The Winter Tours in the Southern Hemisphere is a thing of the past, with a clear advantage to the Southern Hemisphere in the results, except for an Australian hickup against England in the 2nd Test and 2 results for Scotland against Argentina. The rest of the results all went the way of the Southern Hemisphere.
I am still not fully happy though with the Springbok run-up to the Tri-Nations and think our National coach missed some opportunities in selecting or establishing the true pecking order in a few positions.
In the front row, loosehead is well and truly sorted out, with Gurthro Steenkamp and Beast Mtawarira, but the other 2 positions, that of hooker and tighthead prop is a worry.
As reserve hooker Chiliboy is now established in the position but would it not have served the Bokke better to have gone with either Gary Botha or Tiaan Liebenberg as backup. These players were after all the 1st choice players for their respective Franchises and showed wonderful form during the whole Super 14.
At tighthead Jannie du Plessis and BJ Botha are now the chosen ones but BJ Botha did not set the world alight… in my mind the Winter Tours were the ideal opportunity to experiment with new blood in this position and Werner Kruger of the Bulls can consider himself unlucky not to have been given the opportunity to show whether he could step up to the plate and make the depth and quality in this position better.
At lock and in the backrow forwards I have no complaints.
At scumhalf, the Bokke are probably most porous, considering the world’s best scrumhalf, Fourie du Preez is out with a lenghty injury. His tactical nous, decision making ability and tactical boot will be sorely missed and a player should have been selected who plays a game which closely mimics Fourie du Preez’ game, in order to achieve close to the same result… that player is non other than Ruan Pienaar. In stead, Ricky January, the nuggety and instinctive “Meercat” has been employed throughout and Ruan is being messed around once again between fullback, flyhalf and scrumhalf substitution. It is just potently wrong and unforgivable.
At flyhalf there’s Morné Steyn, the points machine, but what happens in the event he gets injured…. does Ruan get the nod or does Butch get the nod? I don’t even think Peter de Villiers is sure about this one. Butch has not added much to the Bokke, to be frank! It would probably have served the Bokke better had Peter Grant been involved right throughout the Winter Tours, with Ruan exclusively playing at scrumhalf.
Inside centre (No 12) is also still a lottery, with 3 players vying for a spot here, Wynand Olivier, Juan de Jongh and Jean de Villiers. Who is the incumbant? By now the midfield combination between one of the 3 and Jaque Fourie at outside centre should have been running like clockwork.
Depth at outside centre is another problem area should Jaque Fourie be injured. Jean de Villiers never impressed at No 13 and at the moment I suppose Juan de Jongh would have the inside track on filling that void.
At left wing Bryan Habana is clearly the No 1 choice and Francois Hougaard provides very good cover in that position.
At right wing Gio Aplon seems to be the man in the saddle, with Jean de Villiers as cover… but Jean is a natural inside centre, not a true wing.
In the last vestage Zane Kirchner should be the man in the saddle, with Gio Aplon covering that position in event of an injury, then exposing the right wing as very iffy as far as replacements go.
The bottomline is we could have had more established combinations going forward, more depth developed and certainly at scrumhalf a better run-on option established.
I’m not saying I am unhappy about Peter’s squad in general, in fact I would only possibly have made 3 or 4 changes overall, but rhytm and continuity should have been established now already, with these same available players!
I feel we have identified most of the squad, bar 3 or 4 players but I feel that we are very much in a All Blacks of 2007 problem situation of who exactly is the best in at least 4 positions!
Could we have been further down the road of knowing exactly who to play…. definately!
That’s where my critisism lies!
Agreed, but after last year I have faith in Snor 🙂 I see no mention of Frans, but thats the common trend with Bulls supporters, that is the biggest gap after 9, fact!!
2@ Winston:
Fransie needs to get his arse back to SA…. his play (except his boot) has regressed in the Northern Hemisphere.
When he’s back here, I will consider him for fullback IF he specialises at fullback… until then, Fransie is out of picture…. and so should Butch and BJ be…. they play overseas, so let them fester on the Euro and the Pound.
To a large extent I agree with you GBS.
I think the hooker situation is wrong,however it is obvious that Chilli will not be dropped and Botha and Liebenberg should be looking elsewhere for their futures.
At tight head we have the best 2 players, as this position needs experience. Werner Kruger is still learning and in my view a long way away from an international in this vital position.
Scrum half is a problem because Ricky is passed his sell by date and Ruan is getting no game time.
This will bite us in the tri nations.
De villiers should be the first choice inside centre and should have been allowed to play as much as possible with Mossie to get the combination working smoothly.
Meisekind should be the back up, with Juan de Jongh still learning as a promising youngster.
Frans Steyn should be the full back, if we want to win tight games in NZ in the wet.
The coach would have done the team mentality a lot more if he had established a healthy pecking order in each position instead of changing players around too much.
Each player needs to know where he stands in his position, which makes both the number 1 and the number 2 work harder.
Ruan probably expects to play tight head next!!!
Die Lions het wragtig gaan staan verloor teen die Pumas. 19-24 nadat hulle op ‘n stadium 14-0 voor was. Hulle het seker baie ouens aan die Bokke verloor…o nee, wag…
GBS, what do you think of the All Blacks and our chances of beating them 2 weeks in a row in NZ?
4@ tight head:
Look, all I’m saying is that we are in the unfortunate position of speculating about tighthead and might have had confirmation that Werner is not up to it or have been surprised that he is indeed up to it.
Had the experiment failed, we would have been stuck with BJ and Jannie anyway… as we are now… but had the experiment succeeded we would have been another tighthead richer for Bokke purposes.
I have a sneaky suspician that Jean will not be 1st choice inside centre, due to the fact that he was also tried at wing… with either Juan (most likely) or Wynand considered to start…. but that’s just it, I would have liked to know by now who clearly was preferred at No 12.
I cannot agree on Fransie Steyn, the youngster has regressed in the Northern Hemisphere and should come back to SA to re-establish his place in the Bokke side…. and he should only be played in the position he specialises in, whether it be fullback or inside centre.
I agree that each player should by now have known where he stands in the pecking order, that was mostly the base of my Article in general.
6@ tight head:
The ALL Blacks are silently preparing a very strong squad… and I think the players clearly know where they stand in the pecking order this time round.
I am worried that we have a false sense of pre-mature bravado about the 2 games because we did so well against them last year and in the Super 14.
Away from home is always difficult… and those monsters from the Land of the Long White Cloud want revenge, they are plotting against us….. it’s a 50 / 50 in my opinion.
So de jong is a developing youngster in your book tighthead. Thats a pathetic statement. im glad pdv showed loyalty to the guys who remained in the country to play s14. If you go to Europe theres always a chance you may lose your place, the players should understand this.
You say ricky is past his best but let me tell you this Jdv is also past his best. European rugby actually made him weaker. He needs to be phased in to get back to southern hemisphere standard.
@ Wezwp:
Why is that a pathetic statement?
Juan is exactly that a developing youngster.
@ grootblousmile:
Yes, I feel the same way.
It will be difficult to beat them in NZ.
as for Frans, I think the real issue is that we need him back here, and we need him in the Bok mix.
Whatever is preventing that from happenning needs to be worked on.
12@ tight head:
I think Fransie wants to play centre though.
ok he is a developing youngster but for now the no.12 jersey is his. Just like Quad Cooper made the no.10 jersey his.
What does that make wynand an established international? i think not. He is more like developement player without the youngster tag.
@ grootblousmile:
Youth, talent, fame and money can be a lethal cocktail when added to some bad advice and greedy management.
I keep getting the feeling that we are not going to see Frans reach his potential as a result.
16@ tight head:
Agree…. naturally talented, more so than most, if not all…. but a swolen head and too much stuffing around!
@ Wezwp:
So you dont think much of Wynand as an international centre?
18@ tight head:
That should’nt be a question, that should be a simple statement. Wezwp sees little else but Hoops… unfortunately.
@ grootblousmile:
Okay, I got it!!
I hope he is not going to try and convince me that Brok should be going to NZ.
20@ tight head:
He might!
Hehehehe
Only maybe Brok is not a PDI either… that’s what he looks at secondly…. unfortunately.
@ grootblousmile:
What about Aussie in the tri nations?
No front row and a backline with Cooper at fly half, who is brilliant but somehow makes you feel that he can also do something incredibly stupid at any time?
Dont have a problem with Ricky in at scrummy, at least you know what you are getting.
Ruan on the other hand still has not convinced me, i always wonder which one of his persona’s is going to be playing, and then if something goes wrong one wonders if he has now lost his confidence again.
FS should be playing for the Boks FULL STOP. Even if it takes a little while to get him up to speed again. He is worth it.
22@ tight head:
Ozzie not at their best at the moment, that’s for sure!
Front row seriously vulnerable… one needs to really bliksem them in this department!
Loosies, Elsom the only REAL stand-out man there, they lack the groundball grunt of Phil Waugh or George Smith.
Backline is potent, but like you say, one gets the impression that you could unlock them if the right strategy is used. Genia also seems to be injury prone, and I sometimes think Cooper himself does not know what he’s going to do next. Cooper is a very slippery customer though.
Another thing, their goal kicking has been a bit off, specially from Giteau… which makes them more vulnerable.
… but they have 2 extra weeks to prepare, won’t do well to underestimate them.
23@ Treehugger:
Boomninny, you sure it’s not Fransie’s looks which inspires your true confidence in him… hehehehe
@ grootblousmile:
😆 Hi GBS, I like the way he plays, i know he has screwed up a few times, he seems to give it his all and not afraid to put his body on the line.
Am not into toyboys
I really think he is someone that should just get better and better with the right guideance.(sp)
@ Treehugger:
Ruan has not been allowed to develop his game confidence.
It is a miracle that he is still able to perform at the level he does in an international, given his lack of game time and partnerships.
We seem to have really mismanaged a golden talent.
I am convinced that there is still time to play him at scrum half and let him get his timing going so that he develps his true potential.
He is an outstanding scrum half who has been given a bad deal.
26@ Treehugger:
I like old Fransie as well as a player, but dammit someone should bring the boy (who could have been your son) back to good old SA…. and stop stuffing crap in his head!
And damnit, he must specialise in 1 position only…. fullback preferably!
I say Frans must fire his manager, let rugby-talk manage him and bring him back to Durban!!
@ grootblousmile:
Agree
@ tight head:
A lot of players get stuffed around FS for one and a few others, and do not loose confidence like he does, you have either got it mentally or not.
I just feel if he really was as good as his press says he is, he would have made a position his own by now.
I just feel
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