Victor Matfield & Bakkies Botha
Victor Matfield will captain the Springboks in the Castle Lager Incoming Series this month in the absence of the injured Jean de Villiers – and he will lead them out for the first time since his return to rugby in Saturday’s match against a star-studded World XV, sponsored by Samsung, at Newlands (kick off 17:00 SA Time).
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer made the announcement in Cape Town on Tuesday. Matfield, who has played 110 Tests for South Africa, last captained the Springboks at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 2011.
“Victor’s appointment as interim captain is something I thought long and hard about and it wasn’t an easy decision to make,” said Meyer.
“The three candidates we considered, Victor, Bismarck du Plessis and Fourie du Preez, were all very strong options.”
“We’re in a fortunate situation that we have a strong leadership group in the current squad, which includes Victor, Bismarck, Fourie, Bryan Habana, Schalk Burger, Flip van der Merwe, Duane Vermeulen and Francois Louw.”
“It’s only a short-term appointment as Jean will take over as captain again once he’s recovered from his injury. Victor was a logical option – he knows the pressure associated with being Springbok captain as he’s been there before and he has vast captaincy experience at all levels of the game.”
“I also firmly believe Bismarck has improved a lot in this role with the Cell C Sharks and I know he can still lead the Springboks. He’s 100% supportive of Victor and he will remain one of our vice-captains for the season.”
“Victor is someone who has the respect of all the players in our squad, as well as world-wide in rugby. He’s achieved a lot and has always put the team’s interests first, while most of the players in our squad have already played under him.”
Matfield, who has captained the Springboks in 17 Tests earlier in career, said he is very grateful for the trust shown in him by the national coach.
“I’m here to serve the team and would like to make a positive contribution,” said Matfield.
“When I decided to return to playing rugby, my aim was to be good enough to make the Springbok team. I never dreamt of leading the team again and it’s a massive honour.”
“The coach has built a strong core of leaders and I’m fortunate to have guys such as Bismarck, Fourie, Bryan, Duane, Schalk, Flip and Francois alongside me. And we’ll have Jean and Adriaan Strauss back with the team soon, which will add to the depth of leadership.”
Matfield will captain the Springboks in their four matches in June. The vice-captains will be Bismarck du Plessis and Fourie du Preez.
@84
Won’t Scarra also count, HM took him as a tourist, but he didn’t start.
And I see ou Divvy had the honor to have Earl Rose as part of his group.
Lekker ou Earl
P Divvy was onto something with Ruan Pienaar at 10 though, although Morne’s kicking is what shaded it in the end. His best position IMO.
We should have picked a kicking fullback or wing and stuck with him at 10, I think the game plan that he wanted to play would have developed more easily.
@92
Think the fact that the Bulls won the SR in 2009 and Morne broke all the records, lots of pressure was put on him to appease the fans and select him in his group.
Then came THAT penalty against the B&I Lions and the rest is history.
Pienaar only has himself to blame, all he had to do was nail his kicks, he failed in that.
@ nortierd:
not sure why scarra didnt get a bok nr. he may not have been officially part of the squad. But went along for the experience? I remember there was something funny like that. .. Get to know the culture or something
@ nortierd:
Yes, Ronan O Gara will never forget that kick as long as he lives lol.
I like Morne and he has done us proud, I just think we missed a trick there, he was developing really well as a great ball in hand 10, with probably the most complete game i have seen since in SA.
Sharks didn’t help by continuing to select him at 9 either though….
94
” Get to know the culture or something”
Eet dan n flokken yogurt.
Jy hoef nie half pad om die wereld te vlieg vir dit nie, Checkers is net om die hoek.
@ nortierd:
haha jou moer man. ek weet nie hoekom nie. sal as ek by die huiskom in my teekoppie gaan kyk
@ nortierd:
😀
MacroBok wrote:
@ nortierd:
http://m.news24.com/sport24/Rugby/Springboks/Trio-no-longer-Springboks-20131206
@100
MB
Ag shame, dis maar kak om die eerstes te wees van enige iets nuuts.
I see that Ron Houwing is suggesting that Heyneke may consider playing Schalk Burger at 8..
Stormersboy wrote:
Then he rates Flo and Alberts as indispensable.
Duane not so much…..
@ Stormersboy:
We talked about it a few weeks ago, I would really like to see Schalk at 8, it is really like he has become a more mature rugby player.
Some of the tries Schalk created at the Stormers were Keiran Read’esque
@ nortierd:
I think he rates Duanne very highly but is stumped for backup. Hence the Schalk option. He sees Alberts as a 7 and Kolisi and Flo as 6 options.
@ MacroBok:
Agreed, he can definitely do the job.
It is truly remarkable how people can complain that “not enough young players are being selected”
@ nortierd:
did you see the comments on victors captaincy in that “other” website?
“they only pick bulls players, sharks don’t get a lookin, ”
“sure victor is captain now, but what if the boks start relying in him and he gets injured, HM is setting us up for failure”
“most players play in europe, and those teams are not ranked as high as us” (fuarking hell, has this guy seen our teams perform in this years competition????)
@ MacroBok:
😀 To be fair to them they are nothing if not passionate about their players.
@ Stormersboy:
Its not that, some of them are almost violently opposed to Victor being in the squad at all, not just that captain.
It is a great read though 😀
It’s interesting, I can never see the comments on Rugby 365
@ Stormersboy:
not that one, SW
rugby 365 has way too much clutter
@ MacroBok:
Ok. That site. Well what did you expect lol.
Still, cannot access the comments on 365. there isn’t a button.
Snaaks.
@ MacroBok:
Some of those okes make Bin Laden seem moderate lol.
@ Stormersboy:
The feedback from rugby365 is quite positive, what browser do you use?
ok i scrolled down…very skop’esque
“why are we picking these old players when our best players at the world cup would be PSDT and eben?”
Even skoppie has more class than that.
@ MacroBok: Firefox. The article loads perfectly, and I can see a recent comments box, but never a link to the comments themselves.
and @ Stormersboy:
On your computer? or tablet?
Lucky you, you don’t get all those adverts lol
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