Lood de Jager
Handré Pollard
As the announcement of the Springbok squad is awaited on Wednesday, speculation as to the possible composition of the side is gathering momentum.
At this stage it would appear that Johan Goosen is not over his injury worries and that Handré Pollard would leapfrog into the starting berth at flyhalf.
At lock Lood de Jager should get the nod and a 1st start at No 4 lock, in the absense of Flip van der Merwe, who is out with a longer term injury.
A long discussion between flyhalf Johan Goosen, Meyer and team doctor Craig Roberts at the start of Tuesday’s training session put paid to the idea that Goosen may well start, and it was quite clear that the Free State flyhalf isn’t likely to play this weekend again as he sat out the defensive drills that the side went through.
Goosen did make an appearance later in the training, playing alongside Marnitz Boshoff in the reserves, as Pollard spent most of the training running alongside Fourie du Preez and Jan Serfontein in the backline that is expected to be confirmed.
While it may raise eyebrows should Pollard leapfrog the other two flyhalves, it must be mentioned that he would have been in the squad had it not been for the Junior Bok stint, and quite obviously it would then also confirm him as central to Meyer’s plans for next year’s Rugby World Cup.
However it is at Loosehead prop where uncertainty reigns as to who is going to replace the injured Beast Mtawarira, with Gurthro Steenkamp also having departed back to his French Club.
As we know already, 7 overseas-based players are not available, having already departed and the 2 injuries to Flip & Beast, effectively means only 14 out of 23 in the previous match-day squad is available, and we are bound to see at least 9 changes to the match-day 23.
The reasonable assumption to make, knowing that Heyneke Meyer prefers continuity in selection, is that Heyneke Meyer would stick, as far as possible with the starters left over after last weekend.
This is further complicated by concussion considerations for Willem Alberts, who has to observe the IRB concussion protocol for return to play, after he left the field with a head knock early in the Test against Wales.
We could possibly see a match-day squad along the following lines:
Springboks: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 JP Pietersen, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts / Schalk Burger, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Victor Matfield (Captain), 4 Lood de Jager, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Coenie Oosthuizen
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Stephan Lewies, 20 Siya Kolisi / Teboho Mahoje, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Marnitz Boshoff, 23 S’Bura Sithole.
Pollard start for the Boks, hmmm. He hasn’t impressed me at suparugby level, yet. But then again, who else are there. Is Marnitz Boshoff still injured? Glad for Lood and Coenie at loosehead.
Marnitz is on the bench
My Prediction on how the starting lineup would look was 100% spot-on!
Willem Alberts obviously falls out with the Concussion thing, so Schalla is No 7.
At No 21 Francois Hougaard gets the nod ahead of Ruan Pienaar and Zane Kirchner gets the No 23 spot and not Sithole.
Marcel van der Merwe is at No 18 and not Lourens Adriaanse, oh and Mohoje is preferred over Kolisi at No 20.
@ grootblousmile: @ 3:
Guess you’re overjoyed that Pienaar is nowhere to be seen?
Kirchner over Sithole because of his experience? Or just HM preference?
4 @ GoBokkeAndIreland:
I have to admit, I am happy Pienaar is not in the squad!
I would not know whether Zane’s inclusion is due to experience or personal preference.
Apparently Zane’s been in fine form.
@ grootblousmile:
I am sort of surprised about the 2 Sharks front-rowers. Thought they could use a break, but probably don’t need too many new guys starting all at once.
6 @ GoBokkeAndIreland:
Yeah, as I alluded to in the article, with 9 players already out of the mix since last week, the rationale behind Bissie & Jannie starting probably has to do with the fact that Heyneke did not want to change MORE than was already necessary.
Well done to Handre Pollard, Marcel v/d Merwe, Stephen Lewies, Marnitz Boshoff, Teboho Mohoje, and Marnitz Boshoff who will all debut if all used during the game. So that’s five first timers, quite a few changes by Mr Meyer, good to see.
@ grootblousmile:
Makes sense. Know i’m not the greatest rugby “kenner” out there, but, I suppose HM has kinda decided already who will form the nucleus of his WC squad.
3 @ grootblousmile:
Hello GBS, but 1 different from is not 100% where did learn your maths, lucky you switched from engineering to law is all I can say. Looks like you hedged your bets putting down 3 choices at loose forward there
Only kidding actually your starting 15 is scarily close to the one chosen
5 @ grootblousmile:
Must admit had hoped Zane Kirchner would be starting but thought that he would be on the bench. If you think of it he and Ruan Pienaar are the only two overseas options with the Boks now and Pienaar has had a fair amount of involvement on match day this June so Kirchner gets a chance if that makes sense. Plus thought that he would be on the bench as he can cover 15, wing (where he has been playing some games for Leinster) and outside centre (thought he did quite a good job of covering there – although that was a while ago). This season would said initially that he was so so at Leinster but think he moved into a good vein of form in the latter part, amongst others playing a bug part in Leinster winning the PRO12 final scoring 2 tries and having a hand in the other 2, from the games I saw of him he looked really committed and so charged up when he and his team mates scored, a real team player who you would want in your squad. So for me this is a good reward to Zane.
10 @ Bullscot:
You’ll see that I did bracket Schalla with Willem Alberts at No 7, thinking that Willem could sit out due to concussion.
So, my Maths is not bad at all.
I’ll have you know I passed both Maths and Applied Maths at Varsity in my 1st year!
12 @ grootblousmile:
That was good to pass those two, weren’t easy although from my time there seem to remember you only needed 50% in final exam to pass and that was after you were allowed to get into the exam with a 30% semester mark, something to do with folk coming from different school backgrounds where they had the potential but possibly not the best teaching so this gave you a chance to get through, although could have been for the first semester only – mind you it may have been different for you doing your Maths there about 20 years before me 
Ahh yes but I did say that you hedged your bets with having 3 players at no 7, now don’t be naughty and change the article to take Coetzee out from 7
12 @ grootblousmile:
aaahhhh yes Toegepaste Wiskunde now there is a walk down memory lane into a class room with a knorrige snorrige man teaching one part of it, at least he put me through in spite of me saying to him during my ‘Herr’ exam the reason I was struggling was I didn’t see the point of his subject for what I was doing (don’t really need that maths for drama 😛 )
13 @ Bullscot:
Sorry, fixed ty typo next to Marcell’s name… forgot the “6”.
In my time, you had to get a COMBINED 50% to pass and a pass only in the final exam was not good enough. So, if you had 43% for your semester mark, it meant you had to get at least a 57% in the final exam.
In addition you had to get over 40%, to be allowed to write the final exam in a subject, not 30%.
Jeeeez, what did the world come to years after I left Tuks… they made it easy for you folk!
14 @ Bullscot:
Toegepaste Wiskunde… projektielbewegings, momentum, vector powers… ect.
The Maths used in Physics… basically!
In the building near the Engineering Faculty, accross the lawn from the Aula…
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