Springbok Team for Saturday

Here is the team:-

15 Willie le Roux,  14 JP Pietersen,  13 Jan Serfontein,  12 Jean de Villiers,  11 Bryan Habana,  10 Pat Lambie,  9 Cobus Reinach,  8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Schalk Burger,  6 Marcell Coetzee,  5 Victor Matfield,  4 Eben Etzebeth,  3 Jannie du Plessis,  2 Adriaan Strauss,  1 Tendai Mtawarira

 
Replacements: 

16 Bismarck du Plessis,  17 Trevor Nyakane,  18 Coenie Oosthuizen,  19 Bakkies Botha,  
20 Teboho “Oupa” Mohoje,  21 Francois Hougaard,  22 Handré Pollard,  23 Cornal Hendricks

My reservations about the team remains the same - the weak spots being in the Tight 5 - Matfield and Bakkies being the problem cases, the loosies and essentially the number 7 position where my confidence in Burger took a serious downturn last Saturday,  and Pietrsen on the wing - he is too slow to play at wing in the present environment.   The other problem area is still we have two essentially inside centers making a mess of possession in the midfield.   

Another disaster selection by Meyer......his treatment of players is alarming.......one would swear Pollard had a bad game......Meyer is a poor coach, poor selections and pathetic player management.......look no further than his treatment of JJ, Lood, de Allende, Nkanyane, Goosen and now Pollard and Hougaard.

What a backwards step bringing in yet another geriatric is Schalk......my guess is that Danie Rossouw will be next

 Considering who Meyer has in the squad and the fact that he isn't going to hand out debuts to players against England that is about as good as it gets.

Very happy to see Nohje is not in the starting 15, the rotation of Bismarck and Strauss continues and I think it is only fair to give Lambie and Reinach a shot.

JP is an improvement on defence at least

Meyer is aiming at another 4 years with the Boks and will select the required number quota players, come what may. Get used to it.

The only way a more merit based squad could have been selected was to have a black coach who is a member of the ANC. It still beats me why SARU could not find a way to incorporate old Snorre or even Alistair Coetsee when they announced the appointment of Heyneke Meyer.

No problem HasBEEN, the OOM explained it was just an "eror". Haha......the man should have been a comedian.

Well there is huge pressure on Lambie and Reinach. They certainly failed a similar test in the S15 semi....and Reinach looked ham handed against WP a few weeks back. But Hougaard was so bad last week, he simply has to be given a bench role.....maybe his natural athleticism will be better in the closing stages

Lambie landed a stunning kick against NZ and scored a fine try. He has experience at Twickenham....so there is logic in this selection. In a way I'm also glad Pollard is not taking full responsibilty at this stage....it's going to be tough out there. Although I agree with Dave that in a conventional sense Pollard has done nothing to be dropped.

Is Lambie tough enough.....he has gone both ways.....but I remember his first test at 10 against NZ where he took the pressure. This is a defining moment for him....I have my doubts, but he could finally become an established Bok with a good performance .

Schalk for Mohoje was the only move. It's stunning to see Hendricks fade away after scoring such key tries. I would have put JP at 13....but I suppose the Poms dont present too much threat in that channel.

In aggregate 5 changes from the team that beat NZ a month back says HM is not settled on a number of positions.

The locks were terrfic you moron....we won the lineout battle, handled all the kickoffs, won the scrums and the locks made 10 tackles without missing one.

The centres are a problem.....I agree. We are playing a slow 12 at 13....it's really as simple as that.

Schalk will be great on Saturday, great players rise to the moment.

Can I ask why everyone has to be called a moron, idiot, or anything else they deem derogatory when they don't agree with someone else?

Moz you cant start qualifying breaks or defenders beaten by what happens after the break or beat.....fact is Jan beat 5 defenders against Ireland and made one clean break......not bad after receiving the ball 10 times.

The fact that you get tackled after beating a defender or you lack a support runner to continue the momentum after a break or defender beaten is part of the game......are we only to measure those beats that amount to something?

You play what is in front of you, test rugby is about split seconds.....getting past a defender is a skill regardless of what happens thereafter for in most cases the first beat amounts to very little as the cover is there to snub your next move.....that's the nature of the beast