John Smit will lead a decidedly second-string Springbok selection on the away leg of the Tri-Nations series, but coach Peter de Villiers believes the side can still win in Australasia.
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Speaking at a media gathering in Cape Town on Wednesday, De Villiers made it clear that even with 21 frontline players out, he has not given up on winning the Southern Hemisphere championship.
“We will go out there and be as best prepared as we can be,” he said of the tournament that gets underway when the Springboks play the Wallabies next Saturday, July 23, in Sydney.
“This is also the first time since [the Test series against] the B&I Lions [in 2009] that we have two weeks to prepare [for the opening Test of the season].
“That might just work in our favour,” the coach added.
Both De Villiers and team doctor Craig Roberts failed to convince cynics that all 21 players are genuine injuries – especially Stormers players like Jaque Fourie, Jean de Villiers, Andries Bekker, Francois Louw and Bryan Habana.
Asked if those players would have been ruled out if the Stormers had advanced to the Super Rugby Final this week, the doctor was very noncommittal. The “maybe” answer just didn’t wash.
And the absence of many other frontline players – like Fourie du Preez, Victor Matfield, Frans Steyn, Bismarck du Plessis, Francois Hougaard, Butch James, JP Pietersen, Tendai Mtawarira and Bakkies Botha – who showed no signs of injury in the last few weeks, will surely raise the ire of their SANZAR rivals.
However, the Bok camp is adamant that it is injury related, rather than a simple case of resting players.
“It has been a long season,” the team doctor, Roberts, told the media scrum, adding: “At this stage of the season every single guy has some sort of problem or niggle.
“We identified the guys who have to be managed and rehabilitated.”
He declined to go into detail on individual players, but admitted that the two guys that are long-term are Schalk Burger and Duane Vermeulen.
Roberts described them as “eight-week type” injuries, which puts them very close to the World Cup in terms of being ready.
“The other guys are not ruled out completely out of the Tri-Nations,” he said, adding: “We’ll keep managing them, monitoring them and see how they respond to their rehab and make the decisions based on that.”
However, he confirmed that “none” of the squad of 21 listed on Wednesday as “injured” will feature in the away leg.
De Villiers described the decision to leave the 21 players at home as “sensible”.
He added that they will be rehabilitated by their own unions.
“The sensible thing is to make do with the players we have,” DE Villiers said, adding: “It would have been nice to have been able to call up another tighthead [prop], but at this moment we are trying to get BJ [Botha] to be available for us [for the tour].”
Asked if players must play in Tri-Nations to feature in the World Cup, or if some players are good enough to just walk into the World Cup squad, the coach said there are only a few.
“Take a guy like Schalk Burger, who fractured his thumb, and will only be available for the opening match of the World Cup.
“He doesn’t have to prove anything – he’s not one of those players who need five or six games to get his form back.
“However, you can’t allow that for more than two or three guys, otherwise you’ll shoot yourself in the foot.
“You do get injuries, sometimes in training and off the field, but I didn’t expect the list to be this long.”
De Villiers said he will “remain positive” and bring that across to the players as well.
He admitted it calls for a different outlook, a different way of preparing.
He also said this gives the back-up players a chance to push for World Cup selection.
“There are places to be taken [in the World Cup squad],” DE Villiers said, adding: “All of them do stand a chance. Nothing is cast in stone.
“However, one thing we must beware of is that they see this as trials now and become too individualistic. That will take away the team dynamics.
“We must ensure they still remain and play within the team structures. That was something I was very aware of when bringing this group together [selecting the team]. Some players were very good in the Super Rugby season, but they were too individualistic – at international level that is detrimental.”
The absence of 21 players from the preliminary Bok squad named recently means the Tri-Nations tour squad has effectively been selected already.
All that remains to name a starting XV.
It will also mean plenty of game time at hooker for the Bok captain, Smit, which is something the Bok mentor has been very vocal about.
Remainder of the Springbok squad: Gio Aplon, Bjorn Basson, Heinrich Brüssow, Juan de Jongh, Jean Deysel, Dean Greyling, Alistair Hargreaves, Adrian Jacobs, Elton Jantjies, Ashley Johnson, Ryan Kankowski, Zane Kirchner, Werner Kruger, Patrick Lambie, Charl McLeod, Johann Muller, Lwazi Mvovo, Odwa Ndungane, Wynand Olivier, Coenie Oosthuizen, Ruan Pienaar, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Danie Rossouw, John Smit, Pierre Spies, Deon Stegmann, Morné Steyn, Adriaan Strauss, Flip van der Merwe.
Flok, as mens moet beginne openlik lieg om spelers te laat rus, dan word dit eintlik ‘n blerrie skande!
So, wat leer ons hieruit…..
No 1 – Snorrie sien nie vir Morné Steyn as sy 1ste keuse losskakel vir RWC nie
No 2 – Snorrie wil desperaat vir John Smit, Heinrich Brussow en so paar ander gereed en geslyp kry en fiks kry vir RWC
No 3 – Lyk of Pat Lambie ook nie as Bok losskakel gesien word nie… lykmy Kamakaze Butch gaan arms swaai in daai posissie in RWC… miskien sien ons vir Lambie deurlopend op Heelagter?
Kyk, nie een van hierdie oorblywende spelers is slegte spelers nie, maar jinne, dis darem nie naastenby die EERSTE SPAN nie….
Ek skud net my kop…. kry julle nie ook skaam vir hierdie strontpratery en openlike valse bedrog nie?
Sien julle ook hoe baie Bulle daar is, lyk my hulle is die beste op gepas.
I have mixed feelings about this. The upshot is, I think there is too much rugby, these guys MUST be rested at some stage.
4man wrote:
From the start i thought that we would take on 2 tests serious, i hoped that we played the first 2 flat out.
On the other hand if we lost the first 2 with full strenght teams and lost the damadge would have forced us to play the best in all 4
If we lose the first 2 now and the strongest team lose as well the excuse could be game time, less damadge because we still have a few games in the WC against smaller Nations.
This contradicts my view of tests that i had, you must win all your tests or try at least.
Has PdeV lost his guts or is this a Rassie call.
Well if you look at our recent record, it doesn’t look great at all. Since the Lions tour we only won around 50% of our test matches.
Perhaps this is the time for these “second Choice” players to prove their worth and show PDV not all our players are predictable.
The thing is that there is too much meaningless rugby. The S15 is waaaaaaay to long, the 3N is tired. We play against NZ and Aus too often. No one really gives a sh1t anymore, there is always next year.
@ biltongbek:
absolutely agree. TBH, I didn’t expect this move to have some much negative reception.
GBS, sure, it is a public “lie” but then again, most of these players are actually hurt, have been carrying niggles.
Honestly, I dont see Morne Steyn as our first choice either. But maybe this is a great opportunity for to impress the judges. Same with other players.
Anyway, I agree with this 100%, for various reasons. And there is no reason why this team cant do some serious damage:
Kichner
Aplon
De Jongh
Olivier
Basson
Steyn
Pienaar
Danie Russouw
Jean Deysele
Heinrich Brussouw
Hargreaves
Flip van der Merwe
Oosthuizen
Smit
Kruger
Greyling
Strauss
Muller
Johnson
McCloud
Lambie
Mvovo
What are the odds that we are go win over seas with a half crocked team anyway, whenwe cant even seem to do it with our best possible team?
@ superBul:
@ Superbul
This contradicts my view of tests that i had, you must win all your tests or try at least.
This is why I have mixed feelings, we should be playing our best players in all our tests and going for the win. With too much rugby being played we are almost forced to compromise. McCaw is not right and the Kiwi’s have got him back in at Crusaders, watch him miss the tr-nations….Carter too, if Carter is injured they have no depth in flyhalves.
I have said before, the year of world cups end of year tours and tri-nations should not be played, so the teams can get fully fit and be over stress fractures etc. A warm up game would be in order and that could be against our top provincial side, even then there is a danger of injuries. We are probably going to lose our first two games of the tri-nations with our crap travel record, so we are behind the 8 ball from the go. I think PDV may have just done the best thing for the team….I dont particularly like it, but it is logical.
@ 4man:
Jake,s boys played 16 tests in WC year till the final won 13 and lost only the 3 out of 4 in the Tri Nations.
AB,s played 12 won 10 lost one in tri Nations and against France in WCup
What do i see in the stats above, that we….. OK i dont see any trend , tell me what can be made of it :LOL:
gaan lees wat se die ander:
http://sport.iafrica.com/news/739693.html
@ Tripples:
bla bla bla bla. Aus moet liewer worry wat hulle gaan doen as Quade Pooper gaan seer kry in die WB.
@ superBul:
The extra games have come in the Super 15. On blance I’m happy to let the tri-nations be a training ground for young up and coming guys, with one or two being given final consideration for inclusion in the Bok starting 15 for world cup. At world cup we will essentially field two teams again, one for the supposed easier games and one for the harder games and the final, one or two guys could move in and out of the starting 15. I actually agree with you that you don’t play tests unless you go flat out for the win with your best team available, but in this case I reluctantly accept the compromise of throwing away the tri-nations. If the up and comings are good enough to win it against the Aussie and NZ up and comings, then so be it….I am pretty sure they wont be fielding their best teams, otherwise our guys will be tackling the crap out of guys like Carter and Cooper, because they don’t have depth in those depts. We musn’t forget about the dangers that England and France will pose and just possibly Argentina, I can’t see anyone else being up to scratch.
4man wrote:
The way i see it is that the S15 is totally over rated, that is not Test level. There is not a single Super team nearly as good as the test teams. That is also why i am not on the Crusaders bandwagon like many. They might have 10 ABs in their team and that means one thing , they are at 66% of a Test team.
If Div and friends(selectors) pick the best players in each team and stick to the combinations we might have no more than 7 per Super team in the match 15.
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