before this season, against England in June and in the first part of The Castle Rugby Championship. He only missed out when we had to cut the numbers of the squad and it’s good to have him back.

“CJ, who took part in our training camps earlier in the season, brings a lot of experience to our pack and he is no longer injured. Apart from being the second most experienced prop in Springbok history, after Os du Randt, he is versatile and can play loosehead and tighthead.

“And it’s great to have Coenie back with us after he picked up an injury on debut in the first test against England in June. He is a world class prop and losing him was a big setback.”

Meyer added only two scrumhalves had been selected for the tests, which meant Jano Vermaak misses out. The national selectors felt that Vermaak is familiar with the game plan and can easily be brought back in should his services be required.

The following players, who were part of the squad earlier in the season, were not considered for selection because of injury: JP Pietersen, Bjorn Basson, Pierre Spies, Siya Kolisi, Chiliboy Ralepelle and Bismarck du Plessis.

Commenting on the final two tests of The Castle Rugby Championship, Meyer said: “There were a number of positives we took from the matches in Perth and Dunedin and it is imperative that we build on those.

“The tests against Australia and New Zealand won’t be easy -- the All Blacks are unbeaten this year and the Wallabies have done well to win their last two matches, so we will have to be at our best at Loftus Versfeld and Soccer City.

“But I’m happy with the progress we’ve made on tour and the big challenge will be to now take the next step as we grow as a team.”

SQUAD:

Willem Alberts 
Andries Bekker
Craig Burden
Pat Cilliers
Marcell Coetzee
Juan de Jongh
Jean de Villiers (captain)
Jannie du Plessis
Eben Etzebeth
Johan Goosen
Bryan Habana
Francois Hougaard
Elton Jantjies
Zane Kirchner
Juandré Kruger
Pat Lambie
Tiaan Liebenberg
Francois Louw
Tendai Mtawarira
Lwazi Mvovo
Coenie Oosthuizen
Ruan Pienaar
Jacques Potgieter
Frans Steyn
Morné Steyn
Adriaan Strauss
Jaco Taute
CJ van der Linde
Flip van der Merwe
Duane Vermeulen

 

My posts have been deleted due to extreme profanity. I love the Springboks and I apologise for being sheepish.

In a way I m not surprised by the selection of the squad.   In New Zealand the squad in fact consisted of 28 players  - five of whom were sent back to their provincial franchises and one of whom disqualified himself from future selection.

That effectively brought the squad back to 22 players.   They could not effectively field those 22 players as starting up players or the bench - since that would leabe playes on the bench that could be problematic.   They would have been one forward short andone too many vackline players on the bench.

Looking at the four player included - I am with the exception of Taute - really surprised by Meyer's selections.    Jantjies - despite his goalkicking - is a joke in bad taste.  The latter must ve the result of hype or of other reasons not related to rugby - so the chances tht he would be inaywhere near the match 22 is remote.   C J vana der Linde  is worse - he reflects Meyer's temndency of back to the past is very evident in this case.   Mind you Van der Linde showed recently in CC how weak the prop situation really is and that Meyer does not really believe that Kitshoff and Malherbe is not really ready for higher honours yet.   Van der Linde may end up on the bench, since Cilliers has really showed nothing but weakness when he came on.   The real prop added is Oosthuizen - but he has very little match play since his return from injury - so some insurance was necessary.

The absence of JP Pietersen indicates that he is not ready to start playing within the next 14 days - othrwise he would have been imcluded.

The question really remains - what is the starting team and bench really going to look like.   In this regard Meyer apparently cannot as yet accept that replacement of Kirchner and Morne Steyn is essential - but I believe that he may still have a vague hope that the two would recover and show that they can remain on international level.   Meyer is going to make TWO changes from the starting line-up against the All Blacks - the two players involved being Etzebeth and Bekker being back.

That means that there will have to be changes on the bench.   I think Van der Merwe wil be back on the bench and am hoping for Oosthuizen to be ready to be on the bench,   Otherwise Meyer may put Cilliers on the bench again - but although he may be better than Greyling - he remains a poor prop.

I do not think the backline bench would change at all - Lambie and Goosen would remain with Taute being an outside chance of coming into that one.   Jantjies may also be a potential bench player - but I do not think that Meyer will play him - really too big a gamble and likely to be a disaster in any event.

For myself I would choose an entirely different team to start against the Australians and the following would be in the team and starting lie up:-

15    -     Lambie

Wings - Habana and Hougaard

13     -    De Villiers

12     -    Francois Steyn

10     -    Goosen

  9    -     Pienaar

  8    -     Verrmeulen

  7    -     Coetzee

  6    -     Louw

  5   -      Bekker

  4   -      Etzebeth

Props and Hooker as is.

Insofar as the bench is concerned I would pick the following:-

16    -     :Burden

17   -       Oosthuizen

18   -       Van der Merwe

19   -       Alberts 

20   -       Janthies - just to make up the numbers - cannot seriously be considered for usage 

21  -        Taute

22  -        De Jong - same as Jantjies

The unfortunate problem with the squad is that the way it is comprised by retention of Morne Steyn and Kirchner - makes bench selection without them extremely problematic - since bench selection without them would really mean that you are confined to other players that should neverhave been in the squad  who should not have been in contention in the first place.

In my opinion the following should have been excluded from the squad completely:-

Kirchner, De Jongh, Jantjies and Morne Steyn.   

Kirchner and Morne Steyn were disasters thus far in the tests this year.   Janttjies is a serious defensive liabuility, a joke under a high ball (even if opposition team members are 20 meters awaay he would still chicken out) and he brings virtually nothing in respect of backline attacking play, and strategic kicking - his goalkicking being in reality being hois only asset, but that can be dealt with by Goosen and Francois Steyn.   De Jongh is no real option as n attcking player - his only asset being defence.  .   

Insofar as De Jongh is concerned - it is amazing how much better the WP backline functions without him.