25 August 2009 – www.supersport.comÂ
Popular opinion may be that the injury-hit Wallabies don’t have much firepower to scare the Springboks in Saturday’s Tri-Nations test in Perth, but there were alarming signs that the South Africans may have allowed some complacency to creep into their camp when only their reserves arrived in Western Australia on Tuesday.
Complacency is, of course, a lethal danger for any successful team and Peter de Villiers and John Smit will no doubt be keen to kill off any such mental slackness in the side, particularly since the Tri-Nations is still far from won.
Which makes it inexplicable that De Villiers and Smit chose to send nine players who will almost certainly not start on Saturday to Perth as the advance party. It means the starting XV will arrive at lunchtime on Wednesday after a nine-hour flight and, by the time they have gone through customs and checked in to the Sheraton Hotel in the city, it will leave them with just Thursday to train seriously for Saturday’s hugely important match. Friday’s captain’s run will just be an opportunity to go through the lineout calls and get accustomed to the Subiaco Oval.
The fact that Schalk Burger was in that group of nine suggests that if the 2004 IRB Player of the Year is to play any part in Saturday’s test, it will be in the role of substitute coming off the bench.
De Villiers said earlier this week that the breakdowns would play a key role in Saturday’s test and, with Heinrich Brussow in such destructive form in the home leg of the Tri-Nations, the Free Stater will once again be an important cog in the Springboks’ plans.
There had been speculation that both Burger and Brussow could play together in the loose trio, particularly with Juan Smith struggling with an ankle injury, but this now seems unlikely.
Burger, who has had little game time this year, is the only player of real note to be sent over early – the others are obvious non-starters in lock Andries Bekker, centre Adrian Jacobs, scrumhalf Enrico Januarie, flank Ryan Kankowski, wing Odwa Ndungane, centre Wynand Olivier and props Jannie du Plessis and Gurthro Steenkamp.
If any of those players were to be brought into the team, disrupting the momentum created by three straight victories, it would be a major surprise, but one has to wonder why they have been given an extra day in Perth to prepare for their peripheral roles.
The original reason for sending the squad over in two batches was the lack of business class seats on the flight to Perth, but the sight of the “wrong” group of players arriving on Tuesday puts question marks over the preparation of the Springboks.
@Pietman – Hi Pietman,been reading on the Rossouw,slow going as my afrikaans is very bad. You are mailing the IRB Tosser about the our Justice and our punishement. Bernard.lapasser@irb.com
Loserer put the address up.I want to mail them, but everthing i think of sounds silly. But you are definetly the man for the job 🙂
59 @K9-MonsterLeeu – browser was “Wahl Baartman” stadig maar nou ok….
Manne die picks vir hierdie naweek is nogal moeilik.
57@Staal – Net by jou
Teleurstellend……..
35@grootblousmile – Stem met jou saam Grote, ek kan net byvoeg: so ‘n man doen nie net verkeerd teenoor sy vrou en kinders nie, maar ook teenoor die Here, wat ons geskape het om getrou te wees aan ons lewensmaats, nie losbandig te wees nie.
Hoe kan ons medemens ons vertrou in besigheid, werksomstandighede, sport, ontspanning, ens., as ons nie eers getrou is aan die belangrikste persone in ons lewens nie, ons vrouens ?
O ja, more aan al die mense en wp ondersteuners !
66@bdb – Hellooooooo BiDiBiDi
@Staal – Waal Baartman my husbands favorite rugby player at the Sharks, if anyone said anything bad about him he would say he is ahead of his time. Not sure what he meant.
68 @Treehugger – is hy nie die ou wat eenkeer uit ‘n losskrum met die bal gekom het … en toe na sy eie doellyn gehardloop het nie ? hehehe
69@bdb
68@Treehugger
Wahl Baartman was one of three brothers… difficult SOB’s.. grew up here in miners country, played for Tvl, then went down to Deben by the Sea.
He was hard as nails.. and became a Prokurower… but I always had doubts about his intelligence…
@bdb – kan nie dit onthou nie. Maar hy het in Tvl skool gegaan en in Tvl naam gemaak en Springbok geword. So hard soos klip gewees maar baie eendimensionele speler….soos Deysel. Baie dom gelyk maar hy is ‘n LLB en besit Springbok Patrols….maak hope geld. Sien hom gereeld in die omgewing.
@bdb – hahahaha most proberly,i thought he gave away to many penalties, he was a real toughie i must say but i didnt care for him and i was only starting to get into rugby in those days so my knowledge on the game was less than now, but a person likes what they like and everyone see’ things differently i suppose.
@grootblousmile – nee daai ou is baie bright. Baie al met hom gesels. Verseker nie ‘n aap nie.
73@K9-MonsterLeeu – O, OK !
@grootblousmile – Hello GBS, yes heard he was a lawyer back then as for the intelligence,well my sister is a lawyer so dont know how much of it you need 😆 sorry GBS i couldnt resist.
75@Treehugger – Hehehe… yeah, I’ve met some stupid one’s in my time too.
Eish GBS,just found out something from hubby but cant put it here. You are right about the hard as nails.
@bdb – #66 SPOT ON
So what does everybody think of our Springbok Legends paying the fine imposed on our players by the IRB ?
@Tripples – @Treehugger – Wahl Baartman has one of the worst pairs of cauliflower ears 😆
@Treehugger – #79 I think it is awesome, verly very loyal they are
@Tripples – Hiho Tripples how are you? Ja i remember the ears haha. Unfortunately have to leave for a while, hopefully we can chat a bit later.
80 @Tripples – Ek dink nie hy klop daardie slot wat eers vir NTVL en toe vir TVL gespeel het nie, dink sy naam was Philip Schutte. Eish, dink nie hy het meer ore gehad nie, net stukke velle.
When will team be anounced?
84 @isigidi – More Isigidi
@bdb РS̻ jy more of word die span more bekend gemaak.
More anyway!
Sporting question not political: Why does Malema hate rugby so much ? and Human interst question: What is more intelligent The Nandos Malema Puppet or the Malema Muppet ? 🙂
@Treehugger – The Nandos Puppet and it is not that he hates rugby per se…..it is anything that can be associated with white residents of SA 😆
87@Treehugger – To put it bluntly, I think the Nando’s Puppet would have scored higher in WOODWORK in Matric, than the ANCYL Puppet.
@Tripples – Eish Tripples i was trying to be diplomatic so i dont get kukked on for political stuff, i seem to enjoy liveing on the edge. Reason i asked about the rugby is because he was going on about how we go greet returning rugby players but not the runners, and sit seems the muppit is full of sh!t. They turned the whole thing with the girl/boy into a circus instead of leaveing it alone and letting it just blow over. They dont give a toss about the girl.
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