Juan Smith
Experienced international forward Juan Smith has been drafted into the Springbok squad preparing for The Rugby Championship.
Smith was a Rugby World Cup winner in 2007 and boasts 69 Test caps. He will join the squad in Johannesburg as replacement following confirmation that Victor Matfield will miss the opening Test of The Rugby Championship against Argentina in Pretoria on Saturday 16 August.
“Our need at this stage is to draft in a player who can cover lock and loose forward, and we feel Juan is the right man for the job,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.
“He has played lock before in his career and won an Under 21 World Cup in that position, but he also covers flank and No 8.
“I spoke to him on various occasions and he’s comfortable with playing in the second row again if the need arises. However, as a number of our loose forwards have had a very high work load this season, it’s good to have someone such as Juan who can also provide cover in those positions.”
“Furthermore he is a brilliant exponent in the lineouts and will bring experience and leadership to the squad. We wanted to involve him in June as I really want to work with him, but he was not 100% fit and asked not to be considered.
“Juan has been in sublime form and recently won the very tough French Top 14 league and the Heineken Cup with Toulon. I’ve always held him in very high esteem and I know he will add value to our squad.”
Smith will join the Springboks in Johannesburg on Thursday.
@ nortierd:
I agree with you a 100% that going by what SA gave during Super Rugby we have no chance.
but i disagree 100% it is not because we have not been giving the younger players a chance.
We are simply lacking skills and spread thin across the board… It appears all Heyneke is doing is making lemonade (While making a couple of seriously contraceptive statements).
The problem is when guys from 2007 because no one could stake a claim on their positions…Keegan daniel, Kanko, Jacque Pot, Van Zyl, Hougaard, Kruger, Bekker, Franco, Coenie, Kolisi, JJ, Taute have not been able to stake a claim on those key positions: 5, 9 and 13.
Is this a symptom of there being no plan for 5, 9 and 13 between 2008-2011?
We are also putting an emphasis on selecting young players, giv young players a shot… whats happening? Goosen, Stander, Willemse and lots more leaving before they turn 22… Now young players believe they should play for the boks before their 22nd bday, because people in the media says so…
contraceptive=contradicting 😆
@ nortierd:
going back to my post 24:
If you look at players in the age between 25-30… Aus will have 22 players
NZ has 15 players
SA has 11 players between 25-30.
there is a huge gap between Developed players between 25-30yo between SA and Aus… 11 players that we had to replace with older or younger players.
… and those players had to be developed between 2008-2011.
the ball seriously got dropped 3-4 years ago.
Looking at our world cup squad in 2011, out of 30 players 9 were 26 and under
Chilliboi 24
Beast 26
Brussouw 25
Flo 26
Spies 26
Hougie 23
JDJ 23
JPP 25
Lambie 20
Lambie, JPP, hougie, Flo and beast have been part of the plans…probably also spies :/
JDJ was average for 2 years till this year
Chilliboi is not good enough
Brusouw – for reasosn only HM will know
has been left out
There was no one else.
@ MacroBull:
We will now see during the CC how, as soon as a player has a very good game, he must be included in the Bok team.
Similar as we saw in the SR with a guy like Faf to give an example.
Last year it was the scrummie from the Kings who just had to be a Bok, based on one or two good runs.
We think we have so many good players, the reality is we have just have many players
@ nortierd:
Definitely the point i’m trying to make. We here is all the time, people try their best to discredit players in the bok side with very little alternative. At least people have stopped targeting the bulls in the side, now it is aging players, because PSDT and Eben are the future.
but yes, quite a few players who looked average in Super Rugby will stand out now and be “shoe-ins” ahead of the players they don’t like.
hear*
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