Vermeulen changes the game

 Mozart
Who in your book is the guy?   I hope you do not say Willem Alberts.

Whiteley and Burger are the only options, and I'm always inclined to always go with the specialist. 
If we go with Mohoje at 7 there's no way w e can use Whiteley at 8 as he lacks the grunt to compensate for another player in the pack.

 If we go with WW, we will have 2 play 2 flankers with serious grunt...which we have, so I don't see too much of a problem,  but Vermeulen is still a huge loss and the Boks will have to addapt their game no matter who replaces him. Burger might be the most prudent choice, depending on his control of the ball at the back. 8 will suit his linking game better, but he is not in the same class as bruiser.  This would probably open the door for Alberts at 7...if they can get him properly fit. IMO WW is still better suited as bench player for the last 20. I wonder how Matfield will do at 8? 

Vermeulen is the biggest loss we could have. Shame on them waiting 5 weeks to reach this conclusion.  

 Agreed Moz, he should have been to at least 3 of the best experts available within a week of the injury. Poor from WP and even poorer show by SARU. Gambling with probably our best Bok addition under Meyer. I rate his presence higher than Eben's

if vermeulen isnt available for the RWC, its a big loss but not the biggest loss. the depth the Boks have in the looseforwards is excellent, a ton of in form talent out there ready to roll.

uzumaki clan best Bok loose forward combo with and without vermeulen,,,
6 m cotezee, 7 n carr, 8 d vermeulen
20 j kreil

6 m cotezee, 7 n carr, 8 s burger
20 j kriel

and theres still the likes of whittley and du plessis to consider.

biggest load of crazy is how kreil didnt even make the initial squad, but f louw did???
i wonder why 'i drunk too many heinekens' meyer hates the Boks so much???

if vermeulen isnt available for the RWC, its a big loss but not the biggest loss. the depth the Boks have in the looseforwards is excellent, a ton of in form talent out there ready to roll.

uzumaki clan best Bok loose forward combo with and without vermeulen,,,
6 m cotezee, 7 n carr, 8 d vermeulen
20 j kreil

6 m cotezee, 7 n carr, 8 s burger
20 j kriel

and theres still the likes of whittley and du plessis to consider.

biggest load of crazy is how kreil didnt even make the initial squad, but f louw did???
i wonder why 'i drunk too many heinekens' meyer hates the Boks so much???

 Thew following explanation was provided by the Springbok medical team for the waiting with the operation:-
"The Stormers are not to blame for Duane Vermeulen spending over a month with a neck injury before it was decided on Monday that he requires surgery."   That is the view of Springbok team doctor Craig Roberts, who has backed the decisions taken by the South African Super Rugby conference champions in their management of Vermeulen's injury.

The injury was first reported on June 5, and the prime concern then was Vermeulen's availability for the Stormers in their Super Rugby playoff campaign. But now the situation is far worse, and his participation for this September's Rugby World Cup is hanging in the balance. 

But Roberts, who says the realistic goal is to have Vermeulen back in 10 weeks, says the Stormers didn't put a foot wrong.    "I don’t think so, to be honest. They communicated really well with us," Roberts said.   "I think it was fair to give Duane the chance for that to respond conservatively. You don’t want to just go in and do surgery willy-nilly. I think their approach was perfect in terms of waiting and hoping that it would resolve.

"He did see a number of specialists and the advice was to sit and wait. It’s always nice in retrospect and you’ll say ‘well, it didn’t work’, but we didn’t know that it wasn’t going to work so you’ve got to give him the opportunity to settle down on its own which unfortunately it didn’t.

"Effectively it’s failed conservative treatment and then we look at what plan B is, and plan B is surgery. So they actually managed him perfectly."   

The Springboks will take on the World XV at Newlands on Saturday. Kick-off is at 17:00."

I think that the specialists opinion provided must have hoped that the problem may be reolved without surgery - but that did not work out as expected.   They must then have gone to the doctor in Durban who operated on Coenie and his opinion was that the problem will only be solved by an operation.   

  

Oh sure....let's play a big northern hemisphere pack with Coetzee, Kriel and Whitely. Did nobody notice Carr and Kolisi were totally dominated by the Brumbies. Why do we think an AB pack or a Pom pack will be any different? Has anybody seen Coetzee win one battle on the deck with against any worthwhile fetcher. Is he suddenly going to develop a fetching game and an offload in the RWC?
We need at least two  power loosies to implement  any game plan that gives us a chance.

 I would play Whiteley at 8, Louw at 7 and Kriel or Coetzee at 6.   One player I would never support is playing the slow and low-activity Alberts in any loosie position.
We need a proper lock and not two power paceless loosies to compete against the NH packs.   Ireland and Wales overwhelmed our Tight 5 last year - and we cannot play an additional lock and only two loosies.   Please note that a player like the slow and clumsy  Alberts has not recovered a single breakdown ball since 2012 - so what purpose will he serve as a loosie. 
The answer is to ensure we have a proper functioning Tight 5 and have loosies who can compete at breakdowns and can play strong defensive and attacking rugby.         
  

Mike, I agree with your loosies and I will start with Coetzee with Jaco Kriel on the bench.  

"Two players I would never support is playing the slow and low- activity Alberts in any position"...... what  a daft statement.

Now Alberts has become 2 players? A slow Alberts and a Lazy Alberts
My Springbok Back row would be 
6. Useless Alberts7. Lazy Alberts8. Slow Alberts

 Sorry I corrected the sentence.  I assume Mozart wants the clumsy and clueless Alberts - who is as injury-prone as he claims Du Toit to be - in the squad to off-set the deficiencies of Matfield in the Tight 5 play.   That was what he wanted in 2013 as well when he punted Juandre Kruger as lock and claimed that he is not good enough as a lock, but is good enough outside of the Tight 5 situation and that the presence of Alberts would help in the Tight 5 situation.   He wanted a deficient quasi loosie to off-set the deficiencies of a quasi-lock.  Both Kruger and Alberts failed miserably in the Ellis Park test that year.   Mozart went quiet after that fiasco about that type of rubbish.
However, that mantra is back since the return of Matfield.  He has never learnt from the previous case where he was totally wrong - so we will definitely rue that situation in the WC if his favourites (Alberts and Matfield) are indeed playing.     

Losing Vermuelen is the worst case scenario for Boks. No player is more key to being able to execute a game plan that will challenge the ABs and could win the World Cup. The drop-off to the next player in line, either Schalk, Whiteley or Alberts is large
Injuries are mounting fast - and yet again, NZ has managed their players better, could name their strongest squad now if they had to and the majority will play the entire RC together. Meyer on the other hand is going to have a real juggling act on hand. 
New Zealand odds to win WC now 11/8,  South Africa 5/1. Bout sums it up.
The Boks intangibles are going to have to make the difference - big match mentality. 

 Imagine we could have two locks....a weak Matfield and a Matfield who is moonlighting in the backs.

To say nothing  of two de Jonghs...a  Damien de Jongh who was supposed to tackle Kuridrani and the other de Jongh who was covering the Brumbies wing. Haha.
And how about two Jacques....the one who created a brilliant Bok try on the YE tour by finding the following player with an inspired back  pass....and the Fury who supposedly did absolutely nothing on attack.

And the Morne Steyn who is forever condemned for missing touch on a key penalty against Oz....and Pattrick Steyn who was forgiven when he did the same thing against Pomerania.

And then there are the two Lomps....Lomp the massively powerful enforcer and Lomp the guy who was bundled into touch by Barrett to lose a great test winning opportunity.

The list of Tokkie doubles is endless.

Agreed Matey. I remember watching Vermeulen for the Stormers earlier this year and thinking when he went down what a disaster it would be to lose him. And here we are.  

 Mozart
I made an error - which are admitted.   However, you are the one who tries to cover up your misguided thinking about the need to have a quasi-lock to off-set the deficiencies of Matfield as a Tight 5 player - thus buggering up the whole loosie situation.  You cannot deny that you raised the same issue in the case of Kruger in 2013 - which turned out to be a total flop - and is now raising the same story in 2015.   
Matfield is physically a weak lock and his moonlighting in the backline results in him not being a lock at all.   
De Jongh covering the wing - what was the wing covering you blithering fool?   You lied about that one and is repeating the lie - what a farce.

You are idiotic in still plugging Fourie - who was off-side in that case and the referee made a mistake and awarded a try.  He does not realise that if Fourie was onside - his brilliance would never have happened.  That type of brilliance based on a ref error will not be repeated in a game - so it is worthless to use as motivation for anything.   How bloody clueless can a person get to be in rugby terms.  
Steyn - who makes a habit of missing to find touch with penalty kicks is definitely factual after doing it 7 times in nine test matches.   The list of times it happened was given and the tests listed - but you remain in denial about it.  However, that was not career-defining in the case of Morne Steyn - what is career-defining is his total lack of being a flyhalf other than his ability to kick at goal.  His defense is putrid, his decision-making non-existent and he brings nothing to the Springbok backline because of predictability.

De Jager being dumped into touch followed on a fumbled line out by Matfield and a real idiotic pass by Hougaard - who should not have passed the ball to a player virtually on the touchline and should have gone in-field - even the Springbok coaching staff said that - but Mozart says otherwise.   Just an explanation - why did Matfield fumbled that ball in the line-out - a case where a driving maul five meters out was intended?  Please explain that one.
The problem is you constantly try and criticize some players you dislike and the players you like can bugger up endlessly and you would say nothing about it and try to exonerate them.   That is the joke insofar as your contributions on site is concerned.                         

 
I am not a matador - so I am a failure in that.  However, I stick to comments on rugby and keep to facts - not delusions.  
Lets get it straight - I think that the loss of Vermeulen is catastrophic.   However, we have to accept it and try make the best of a bad situation.   Rushing into non-workable solutions will not help the team.
I think that Meyer will give some indication over the next two weeks about the way he is going and the matter will become clearer as the RC proceeds.

I have been saying for a while now, that one or two injuries in critical positions would be a serious problem for the Boks, and for me Vermeulen is one of those critical injuries. We h ave great depth in the loose forwards, but Vermeulen is still some way ahead of the next best we have! 
Based on his possible exclusion from the world cup, I don't rate our chances of bringing home the hardware. We don't have the depth that NZ enjoy, and one of the negatives of that fact, is that we are forced to play our best players that little bit harder to stay competitive, which is why we are battling with injuries as we are. 

 Meyer has to pick the form players, a player like Jaco Kriel who has performed well and consistently so, to hesitate now would be a mistake. Play him in the RC and see how he shapes up, there isn't a lot of games left for him to stake a claim.

 Denny
Lets work this out carefully.  The operation is tomorrow (8 July 2015). 1 Day in intensive care and one day in hospital before his discharge.   He will be fitted with a measured neck brace specially designed for him.   That neck brace he will have to wear day and night for 6 weeks,   The brace makes driving impossible.    He will have to wear the brace until  19 August 2015.   He can start training on 20 August 2015 - for at least two weeks it will involve running and gym work only - no contact sport whatsoever, which means that at the earliest Vermeulen would be able to start full training only on 2 September 2015 - barely two weeks before the start of the WC.  
That time schedule is provided nothing went wrong in the interim - otherwise the schedule would be thrown into disarray.   
Whether that will be enough training to allow for Vermeulen to be fully match-fit will be debateable.  What would be advisable if he can play from the bench through the round robin stage of the tournament and thus getting him some game time.  
However, that is tight by any standards and one can only hope for the best.