According to a media report six of the players in the squad of 22 is 21 years old or younger. I was interested and did some research on the platers involved. I was surprised to find that some of the players are actually a bit older than people on the Board believe them to be and some slightly younger.
Backline
The oldest player in the backline is De Villiers . - 31 Years Old
Habana - 29 Years Old
Kirchner and Pienaar - 28 Years Old
Steyn - 25 Years Old
Hougaard - 24 Years Old
Jantjies - 22 Years Old
Taute and Lambie is - 21 Years Old
Goosen - 20 Years Old
The average age of the backline players is 24,9 years old - which is very young for an international trsm
Forwards
Liebenberg - 30 Years Old
Du Plessis - 29 Years Old
Alberts and Bekker - 28 Years Old
Louw - 27 Years Old
Strauss, Van der Merwe, Beast - 26 Years Old
Vermeulen - 25 Years Old
Oosthuizen - 23 Years Old
Coetzee - 22 Years Old
The average age of the forwards is 25,1 years old
Team as a whole
Average age is 25 years old.
Summary
The above in fact reflect a relatively young team.that could be further built up as a verys trong team in future. Threre are in fact some older players - Like De Villiers and Liebenberg that will be phased out in the next two years or when Bismarck comes back from injury.
As a guideline for 2015 WC - the players over 30 are definitely to be ruled out of contention. 28 and 29 year olds are borderline cases. In other words - the players at present 27 and younger could all be playing at acceptable level by 2015.
When I did the above exercise I thought also of the New Zealand Rugby team and the large number of "rugby geriatircs" they have at present and even the idea to take them through to the next WC. Despite all the critcism Meyer may just be on the right road.
