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.
“I have opened a twitter account and I am not afraid to use it.”
..
funny one that!!!
@ Ashley:
The article, as most of mainstream media, is not accurate. EVERYONE was not calling for Goosen. EVERYONE could see that Morne was out of form and struggling. There was unanimity about the problem, not the solution. Most people were calling for Bambie to replace Morne and up to today, many people still feel he would be the better choice. Then he was injured and Jantjies was next in line. Meyer however, has rejected those two and showed that his next preference was for Goosen. Everyone is just relieved that Morne has been dropped and is just happy to support “anyone but Morne”. There is far from unanimity that Goosen is everyone’s choice so it is FALSE to say that everyone should just suck it up if Goosen is not successful. What about many of the people who were backing Bambie or Elton? Why shouldn’t they be given a shot if Goose fails. Why do we have to continue and continue battling with a player who fails? The approach should be a process of elimination. Here are all the top candidates – now lets give them a shot in order of the coach’s preference. If the first one works out, then stick with him. If not, then go onto the next one.
Personally, I have high hopes for Goose but would have preferred him to have been brought in more gradually. The first in line should have been Bambie and then Elton. Now because Meyer is jumping to Goose, we should all just shut up if Goose doesn’t work out! Sorry that is bullcrap!
biltong @ 90
be warned … people in high places may prevent you from using the site foe a while (wink wink)
turk @ 92
be patient … i think thats the main message of the mentioned article.
now
i for one, have said on numerous occassions that hmeyer missed a trick by not testing either jantjies or lambie at 10 during the incoming tours. in the end he was almost stuck with morné because of this
…
now on goosen … i think, without knowing the order in which heineke rated eg. the 10’s in sarugby, its difficult to say whether it isnt in fact a process of elimination IN ORDER OF THE COACH’S PREFERENCE,
BUT (and theres always one, isnt there) what happens when goosen for eg. gets injured (or shown up badly)? is it back to msteyn then?
..
on lambie … i think the way he is handled at the moment cant be healthy …. first back-up at 10, now 15 … and it still seems (and i may be wrong here) that he is not considered even 2nd best at both positions (taute next in line @ 15?)!
Jussie… what did you guys eat for breakfast?
Smack, Crack and Pot in stead of Snap, Crackle and Pop?
Hahahaha
Vriende, julle issie vars nie!
sa lose their frst wicket
score 8/1
amla out for 6
By the way, our friend Scrumdown was involved in a car crash last night just after midnight…. I got a call from him at about 0:30 in the night.
Luckily just some seat belt and air bag bruising… and a Renault which is most probably a write-off.
Spoke to him this morning again and he’s OK, thank goodness!
28/2
levi 8
Proteas 28 / 2 after 5.2 overs
Levi out for 8
Eishhhh
SA 28 / 3 after 6.1 overs
Kallis out for 12
#97
phew … glad to hear that he’s ok!!
kallis out … big big trouble for sa here!!
47 runs from 10 overs? jeez
O flok,
SA 66 / 4 after 12.3 overs
Behardien the casualty.
Fark, we’ll be lucky to see 120 at this rate
one thing to have plans in place
another thing to execute them (or being allowed to do so) …. ai ai!!
kom kom blommetjies!!
following the game on cricinfo
..
how many overs of spin have we faced thus far?
@ Ashley:
I think that sadly we have an unsolvable situation because there are two fundamental world views – the conservative and the progressive. The conservative is very afraid and distrustful of change and has a phobia of what might go wrong. Even if something is not working at the moment, their imagination tells them that things would be a lot worse and it would be far more dangerous to change. The future is a scary thing to conservatives. They idealise the past where things were predictable and familiar. There is always some bogey man out to get them, some conspiracy or some monster ready to gulp them down if they step foot off the familiar path.
The progressive is always questioning, always looking for new and better ways, always asking why we have to or are doing things the way we are. They are more prone to making mistakes, because they are more prone to trying different things. However they are the only way that society advances as it is only by making mistakes that you can grow and learn and improve.
As with all things in life, context is king. The correct question is not who is right, but what is the context! One looks at the situation and chooses the better response, one doesn’t decide beforehand what ideology to follow. Often compromise is a good solution and then a balanced way is the most suitable path. A balance works fine in most cases.
Applying the above to a rugby context we find the typical conservative in Heynecke Meyer. He hates changing and in defense he invokes the bogey man of the opposite extreme. He says he is not in favour of changing the side every week, of chopping and changing players at whim or after only one chance. No one is calling for that! It is a bogey man invented to justify his conservative nature. Most people want balance! You give something or someone a REASONABLE chance and then change.
HM has a fixed list of who his preferred player is in most positions and he is terribly reluctant to alter it. For example at number 10 he has Morne and then Goosen and then someone else preferably not Elton. Through a combination of public and political pressure and the player’s own good performance, he is forced to put Elton on the bench once again but who knows if he will actually get to play. The same with Lambie. HM sees Lambie as a fullback, but not the number 1 or even number 2 – he is just a utility until the more favoured is ready. So Lambie will never get to play flyhalf unless due to injuries or circumstances beyond Meyer’s control. Same with JdJ and even Daniels. These players get half chances or are in the squad to make up the numbers but will never willingly be given the opportunity to prove the coach wrong while other players whom the coach has already fixed on his list, will be given opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. Potgieter, still there; JJ Engelbrecht in, didn’t play and then out; Jo Petersen, in squad and then out without playing; Aplon in and then out. The coach is quite happy to play musical chairs with the players he doesn’t rate but beware you suggest he drop one of his favourites and then YOU are accused of playing musical chairs.
And then to his supporters it is a personal issue. Either you are for HM or you are against him. You are either part of the hated enemy’s (WP of course) conspiracy to see their man in the coach’s seat or you are a committed supporter and rabid defender of the Blue Bulls (N Tvl) conservative tradition. Of course it’s so much easier to hold to this view as you can then comfortably overlook all the mistakes and deficiencies on “your” side and just blame it all on negativity and ill will from the “other” side.
It leaves those of us who just want the best for Bok rugby left stranded somewhere in the middle, derided and scorned by the “true believers” on all sides.
well said
just one question:
do you think i’m a true believer, one side or another?
@ The_Young_Turk:
That is about as spot on as you can get, there are two extremes, and then those in the middle, couldn’t have put it better myself.
Fransie and Coenie out injured.
Teams:
South Africa:
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 Beast Mtawarira
Substitutes: 16 Tiaan Liebenberg, 17 Pat Cilliers, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Marcell Coetzee, 20 Elton Jantjies, 21 Jaco Taute/Juan de Jongh, 22 Patrick Lambi
The revised Springbok squad is now up!
Pakistan 32 / 3 after 4.2 overs
@ Ashley:
I don’t know you and have never met you so can only make an opinion based on many of your comments. This may or may not be an accurate reflection of you. I would say that you are not a “true believer” but have a more open and questioning mind. However you have a good relationship with some on this blog from the “other” side and thus temper your criticisms or disguise them in humour in order to maintain a friendly relationship. The sad thing is that many people take disagreeing with them personally and are unable to distinguish that disagreement from dislike.
Pakistan 37 / 3 after 6 overs, nice last over from SA, a maiden
@ grootblousmile:
Ciao Smiles. Do you see what you’ve done! By sorting out my computer problems you have created a monster. Now I can’t stop writing long verbose comments. It’s all your fault!
Ahhhh, Pakistan 37 / 4 after 6.2 overs
115 @ The_Young_Turk:
Eishhhh….
Format that thing!
Hehehe
Looks like the Blommetjies have this one in the bag.
Another maiden, in fact a wicket maiden by Botha!
Pakistan 37 / 4 after 7 overs
Ama-Blomme really pulling the Pakis back after a fast start.
Our Slow spin bowlers doing the trick, it seems
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