The Springbok side to face the Wallabies on Saturday at Loftus, has been announced.
Two late changes have been made to the Springbok 22, with Francois Steyn failing a late fitness test and Coenie Oosthuizen also not fit enough to man the bench. Jean de Villiers moves to inside centre and Jaco Taute will make his Springbok debut at outside centre. PatCilliers replaces Coenie Oosthuizen on the bench.
It took guts and determination from Heyneke Meyer and clearly he has the best interests of Springbok Rugby as well as the individual interests of the players at heart, when making some hard and big decisions.
Johan Goosen starts at flyhalf and Andries Bekker starts at No 5 lock in place of Juandré Kruger. Elton Jantjies is on the bench and Morné Steyn drops out of the match 22 alltogether.
Flip van der Merwe moves down to the bench after a strong game against the New Zealand All Blacks, but one has to mention that Flip is carrying a niggling injury and did not practice with the squad on Monday and Tuesday.
Springbok team: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Bryan Habana, 13 Jaco Taute, 12 Jean de Villiers (Captain), 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Tiaan Liebenberg, 17 Pat Cilliers, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Marcell Coetzee, 20 Elton Jantjies, 21 Juan de Jongh, 22 Patrick Lambie.
A slightly surprising move was to initially select Coenie Oosthuizen on the bench, despite only having played 35 minutes of Currie Cup rugby after returning from injury and then sitting out of Monday’s practice to to some general stiffness. As we now know, Pat Cilliers has now replaced Coenie on the bench as prop cover.
Eben Etzebeth returns to the squad after serving his one week suspension for the head butt on Nathan Sharpe.
Patrick Lambie will have to be content to warm the bench again after there was widespread calls for his inclusion at fullback in place of Zane Kirchner.
Pity about Langbek… but good for Goosen!
Karoo kind well done nou moet jy uithael en wys,ek weet sommer die hele Burgersdorp gaan nou bosmal
Luckily my Media Accreditation for Saturday has finally come through as well!
Whoopie!
@ smallies:
As ek reg is dan smile my skoonma van oor tot oor omdat die klein buurmantjie gekies is
Bly oor Goosen maar ek voel Morne moes op die bench gewees het. Ons 2 loskakels het bitter min ondervinding.
Ek sou ook vir Jaundre ingehou het.
Nouja… who says Meyer has’nt got brass balls, to make the difficult choices when it matters!
Must say I read the situation right on Monday already…
#7
daais nog niks ..
i can already tell you who will be subbed for who in the last 5 minutes of the match!!
Interesting line up with quite a few changes, although these mostly in backline and on bench. Good to see continuity in the front row and loose forwards. Bekker must have done a pile of good work in the recent practice session, by all accounts Juandre Kruger can consider himself unlucky to miss out.
The bench looks like it provide real impact if needed, although there may possibly be a question mark around hooker substitute, the general opinion in the last week and a bit in blogland seems to have been that Burden perhaps may be a better replacement option than Liebenberg?
5 @ Boerewors:
Hello Boerwors ek sien nou dat jy bevestig wat ek oor Juandre Kruger bespiegel het. Met ‘n groot game teen die Sharks die naweek kan hy dan nou nie (al is dit bietjie laat) vrygestel word om te minste van die bank af te speel in Durban. Of moet hy by die Bokke bly om sekere te maak daar is dek vir Bekker in die volgende toets?
9 & 10 @ BullscotBok:
I feel sorry for Juandre Kruger, but I expect him back next week for the All Blacks test.
Liebenberg is a temporary stop gap at best, with both Bismarck du Plessis and Chiliboy Ralepelle out injured at the moment
Good Bokke side…. but I still expect negative comments about certain players in the team, like Zane Kirchner.
Now hopefully Ruan Pienaar is given instructions to make sure the backline receive fast ball and not to dodle behind the rucks and ground ball situations.
gbs @ 13
ag nee geen probleme hier nie
ekt mos darem al die “heyneke meyer se boek van verskonings” onder oë gehad
..
verskoning 1: hy’t nog nie ñ game vir ons verloor nie
..
wel, en kan dit counter en sê hy’t nog nie een vir ons gewen nie, maar ek wil darem ook nie hê ou heyneke moet nou spesiaal die woordjie “wen” in die woordeboek gaan opsoek nie!!
12 @ grootblousmile:
Yeah GBS it seems that somehow Kruger has slipped down in the pecking order and this in spite of many of you guys seemingly not been too impressed by Bekker for the Boks this season. But as you witnessed on Monday it looks like Mr Meyer has got the guys working well so must know something there that we don’t. It is interesting sometime to view from so far away here how the punters opinions sway back and forth or maybe the voices of support get louder and fade regarding certain players, I remember not too long ago many folk saying Liebenberg should be in the team, strong scrummager etc, now it seems as if he is not living up to this support. Bismarck will be out for a long time I think, so maybe the bench hooker will have to be there for a while, or will Chilliboy be back in time to be fit enough to make the end of year tour? Then again for that end of year tour as I have suggested various times there are some possible options for hooker this side of the world.
14 @ Ashley:
Hello Ashley long time no see, how’s it going with you? Its time to head off now, lekker bly, cheers for now
bullscot @ 16
nei i’m faaaaain
just trying to get on gbs’ nerves
but
as you can see, its not actually working!!
Heyneke Meyer explained his selection of Andries Bekker and Eben. He said they expected a more open game against the australians, and as with the all Blacks he selected Flip and juandre.
He also said because of tiaan being on the bnch, he knows Bekker, Eben and Duane better.So it was combinations that made the decision
15 @ BullscotBok:
I don’t think Juandré Kruger has slipped down in the pecking order, it’s more a horses for courses approach, as Heyneke indicated at the team announcement and when he was interviewed afterwards.
Heyneke hinted that Juandré Kruger might get the nod against the All Blacks again because he plays tighter than Bekker.
Chiliboy should be back playing in 2 or 3 weeks, and maybe makes it in time for the End of Year Tour. Bismarck, like you said, has a longer term injury.
17 @ Ashley:
Ek skrikkie vir koue pampoen nie…. hehehe
Better get to doing a Currie Cup teams Article too for the weekend’s games
Pleasantly surprised that HM actually dropped Morne and went for Elton on the bench. Nice to see that the man does learn eventually, even if he takes a little longer than the rest of us. Good call by Smiles. I think the little talk Gbs gave Meyer on my behalf paid off
21 @ The_Young_Turk:
Well, someone HAD TO talk to him…. hehehe
I hear your Notebook is now fine…. everything now in order?
Remembered to load 7-Zip and Adobe Acrobat again?
Hopefully you have also loaded Microsoft Security Essentials?
turk @ 21
maybe you shouldve talked to the man yourself
who knows? maybe lambie wouldve been afforded the chance to get a few splinters out of his ass this weekend!!
23 @ Ashley:
Heyneke only listens to people who know their rugby… hahaha
On the serious side, Heyneke won’t change more than 2 or at most 3 players game after game, being conservative in his approach… and that is good in terms of consistency in selection.
@ grootblousmile:
Yip, my notebook is now all sorted thanks to all your expertise and assistance. You da MAN! Have forgotten to load those other files… Still think the Office and Adobe must be corrupted on your side.
@ Ashley:
Hey, I can only perform one miracle at a time. It’s not easy you know!
gbs @ 24
eina
turk @ 25
o, i thought for a moment there that gbs (being a bull supporter)couldnt remember the message!!
25 @ The_Young_Turk:
Loading MS Office 2010 Professional Plus this side (from the same source) as we speak on one of the PC’s here…. and it seems fine, there must have been some shit with the Dropbox transfer itself.
@ Ashley:
Seriously, I think Bambie might get a look in once Chillie and JPP are back as the side will have a better proportion of players of colour then.
turk @ 28
have seen quite a few bloggers on other sites mention the same point. when will jpp be back then?
A much anticipated move by HM. Lets jusp hope that he hasn’t instructed Goosen to aimlessly kick every ball away.
Boks by 7.
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