Chiliboy Ralepelle at hooker and Victor Matfield as captain?
That will probably be just two of the moves that Springbok coach Peter de Villiers will make for Saturday’s rugby test against Italy in Witbank.
De Villiers has retained the squad of 27 that did duty for South Africa last week.
News24 reports as follows:
Hooker and captain John Smit strained a hamstring during South Africa’s warm-up ahead of Saturday’s 42-17 win over France at Newlands. Ralepelle played the entire second half in his place.
South Africa were planning on resting Smit this week in any event and the injury may prompt the selectors into picking Bulls hooker Bandise Maku for the substitutes bench.
Ryan Kankowski (No 8) and Bjorn Basson (wing) will rejoin the side in Witbank after being allowed to spend the weekend at home.
Ralepelle played 40 excellent minutes against France and showed that his inclusion may well be down to his ability as a player.
Smit praised Ralepelle after the game.
“I think he was outstanding. He won four turnovers and scrummed really well. We won a few penalties at the scrums and he also did some good work on defence,” said Smit.
“Everybody is always talking about how little he plays, but whether it’s 1 minute, 10 minutes, 40 minutes or a full game, he always does well in the time he’s on the field. I have a lot of faith in him.”
Everything now points to Ralepelle getting the opportunity to justifying that faith in him with a start against the Italians.
Should Gurthrö Steenkamp pack down with him in the front row, it will set up another duel with Italian tighthead prop Martin Castrogiovanni, who annihilated the Bok scrum on last year’s tour of the Northern Hemisphere.
De Villiers said earlier this year that he would like to predominantly pick a side featuring the best of the country’s talent in the north for the Test in Witbank, and then pick predominantly from the south for the second Test against Italy in East London.
However, he did not exclude the possibility that he may have to mix and match the players if he felt the need.
The team for the Witbank Test is therefore likely to have a strong Bulls flavour, with Ralepelle and Steenkamp set to pack down in the front row.
Matfield is likely to have one of Bakkies Botha, Flip van der Merwe or even Danie Rossouw as his lock partner.
De Villiers may also use the opportunity to finally give Butch James a run at either flyhalf or inside centre.
Irrespective of the team he selects, it’s likely to be one that will beat Italy relatively comfortably.
“Every Test is important and we will never say that we picked a second team because then we are looking down on the players that have the big task of keeping South Africans happy,” said De Villiers.
“We have to use this chance to settle the side with an eye to the Tri-Nations and next year’s World Cup.”
The Springbok squad is: Bjorn Basson, BJ Botha, Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger, Juan de Jongh, Jean de Villiers, Jannie du Plessis, Jaque Fourie, Gio Aplon, Bryan Habana, Alistair Hargreaves, Butch James, Ricky Januarie, Ryan Kankowski, Zane Kirchner, Francois Louw, Victor Matfield, Wynand Olivier, Ruan Pienaar, Dewald Potgieter, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Danie Rossouw, John Smit (capt), Pierre Spies, Gurthrö Steenkamp, Morné Steyn, Flip van der Merwe.
No wonder Gary Botha and Tiaan Liebenberg both left SA.
Morning folks,
I don’t really have a clue what goes on the front row, so I’d like to see Tighthead or someone knowledgable comment on:
1) This comming Saturday’s Guthro vs Castrogiovani – the sequel
2) Has the recall of CJ and BJ lived up to the expectations?
3) Chilli’s scrumming ability
Groente
2@ fender:
Yip, the Dark Art of the front row baffles me too!
Gurthro’s technique seems to have improved remarkably since last year, it was if he was trying to scrum past his opponent last year with his head clearly popping out on the left hand side of the scrum. This year he made a number of tightheads fold and this past Saturday his side of the scrum seemed to hold very well.
BJ Botha has now had 2 poor showings in 2 weeks in a row, so I’m tempted to say that it’s time to try someone else. Jannie du Plessis did well on Saturday, but I think there are better tightheads in SA than Jannie.. Time to try someone like Werner Kruger on tighthead and with 2 Bulls mates in the front row and probably 2 Bulls locks behind the front row, it would be ideal this week to choose him.
Make no mistake, Italy have a powerful scrum and a powerful forwards pack, it is in the backline where they lack quality.
I would have selected the following Bokke Team, considering that the stance is that for the Witbank Test we use more players from up here in the Northern part of SA, and for the Test in PE (I think), I would choose a different team.
1. Gurthro Steenkamp
2. Gary Botha (but they’ll choose Chilliboy)
3. Werner Kruger
4. Flip van der Merwe
5. Victor Matfield (captain)
6. Francois Louw
7. Dewald Potgieter
8. Pierre Spies
9. Sarel Pretorius (they won’t choose him though)
10. Morné Steyn
11. Bjorn Basson
12. Wynand Olivier
13. Juan de Jongh
14. Lwazi Mvovo (they won’t pick him though)
15. Zane Kirchner
In other words I’ll rest John Smit, BJ Botha, Danie Rossouw, Schalla, Jaque Fourie, Bryan Habana, Gio Aplon.
For the following week I would select:
1. Hell, I don’t know who to pick here… pity Beast is unavailable
2. Tiaan Liebenberg
3. Brock Harris
4. Flip van der Merwe
5. Andries Bekker
6. Schalk Burger (captain)
7. Francois Louw
8. Ryan Kankowski
9. Ricky Januarie
10. Butch James (would have preferred to have chosen Peter Grant)
11. Bryan Habana
12. Juan de Jongh
13. Jaque Fourie
14. Gio Aplon
15. Zane Kirchner
Now that was a lekker game of rugby on Saturday!!
The French didnt know whether they were punched, bored or countersunk, they just knew they were screwed.
Front row performed ok.
I am still not decided about BJ, but he does appear to give them a better platform, but against very strong opposition, he is going to go backwards.
2nd row…sublime, glad to see Pakslae lived up to his name because Nallets ancestors felt that bloody tackle and he was quiet for a long time afterwards. Danie also stole a couple.
Backrow the guys performed well, Louw from WP outplayed himself…a very good performance, the English commentator on SKY will Greenwood was commenting on Pierre Spies jnr and said “What a beast of man and he has hamstrings like a horse and while …..was scoring his try, he arrived at a canter, where does he get the speed from”. Schalk had his usual good game.
Ricky played well and Morne is improving all the time, Olivier tackled well, but had a relatively quiet game. Mossie and Bryan were watched by the French very closely, but they didnt know about Aplon yet…now they do. Kirchner at Fullback didnt do anything wrong, if one wants to be critical he should have moved the ball when he was going for the line, but he hasnt cemented that position as his own.
The guys in the studio were remarking that NH rugby is still way behind, they did not blame the new laws for their lack of ball. Chiliboy played very well when he came on…someone has obviously spoken to him, he even made a few steals. Flip vd merwe’s Dad is going to bliksem him for his blaps…anyway enthusiasm is never misplaced, but it can be expensive in the wrong game, he mustnt get sent off against NZ….who looked very good in hammering Ireland.
@ 4man:
Brilliant comment on the game.
4man wrote:
How true, his honeymoon is over unless he can produce more honey. What i mean …. aaaagh you know. He was impresive.
What i liked of the team Saturday was, they took their chances. Gio and Louw raised the bar, i love it now its up to Shaddow and Stegman to catch up.
Afternoon manne.
I have read a lot about the front row on Saturday and it seems as if people are getting the knives out for BJ.
It is very difficult to get a correct evaluation of how a prop like him has played because people all have different interpretations of what is happening in the front row.
For example are we getting front foot ball on our put in, and are we putting the opposition under pressure on their put in?
Then there is the matter of penalties at scrum time and people naturally assume that if we get blown up that means we cannot hold up the scrum, when in fact the opposite is very often true.
Simply put we need to get the tight head to ensure our scrum half gets the ball on the front foot from our scrum feed.
We then need to try and give them bad ball on their put in.
This can sometimes mean that we wheel them on purpose, amongst other tactics.
You need to remember that a loose head prop does not want to go to the ground unless he is milking the penalty from the ref, and a tight head does not want to scrum into the air, but wants to naturally take the loose head down to the ground.
Very often I hear people say that BJ could not hold up the scrum and went to ground, when in fact he has taken the loose head down and not the other way around.
In my view BJ is our best tight head by a long way, with Jannie Dup second.
If you want to see the danger in playing inexperienced props then go and have a look at what the poms did to those Aussie babies in the front row on Saturday.
Players like Werner Kruger are a “work in progress” at this time and I believe that he would struggle against good international opposition right now.
Thanks Tighthead.
Superbul….from you, I take that as high praise.
Thankyou, I am just a humble observer, but I am proud to be a Saffa in the years where I am now only able to watch and no longer “do”. If there was an over 55 team I would consider turning out for that. Looking at the average Frenchman my age, they are definitely going to k*k themselves if I tackle them.
The young guys are doing us proud and I feel now at last we can start talking about “depth”, because up to last year we still lacked in the pack…badly.
@7 Tighthead.
Thanks for the summation, one of the reasons I think about BJ so much is because you admire him.
I think the scrum laws have got a bit ridiculous personally, but I am concerned about his ability to go forward, but with Smit or Bismarck there, he should be alright. The scrum did stabilise on Sat when Jannie came on….why is that?
@ 4man:
Howzit 4 man.
BJ played against a very good loosehead on Saturday and a particularly difficult man to scrum against at 173m tall.
I can assure you that Domingo would have murdered props like Kruger, Brock or Nel.
Secondly people comment about our scrum improving later in the game, but Domingo went off and they brought their secong choice loose head on who was nowhere near a scrummager as Domingo.
173 cm!!!
@ tighthead, ok yes you are right, Jannie did have the easier ride. But up to like 10 years ago SA was always top in the scrums, its gone wrong somewhere.
OK, I knw what u meant 🙂
@ tight head:
BJ scrummed with Smit who pulled a hamstring isn’t it? No wonder there was a gesukkel at times. Smit must have pulled his hamstring earlier and they were afraid to call up a hooker because the next player is Gary Botha. What will you do then? Play Gary on the bench where Chili is ahead? And Chili can’t even make his provincial team?
I know it might still be experimenting ens. but I think the whole situation was just embarrasing for PdV, but I am glad our boytjies could pull it together as a team very well like they did. But I would like them to do even better in line with SAs true potential.
tighthead
how about a few SHORT!!!!!! articles around the dark secrets of the frontrow …. maybe starting with stuff like correct binding, body positions before and after the hit, techniques and maybe the different things your loose-and tighthead want to achieve. would appreciate it if you could throw in a few illustrations for reference!!
or
better still, if you do not have the time do write such an article, do you perhaps know of any rugbysite online that is either running such discussions or have done so in the past?
@ Ashley:
Ash, I did do an article last year some time.
I will look at that and add to it, as it did not go into a lot of detail about the tactics of the props.
I think it is a good idea to break up the articles in order to not make them boring, and also to make them understandable to the less intelligent members out there who never had the brains to play in the front row!!!
tighthead @ 16
hehehe, ja we always made sure that we hid the ugly b*stards up front out of fear that they might scare the girls away!!
anyway, would love such articles, cause although i’ve played a bit at lock and flank, before being moved to the backs, i didnt have much of an understanding of what was happening up front!!
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