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.
ander jongelinge wat my opgewonde maak oor die bok se toekoms is klein spiertjies vlam kitshoff ruhle serfontein jordaan botha stander(maar dan moet hy bly) nyakane sithole
@ grootblousmile:
Yoh bru, hoessit….
Faan Conradie was prokurower op George, miskien het jy hom raakgedrink daar. Hy het Maties/WP gespeel, nie watwonders. Toe kies hulle hom UK toe in 1965, hy en daai Bobby Johns. Faan was so skaam omdat hy nie een wedstryd gespeel het nie dat hy daarna geweier het om ooit sy Springbokbaadjie te dra.
Dis wat ek sou doen as ek Tiaan Liebenberg was (met alle respek aan sy trotse pa Henning, oud-Griekwa).
Maar Bokke lyk reg verder, ons gaat hulle moer, watch!!!!!
61 @ smallies:
Flok, wie is “klein spiertjies” of “klein spiertjies vlam”… kannie uitmaak sonder kommas tussen de name nie!
62 @ Piet-Springbok-Jan:
Ek onthou die naam Faan Conradie van George…. dink nie hy was meer daar toe ek daar was nie… flok maar ek is al meer as 18 jaar daar weg….
Johan Heunis se broer, Chris Heunis was prokurower daar, en betrokke by SWD op daai stadium.
@gbs klein spiertjies is piet spiere se kleinseun jan-andre marais van die tjarks,vlam kitshof is ruan kitshoff
Faan is oorlede al, vroeg dood.
Chris was n goeie vleuel, UPE en OP gespeel. Daai jare was OP n wille span, gelykop gespeel in die Currie- semifinaal teen NTvl op Loftus in die 80’s, ek was daar.
@ smallies:
KleinSpier se pa Steph maak moosa lekker rooiwyn, by Riebeeck-Wes, daai eerste plaas oppie linkerkant Malmesbury toe as jy die dorp uitry.
66 @ Piet-Springbok-Jan:
Ja, ek onthou vir Chris van voor ek nog George toe was, as rugbyspeler… Chris was ook ‘n statige prokureur, nie ‘n moeilikheidsoeker of windgat flokker soos van die ander sponsparras daar op George nie.
65 @ smallies:
OK, die Kitshoff gedeelte kon ek darem uitmaak…. wou net weet wie die “spiertjies” was….
@pietparrajan skiet my koppie dis pieter-steph du toit nie jan andre marais nie ,eish smallies jou plotter
@ grootblousmile:
Yip, that’s what I said. In full agreement with your list of players.
@ The_Young_Turk:
The only name you left out is Siya kolisi… But I don’t know how seriously he’s injured.
60 @ grootblousmile:just quickly checked in. Flat out bottling this week, never worked so hard in my life!
Good team, Boks to take it this one. Agree with Turky, good to see Ostrich pulling his head out of the sand at last – long way to go though – just got to keep him away from Loftus where his double speak is turning all you hardened rugby touting men into very suspect broke back lookalikes!
72 @ The_Young_Turk:
Oh damn, yes… I forgot about Siya Kolisi, suppose with him being injured it was a case of out of sight, out of mind.
I doubt he would be ready in time for End of Year Tours though… but in 2013 he should regain form in Super Rugby and really put a hand up from next June’s Internationals!
73 @ Just For Kicks:
Hey, Mr Bottles…. good, work your arse off for a change, it will do you good!
Talking about bottles and Brokeback and to someone who lives in the general area where Brokeback Mountain is situated…. just admit it, Heyneke speaks sense…. and you guys have forgotten to remove the lables from the glass bottles to be able see through and share the man’s clear vision and reality.
Go do yourself a favour and go read his Q & A session of Supersport…
I wonder if the gameplan will change. I haven’t read all the posts, but some comments of my own
Morne’ clearly didn’t play to instruction if he has been dropped completely. Also with bad kicking form he is not the best available at flyhalf. Giving the young ou’s a run at this stage is not a bad idea at all. I have faith in Heyneke and think a lot of the criticism sent his way is unjustified. There are 22 players who played against the All blacks and they must carry a lot of the responsibility. Kirchner is lucky to retain his place….and clearly at the top level he is outclassed. We need to do something seriously about no 15 before we go much further. Taute deserves his callup and I think leaving Juan de Jongh out of the match 22 last time was a travesty. Keegan Daniels left out is a strong indication that it is going to be kick and charge again. Vermeulen has got a lot to do to convince me that he is suitable. Mvovo dropped from the side means Heyneke is experimenting now. Dont know if Ruan and Goosen will be good for each other….they are similar players…..lets see….Ruan is adaptable enough to make it work if it suits him. I would ahve played Mvovo on the wing and started with Hougie at 9. But this is a good team…..clearly the guys were “off colour/off the pace” in the last match. Lets see what happens playing for pride. I will go and check the Q&A that Heyneke had now as GBS suggests.
75 @ 4man:
Hello sammajoor.
The current 3 Springbok loosies absolutely did the business against the All Blacks 2 weeks ago, winning the breakdown ball battle by a country mile… in fact the Springbok forwards pack as a whole played exceptionally well on that day.
Problem arose with Ruan Pienaar and Morné Steyn on that day, clearing far too slow by Ruan and of course Morné Steyn not converting the kickable chances as well as playing too deep in the pocket.
Although I agree with you that Zane Kirchner should be replaced by Lambie, I think Heyneke did not want to change too many players at once…. there’s already 3 changes with Bekker, Etzebeth and Johan Goosen…. and Meyer being conservative we all know likes consistency in selection, which I suppose is both bad and good…. being too conservative is bad but going for consistency in selection is good.
So, maybe Lambie gets more than 10 minutes this Saturday if everything works out… and thereafter he might just start for the All Blacks game…. I’d rather evolve slowly with a plan than just throw players in and out nilly willy.
GBS…thanks for that. I only got to see a bit of the game, was unfortunately doing something else (in Croatia), I think Heynek is our best coach for a long time and he was really impressive with Leicester Tigers. So hy verstaan hoe ander lande dink en speel en hy is ook gewoond aan druk. Ek sien uit daarna dat ons 2015 die ding doen. Ek is nie so seker Lambie is die antwoord op 15.
Just looked at Heyneke’s Q&A on Supersport. This ou knows what he is doing and how refreshing to see a mature approach to matters. GBS take your point entirely about “consistency in selection”. If the AB’s had done that two world cups ago I think they would have won it then perhaps. Ek sien dis Sharks en Bulletjies weer Saterdag. Jy skuld my seker n brouerei al….maar ons kan maar weer n bier op die game sit. 😉
77 @ 4man:
I think Lambie did well in last year’s Rugby World Cup at 15… but there is also Taute (who covers 13 and 15)
78 @ 4man:
Fark, you always want to bet beers when the Bulls are dodgy and likely to lose against your Sharks…. but what the heck, a beer it is, to add to your brewery… hehehe
Got to step out quickly, looks like I have to go jump-start BonzaiGBS’ car for him, about 2km away from here…. eish
@ grootblousmile: Jis man….jy’t mos baie pond….koop die laaitie n beter kar!!!
82 @ 4man:
Car started, back home already.
Nee man, die knaap het ‘n lekker karretjie… maar dis mos goed as ‘n jong man met sy eerste kar leer, hoe werk die en hoe werk daai… goeie leerskool.
Ek is heilig oortuig daarvan dat mens nie vir ‘n kind se eerste kar vir hom of haar ‘n nuwe ding moet koop nie… die eerste karretjie vat mos maar altyd bietjie punishment.
Hy word anyway gespoil, het ‘n ma se moerse Gamers PC (Core i7 in ‘n Gamers ATX Kas, 16Gb DDR 3 Ram, ‘n flokken fris nVidia Graphics Card, 2Tb Sata III Hard Drive) PLUS ‘n Notebook en Maandag het ek vir hom sy 2de duur SLR kamera gekoop, ‘n Nikon D3100 met 2 moooosa lense en ‘n fancy kamerasak en die hele werke.
Talking about cameras, anybody who has a second hand 38mm Film SLR camera for sale, let me know, BonzaiGBS needs a film camera for his studies for next year, apparently they are not allowed to use Digital Cameras for their photography section of Graphic Design.
Regarding the car…. it’s either the alternator not charging the battery sufficiently or the battery is old and might have a dead cell.
It it’s alternator it probably just needs a new regulator, if it is battery, well then it is also expected from any second hand car older than a few years.
@ grootblousmile: Speel maar net….dit is beter dat hulle leer. Sit net n voltmeter oor die battery as die kar loop en as hy oor 12 volt registreer dan is dit battery.
84 @ 4man:
Janee, ek het darem die toerusting om te toets…. ‘n goeie Multitester… en ek het my lesse geleer toe ek jonk was en my eie eerste karretjies gekoop en onderhou het.
Ek is GEEN mechanic nie, wil ook nie aan flokken karre werk nie, betaal eerder ‘n grease monkey om dit te doen, maar ek kan darem basiese fault-finding doen en my hande is nie net duime nie.
@ grootblousmile:…goodnight….ek is uit.
Hang on for a second, we are now being told that HM’s team is starting to take shape, and he knows what he is doing, his vision is clear. What crap! After the first game or two we were questioning his crap game plan and crap excecution of the same crap game plan. Would Greyling be in the squad if he wasn’t banned? Damn right he would be. Potgieter is still in the squad, after being show up as being crap, yet Daniel ( not that I rate him) has been dropped, even though he offers more than Pogieter. Sideshow Bob, even though he has done nothing wrong but remains crap, is still in ghe run on team. Why did it take the first three games of the RC for the players to flood the breakdown and protect the ball on the ground? Most of us said that after the first game.
All that has happened is that his eye’s have been opened by public critisizm of Morne Steyn, so he has reluctantly dropped him. He has always stated that he wants big ball carriers, hence the shit that is Potgieter, but now he see’s that a fetcher is actually needed, so he calls in FLO.
I am not saying that he is a crap coach, or person. He has been out of top flight coaching for too long, and has not moved with the modern game. If he started his tenure with a more progressive game plan, with players more suited to that kind of game then yes, I would say that he is the great redeemer, but he didn’t so he isn’t.
Fact is that any changes in the game plan or players have been forced on him. They are not choices that he made himself, if they were he would have made them from the start.
@ Loosehead:
Well said and completely accurate. What HM has demonstrated is that he is a very, very conservative coach who makes changes very, very reluctantly. We need public pressure to prod him to do the right thing. Even his top supporters here have been in disagreement with him after a few games. Their main point has been “Give him time, give him more time”. Like many other coaches he has mainly got it right through circumstances like injury or public revolt. He has clearly demonstrated his limitations and is no great coach. however, that said he is competent enough and provided the pressure is kept up on him, the player pool he has available to him should see the Boks to many more victories than losses.
http://www.supersport.com/rugby/springboks/news/120928/The_right_selection_now_be_patient
It’s friday, and I thought I would write a little mock letter, it is just for fun, so enjoy it for what it is.
Dear Coach.
I am confused. For the past seven test matches I have been warming the bench and as you know some of these matches were played in some rather unpleasant weather. This is leading to me getting piles, and man do they hurt. Have you ever had a splinter in your piles?
Well let me tell you it is not a pleasant experience.
I was reading the Supersport Q & A you did for some of the supporters at home and I was really shocked to find out that you are giving Johan Goosen Carte Blanche to play the game as he sees fit. Now this is contradictory to the reasons you gave me for not making the starting XV. I was told there were several reasons why I am not starting, never mind the fact that I hardly if ever get any time as a substitution.
You said to me and I quote “how many games have you played for the Bulls?”
You also said to me “ Don’t run, just kick, in fact don’t even kick the ball, pass it to Morne so he can kick it. Best option is not even to catch the ball, stay away from it and watch Morne, you can learn a lot from him.”
Now you have dropped Morne, so who must I watch now?
If Johan plays his own game, then everything I have been learning from Morne is going to be forgotten because Johan runs the ball.
What I really don’t understand is why Johan is allowed to run the ball and not me, what makes him so special? To add to the confusion he hasn’t played for the Bulls either.
But what really irks me is Zane Kirchner, he doesn’t do what you want either, because he kicks the ball and never gives it to Morne, and when he decides to run with the ball, he NEVER passes, not even to Habs who has been complaining of getting stiff on the wing.
I have heard rumours that you believe my defence is suspect and that I am out of form. Well let me tell you, if you sat on the bench as long as I have getting splinters and getting no gametime, it is really very hard to show any form, and just for your information, did you see how Zane completely missed the tackle on Smith when he was the cover defender?
I told Habs I was going to write you a letter and he asked whether you could please tell the kickers not to kick so deep, he knows he is fast, but not even a Lamborghini will cover 80 meters in the time a ball has to travel.
I know the kicking game is your speciality and it forms a big part of our game, but why does Jean de Villiers get to run with the ball, we all know he can’t kick, and he doesn’t pass either. Why is it that you have one set of rules for me and no rules for any of the other players in the backline?
I just want you to know that I am following the right channels, I first spoke to Jean (Cappie) and he got very angry when I asked him why he is allowed to run and not pass, so the next step is for me to talk to you, I don’t want to pull a Quade Cooper on you, but it seems you leave me no choice.
I have opened a twitter account and I am not afraid to use it.
One last thing, some of the guys want to know whether this is the last we have seen from Dean Greyling?
Yours Truly
Pat (splinters) Lambie
Dear Patrick.
Thank you for writing to me and I will be as honest as I can.
Firstly, you can’t kick far enough Pat, your boot is weak, have you noticed how Frans, Morne, Johan and Zane would strap 100kg weights to their ankles when they train? It allows them to build muscle mass to kick the leather off the ball. You talk about timing the ball, timing is boot speed, I can’t bargain on hoping you would time the ball, I need players who can kick the leather off the ball even if they mistime it.
You want to run the ball, and you believe beating the defender with a sidestep or a dummy is the way to go, but I ask you, what if your sidestep doesn’t work, what if your dummy doesn’t work? I need players that can run through brick walls, did you ever see the advert on TV where Pierre Spies ran through a brick wall when his TV was stolen? Now that is what I want, I am always accused of not having a back up plan, well that is simply not true, my back up plan is if you can’t run around the defence or dummy then at least you can run through the defence.
As for you sitting on the bench, the reason is obvious, the bulls are lying bottom of the table in the Currie Cup, I can’t have you running around in your Sharks team scoring from all angles and beating the Bulls now, can I?
What do you think will happen if I pick 14 bulls in the starting fifteen and the Bulls have come last in the Currie Cup, how do I then justify picking them all?
You are getting paid for doing nothing, be thankful.
Regards
Heyneke Meyer.
Users Online
Total 121 users including 0 member, 121 guests, 0 bot online
Most users ever online were 3735, on 31 August 2022 @ 6:23 pm
No Counter as from 31 October 2009: 41,838,752 Page Impressions
_