Bokke injury concerns

Published 18 November 2009 | By grootblousmile

Last night not only saw SA lose the third match in a row on tour, it also saw some important backup players injured, making the rest of the tour further uphill battle.

Andries Bekker, whom I’ve always slated due to his inability to do the hard graft in the engine room, has actually been one of the better tight forwards on tour. He’s been all over the place and has done the hard graft up front, scrummed stronger than the rest of the 2nd rate backup locks…. but last night he injured some ribs and was replaced in the second half.

In addition, CJ van der Linde, our only viable alternative at tight head prop on tour, injured a hamstring early in last night’s match, causing Heinke van der Merwe to move from loosehead to tight head. This experiment failed though, the minute Heinke moved over to tight head, the Bokke scrum went pear-shaped.

We all know that Bismarck du Plessis and Schalk Burger are also doubtful for Saturday, both suffering rib ailments.

This possibly leaves the best front row combination for Saturday to be Beast, Adriaan Strauss and John Smit with Wian du Preez and Heinke van der Merwe on the bench. Any notion that Victor Matfield should be rested must surely now be put to bed because Bekker was the only logical sub for him on tour. We are indeed thin on lock because Danie Rossouw has looked jaded, slow and a shadow of his real worth.

In the loose forwards department the logical combination as far as I’m concerned should now be Brüssow (6), Deysel(7) and Dewalt Potgieter (8 )… yes you read right… for me there is no place for Kankowski and the correct No 8 replacements for Spies was never brought on tour in the first place. Here I mean Willem Alberts or Duane Vermeulen!

No answers have been found in the backline experiments on tour either, so an unchanged backline should do the trick against Italy, with the exception perhaps in either Wynand Olivier or Juan de Jongh to replace Adi Jacobs at inside centre. Let’s face it, Italy’s threat comes from a powerful pack of forwards, not their mediocre backline.

Dare I say it… dare I… Earl Rose should replace Ruan Pienaar on the bench for the Bokke Test side!

Arggghhhh but we know my speculation above will be ignored in total, we know that the mindless choices will continue, just as we know that mindless mass substitutions will be made at critical times in the next two Tests… …

Rant finished!

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