Springboks omissions prove controversial; By Darryn Pollock. NZ Herald

Under an air of pageantry on a night that threatened to turn stormy in Durban, 30 Springboks were selected to represent their country in England for the World Cup.

It was a squad of 31, but they are not all Springboks. The biggest surprise was the selection of uncapped Rudy Paige, who was brought in as the third halfback at the expense of Cobus Reinach.

Reinach was not the only loser on the night. Marcell Coetzee can feel very hard done by after he was left out despite his impressive performances for coach Heyneke Meyer, both this year and previously. Siya Kolisi was selected as the additional openside cover, ahead of both Coetzee and Heinrich Brussow.

It is confusing to understand why players such as Coetzee and Reinach were omitted, after playing such big parts in 2015, for two players who have featured for less than 40 minutes between them. Meyer explained his omission of the pair as based on recent injuries. Reinach suffered a fractured hand in Super Rugby and Coetzee picked up a knee injury in the Rugby Championship.

"Marcell is a guy I have always rated highly. Unfortunately, at this stage he is still injured," Meyer told media in Durban.

Meyer went on to describe why he was still happy with his selection of Paige, regardless of never being tested at Springboks level.

"Rudy Paige has played really well in Super Rugby and was ahead of a guy like Francois Hougaard, who I rate really highly as well," Meyer said.

The reasons Meyer gave for the two omissions seem flawed.

Meyer spoke of Reinach being injured for most of the year as an aggravating factor against his selection but, in the same breath, mentioned Pat Lambie as someone who suffered a similar fate.

He then said Reinach was unable to get much game time due to the pressured situations of some of the tight matches played through 2015 - Paige did not even make it on to the field in a Boks jersey, never mind sitting on the bench.

Meyer's reasoning is far from convincing. His issue with Coetzee being injured is also problematic.

Seven other players were selected who are injured.

Captain Jean de Villiers (fractured jaw), Duane Vermeulen (neck) Jannie du Plessis (knee), Fourie du Preez (knee) Willie le Roux (ankle), Francois Louw (shoulder) and Coenie Oosthuizen are were all named with injuries.

Many will look towards the omissions as selections in favour of quotas but, with nothing official coming out of the Springboks camp, it is hard to say.

Meyer is taking nine non-white players to the World Cup - almost 30 percent.

However, without Paige and Kolisi, a total of seven non-white players would make the figure closer to 20 per cent.

Springboks squad

Forwards: Willem Alberts, Schalk Brits, Schalk Burger, Lood de Jager, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Francois Louw, Frans Malherbe, Victor Matfield, Tendai Mtawarira, Trevor Nyakane, Coenie Oosthuizen, Adriaan Strauss, Duane Vermeulen.

Backs: Jean de Villiers (c), Damian De Allende, Fourie du Preez, Bryan Habana, Zane Kirchner, Jesse Kriel, Patrick Lambie, Willie le Roux, Lwazi Mvovo, Rudy Paige, Ruan Pienaar, JP Pietersen, Handre Pollard, Morne Steyn.

- The Independent, South Africa

 This article says what a lot on this site have said.

 JW
There is something people would never understand insofar as Meyer is concerned.  He decided in 2012 whom he wanted in the Springbok squad in 2015 and although De Villiers would have been in the squad - his first idea was to approach Matfield and when the latter refused at that stage to return to playing rugby again - he approached Fourie du Preez to be the captain.   Du Preez was injured at the time and he turned down Meyer's request.   So Meyer decided on De Villiers as captain and that was it.
His squad was decided as well and that squad included all the squad members - bar a few that fell by the wayside basically beside of injuries forcing Meyer's hand.   He had to make some replacements and what went wrong were that those replacements were better than the players they replaced.   
So lets look at the squad Meyer decided on in 2012 already:-

Willem Alberts, Bakkies Botha, Schalk Brits, Schalk Burger, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis,  Francois Louw, Victor Matfield, Tendai Mtawarira, Pierre Spies,  Juan Smith, Gurthro Steenkamp, Adriaan Strauss, CJ can der Linde, Heinke van der Merwe.

Juan de Jongh, Jean de Villiers (c), Fourie du Preez, Jacques Fourie, Bryan Habana, Zane Kirchner, Patrick Lambie,  Ruan Pienaar, JP Pietersen,  Morne Steyn, Francois Steyn.

I highlighted the players that fell by the wayside and there were in fact a variety of reasons why they were not in the 2015 squad:-

Player retirements :  Bakkies Botha, Gurthro Steenkamp, jacques Fourie - if these three did not retire themselves they would still have been in the squad.

Injury Replacement :   Pierre Spies was out for lengthy periods since 2012 and Meyer brought in Vermeulen who turned out to be better than Spies.

Rebellion against authority :   Francois Steyn. 

Atrocious Performances :   Juan Smith, CJ van der Linde, Heinke van der Merwe, Juan de Jongh. 

It took some real backside licking on the part of Meyer to get Bakkies Botha, Fourie du Preez, Jacque Fourie and Victor Matfield back into the team - but he succeeded in the end and if Botha and Fourie did not retire voluntarily they would still have been in the squad.

The above accounts for three things, namely -

*   persistence with most of the other players despite atrocious performances on their part;

*    the squad selection despite the fact that a substantial number of players had long injury absences and they consequently had very little recent game time; and

*    the present chaotic situation with regard to squad selection - where replacements had to be found for some of the above players and the replacements actually have  minimal test experience.   

The latter aspect was clearly identified as a problem,   When Meyer was forced as a result of injuries to players to make changes, he floundered around and could not decide on specific players and give them game time to settle into the team.

The problem remains that of the remainder of the Meyer squad identified in 2012 - the following has been seriously defective in subsequent performances or had inadequate game time as a result of injuries to do a proper performance assessment: :-

Willem Alberts, Jannie du Plessis, Victor Matfield, Jean de Villiers, Fourie du Preez,   Ruan Pienaar, JP Pietersen,  Morne Steyn     

OPPOSING TEAMS SHOULD ENJOY THE PRESENT SELECTION CHAOS PERPETUATED BY MEYER - BUT IT BREAKS MY HEART TO SEE THE ABOVE AND REALIZE WE HAVE NO CHANCE IN THE RWC AS A RESULT.     

 

 Springbok selections have never been anything else but controversial, why would it be any different now?

 Denny
Very true.