The Backline Meyer will choose.

Meyer shows every sign of understanding the importance of starting his tenure with victories.

So our backline against the Poms will be:

Lambie

JP

Jean

Fransie

Habana

Morne

Hougaard.

None of the junior cadets have shown themselves to be consistently better than these very experienced players....even at S15, let alone test level which is still higher paced.

I hope Goosen and Engelbrecht get some bench time, but even that may not happen. Scrumhalf is question. I would find Pienaar and get him back pronto....none of our youmg scrummies are ready for the big time.

 I cant see Meyer selecting Jean at 13, especially considering he is out for a good few months and 13 is not his spot, he is no longer fast enough for 13

Nonsense Jean left Fury eating dust every time he broke.....and that was 4 times in the Aussie QF. Jean started his test career at 13. He is far better equipped to play there than converted wings like Engelbrecht and your pick JP. Jean has been the rock of the Bok backline, Meyer will get that, even if you don't.

 Moz dont get me wrong, I am a huge Jean fan and you know it. In fact he could be our best 12 ever, certainly the best in my time. But he is 30 and past it and might have been fast enough for 13 a few years back but no longer is.

Frans is a must at 12 and Meyer will need to settle on one of JP, Taute or Engelbrecht at 13 - he should have the answer by end of S15. Taute has very little chance to impress given he is playing for the Lions, so I reckon it will be between JP and JJ. I'd be happy with either

Agreed Saffex. Jean shouldn't be stuck in at 13.

And given his age, moving him there is merely a quick fix anyway.

I really hope we can get away from this thing of players playing one position for there province and another for he boks. Its a big concern of mine with Lambie.

Whats wrong with de Jongh guys?

de Jongh is a good player, but simple not big enough for a test centre

I think de Jongh is superb....he would be my bench player. But I see no signs that Jean has slowed down. He remains the SA back most likely to execute a break against opposing backs, as he showed on the biggest stage at the RWC. Moving Jean to 13 is hardly in the league of moving Pienaar to 10 or Hougaard to 14 (which was wildly succesful).

As for the need to find new players, I reject that. We want to win the TN this year. I could care less about planning for 3 years down the road. When our players get too old we'll have a sense of them being under pressure. Jean has regularly made the S15 team of the week this year....no other SA centre is close. In fact he is supposedly competing against a ghost....the non existent Fransie Steyn....who hasn't played centre for the Boks since the tour immediately after the 2007 RWC.....he has played fullback.

But moving Jean one slot out is impossibly challenging and moving Fransie from 15 to 12 isn't. Go figure!

 Frans is 24, Jean 30 thats the difference. A 13 needs pace, Jean will have lost plenty aged 30. Great player in his day, but his best days are done. It would be madness moving him to a more demanding position aged 13 (more demanding given the speed factor). Moz you would play him at 13, I would not

@mozart,

just because francois steyn moving to 12 from 15 was very fluent and easy for him, dosent mean that its easy for JDV to move over one, some people like francois are just multi talented where ever they go. also didnt JDV start his career out on the wing?

i disagree with JDV not losing his speed, when he played on the wing for WP after returning from munster, it was evident that his move up north had effected his game some how, he didnt have the same linebreak penteration and the speed which had served him well for a long time making him the best 12 in 2009 easy. the All Blacks and wallaby speedsters left him for dead on more then one occassion last year and his form on the international stage deteriorated, which is why he was bumped from the starting team.

as much of a legend as JDV is, IMO for the good of the Boks, meyer needs to look elsewhere. im a big fan of ur comment about forget about the next 3 years, u want to win TriNats (or IRC), but meyer is in a position where he can do both and IMO JP pieterson (as stated in my other blogs) is the man for the job.

de jong is a great attacker, very nimble and quick, despite his size he has the physicality to stop his opponents as well as crashball it up, using his acceleration and speed to intelligently compensate, but he can never seem to link up well with his supporters, always passing the ball to soon or to late, IMO he should be a wing, cos he plays like one.

taute is a very exciting youngster who looks like he can do it all, but i would prob bring him in through the bench. his ability to cover numerous positions could see him become a handy utility specialist, or maybe even start hi out on the wing to find his feet and break him i slowly. i think he should be in the team, but his inexperience puts him behind other more suitable candidates.

the others havent really shown enough to justify them as 13, sadie could do with another season of spXV to find his feet, his transition to the bulls hasnt exactly been smooth, so u have to wonder what his transition to the international stage would be like.
ebeherson is in good form, but he hasnt lived up to the benchmark he set the last couple of years. like de jong hes not the biggest man on the paddock, but unlike de jong he relies more on his nimble feet to help break the line and avoid tacklers. he can take a hit on both attack and defense, but against other countries big boys, u feel like hes always going to come of 2nd best. he does trump de jong when it comes to a passing game though.

ultimately, i feel like JP pieterson is the one to get the job done for the Boks at 13, ive been very impressed with him there this year and i hope to see him continue his form and cement it as his own, a couple of years from now u guys will be like, fourie? fourie who? JP is the only 13 for me, lol, :P

 Good call sas on our centres. Add JJ Engelbrecht of the Bulls as a candidate, he had a great game against the Lions last weekend and looks a great prospect at 13. Quick, strong and good step........our top 3 outside centres are JP, Taute and JJ

I'm with Saffex here. Jean has lost a lot of pace in recent years and JP has all the attributes of a good 13 especially his size.  I wouldn't write Juan DeJongh off either, but I will admit that his size may hamper him in test matches. I've always been a fan of Robert Ebersohn, but he also has the size issue. So I would like to see Frans and JP in the centres and Aplon to go on the wing for JP which makes my previous statements about size look quite contrary, but Aplon has proven himself at test level.

So, to summarise, DeJongh and Ebersohn should be given an opportunity by maybe coming off the bench or by starting in a less challenging test match.

Let me put it clearly.  I do not care a damn which team wins the international gameds this year and would prefer it to deal with issues the way Jake White dealt with them.   Start planning this year for the WC and start blooding the yoounger players NOW.

The following can never be considered for the next WC:-

    JP, Jean De Villiers, Meyer and  Du Preez 

Even though I am a great admirer of Jean De Villiers and he probably is one of the greatest centers ever in SA - I realize that by the time the next WC comes around he would have retired from competitive rugby on international level.

This harking back to the past is no good and did not serve us well in the WC last year - we must learn to look to the future in sport.

I think the back line should in fact look like this:-

   Lambie, Habana, Engelbrecht, Steyn, Basson, Goosen and Hougaard

For heavens sake - please find some bench players from the same age category.  

@clevermike,

u dont care who wins the game as long as u build for a RWC??? o_O
thats a ridiculous attitude, and a s Bok supporter, u should show more pride in the green jersey and want to win every game.

as an All Black supporter, i want to win the next RWC too, but if that meant sacrafising every game in between under the pretense of building towards a RWC, then fu*k that rubbish, i much rather have a superior win record year in and year out over everybody, even if meant never winning the RWC again, a tournament which shows up once every 4 years.
IMO the IRB No1 rankings is the true indication of who the rugby world champion is.

Maybe I did not come over correctly here.  I obviously wants us to win tests - but not without regard to future performances in the WC.

We had a problem with aging players in the past WC and the fact that rugby geriatrics was selected cost us dearly.   However, most of the ancients retired gracefuolly and others went out for a variety of reasons.

I referred to a few players that would not be available for the next WC - but the issue here is what is the situation in New Zealand.   Most of their senior players are over or near to 30 and they would be a disaster for New Zealand in the next WC.   We have more young talent than they have and I am sure our youngsters would give their rugby geriatrics uphill even if they are selected at this early stage.

@clevermike,
ok i see what u mean with u wanting to win, but i disagree with ur comment that SA have more young talent coming through then NZ. the iRB junior championship (U20) has been won by NZ for the last 4 years and coming from that crop.

in 2012 alone, we have in our 2012 squad beauden barret, brad shields, ben tameifuina, brodie reatallick, luke whitelock, sam cane, gareth anscombe, lima sopoaga, tj pernara, and every single one of them are playing super rugby and leaving a mark, from the past teams in 2008 - 2011, i can name a list but it would take too long, but were talking the likes of zac guilford, aaron cruden, sean maitland.

NZ have always done a better job of brining in our young talent, but steve hansen is at a crossroads of sorts, cos he needs to balance phasing out the old players, while letting our AB cubs find their feet, luckily most of the seniors have left, and im sure hansen will do the right thing when push comes to shove.

Frankie Frederichs won the 200 metres at the Commonwealth games at age 35. This 31 and you're slow stuff doesn't necessarily follow. It's a question of what you can accomplish on the rugby field......de Villiers was our best back versus Australia. He forced the outside gap against a great defence......that's fast enough for me. I frankly doubt that Fransie Steyn will stay with him....even today.

And Steyn is a power tackler, but not a very secure one. He was hopelessly beaten by Tait in the RWC07 final....two magnificent tackles by Matfield and Rossouw were needed to snuff out that threat.

You guys can have your youngsters. I want to win tests and bring in two or three really talented young chaps at most a year, into a winning combination.

This all fall down approach will only yield DeStroyli results. I'm convinced Meyer will never go there.