Springboks
Jesse & Dan Kriel with Dawie Theron
Junior Springboks coach Dawie Theron has selected his strongest available starting line-up for the final Pool C Junior World Championship match against Samoa on Tuesday in Pukekohe.
The match at the Ecolight Stadium will kick off at 07h35 SA time and will be televised live on SuperSport.
Theron has again shuffled his match 23 and retained only six players who outplayed New Zealand 33-24 last Friday in Albany, Auckland.
Warren Gatland
The bookmakers have installed South Africa as overwhelming favourites, but Wales coach Warren Gatland has his eye on a 2-0 sweep for his team.
If Gatland was a betting man he would have jumped at the 18-1 on offer by some SA bookies for a Welsh series win.
It is not surprising for a coach to publicly back his side, but Gatland went further by suggesting that only 2-0 series victory will do when they meet the Springboks in Durban (this Saturday 14 June) and Nelspruit (next week, 21 June).
Tendai ‘Beast’Mtawarira
Bismarck du Plessis
Jannie du Plessis
Willem Alberts
It seems the Sharks supporters in general are taking serious exception to recent critisism in the media and here on Rugby-Talk, against suggestions that Jake White has overplayed a lot of the Sharks’ Springbok players and candidates.
We are even experiencing a silent boycot by some of the regular Sharks contributors here on Rugby-Talk, for us daring to speak out in the comments against the lack of national interests by Jake White and the Sharks… not that it has negatively impacted on Rugby-Talk at all in any form or by any means.
Friends, this is not a “Hit Out” against the Sharks, this is a worrying trend, which is showing true results at present!
This morning, I had the fortune of meeting and speaking to one of our regular Sharks supporters’ Father-In-Laws, here in my office… so Sharkie_Forever, you have a grand old Father-In-Law, a singular gentleman, even though he also supports the Sharks.
The older gentleman is also in agreement that Jake White is overplaying some of the players, so there you have it, the wisdom of the older generation!
In SA Rugby media circles, there are probably not a more fervant Sharks media man than Rob Howing, the Sport24 reporter, so I thought that adding an article penned by Rob, is probably apt in the circumstances!
So, here goes:
Heyneke Meyer
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer was pleased with his team’s 47-13 win over a star-studded World XV at DHL Newlands on Saturday.
The Springboks scored six tries and gained a lot of momentum in the second half of the match, going into the second 40 minutes leading 18-13. This bodes well for next week’s test match against Wales in the Castle Lager Incoming Series.
Meyer warned that the test match in Durban will be another big step-up for his team, as Wales are a settled team after playing together during the Six Nations.
Trevor Nyakane
Toyota Cheetahs prop Trevor Nyakane will link up with the Springboks in Durban on Sunday as an additional member in the squad for the Castle Lager Incoming Series.
Nyakane played all three of his Tests for South Africa last June but was not part of the squad for the Castle Lager Rugby Championship.
Arno van Wyk
Vodacom Blue Bulls Under 21 hooker Arno van Wyk has joined the Junior Springboks in Auckland after a knee injury forced Malcolm Marx (Golden Lions) out of the IRB Junior World Championship.
Marx might be out of action for up to six weeks after he sustained the injury during a training session earlier in the week.
The burly Johannesburg-based hooker became the second Junior Bok to be ruled out of Junior World Championship 2014 after centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg returned home with an ankle injury.
Jean Luc du Preez, who received a nasty blow to the head against New Zealand Under-20 on Friday night, was meanwhile released from hospital during the early hours of Saturday morning.
Springboks (18) 47 / 13 (13) World XV (Final Score)
The South African Springboks and a World XV team did battle in the June Internationals at
Newlands, Cape Town at 17:00 SA Time (15:00 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
*******************
We’ve already seen the matches of Round 2 of the 2014 Junior World Championships on TV on Friday 6 June, but Saturdat 7 June sees the proper start of the June Internationals, with 4 of those international Tests broadcast live on TV in South Africa.
These Fixtures will of course also be handled as Live Game Articles right here on your favourite rugby website, Rugby-Talk.
The action is kicked off at 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 08:40 BST, 07:35 GMT) between the All Blacks vs England, followed by the Wallabies vs France at 11:40 SA Time (19:40 AEST, 09:40 France Time & GMT).
The Springboks vs the World XV side follows at 17:00 SA Time (15:00 GMT).
At 20:40 SA Time (15:40 ARG Time, 19:40 BST, 18:40 GMT) we see Argentina vs Ireland.
The IRB Junior World Championships are underway in New Zealand.
Rugby-Talk will update the Results and Logs on a regular basis.
The Tournament started on 2 June 2014 and will run till 20 June 2014.
The Big winner in Round 2, on Friday 6 June was South Africa’s Junior Springboks, who beat the Junior All Blacks in their backyard, by 33 / 24. The Junior Springboks scored 4 tries to boot, earning them a vital bonus point going forward, whilst the Junior All Blacks earned no Log Points at all, making it an uphill battle for them to even reach the semi-finals, as only one 2nd placed team in all Pools will go through to the semi-finals with the 3 respective Pool winners.
Day 3 of the tournament is on Tuesday 10 June.
Junior All Blacks (17) 24 / 33 (14) Junior Springboks (Final Score)
New Zealand Under 20 and South Africa Under 20 did battle in the 2014 Junior World Championships at
QBE Stadium, Albany, Auckland at 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 07:35 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1 & SHD on TV in SA.
*******************
The Springboks are likely to be beneficiaries of a favourable programme, including playing the All Blacks on South African turf only, when a slashed Castle Rugby Championship is contested in 2015.
Given the global priority of the World Cup towards the end of the year, hosted by England, the Championship will be reduced by half to a single round of matches, making it more like the northern hemisphere’s Six Nations for once in character.
The Boks, currently second to World Cup holders New Zealand on the International Rugby Board rankings, play only four games next year ahead of RWC 2015, in stark contrast to this year’s much more cluttered programme of 14.
It gives coach Heyneke Meyer 18 games in total – starting with the World XV clash at Newlands this Saturday – to fine-tune his game-plan and resources for the global get-together: South Africa will kick off their World Cup campaign against Japan at Brighton’s Community Stadium on September 19 next year.
Morné Steyn
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer is not worried about the lack of game time flyhalf Morné Steyn recently got in France.
It was widely reported that Steyn had struggled for form at his French club, Stade Francais, which led to him spending the majority of the past season on their bench.
However, Meyer says Steyn did not fall out of favour with the Paris-based club’s coaches.
“The overseas clubs manage our players carefully and most of them have a rotation policy,” Meyer was quoted as saying.
Matt Giteau
Wallaby wizard Matt Giteau will lead a powerful World XV against South African at Newlands on Saturday.
The non-cap international fixture is the first of the Springboks’ June outings.
The World selection includes five Springboks and two other South Africans.
Giteau will play at flyhalf and will partner one of the two South Africans who are not Springboks, scrumhalf Rory Kockott, at halfback.
Simon Hickey
New Zealand Under 20 head coach Chris Boyd has made three changes to the starting line-up to face South Africa on Friday.
Boyd said that the match against Samoa proved a good confidence booster for the start of their JWC campaign but there had been areas of their game with which they were not happy.
“We’ve had a good review of that game, and we know what worked well, and what didn’t work as well as it was supposed to,” said Boyd.
Jesse & Dan Kriel with Dawie Theron
Powerfully built twins Jesse and Dan Kriel will play alongside each other in the midfield for the Baby Boks against the New Zealand Under 20’s.
Injury to four players has forced Theron to reshuffle his match 23 after the Junior Boks scored a convincing 61-5 win over Scotland.
Midfielders Rohan Janse van Rensburg (ankle), Andre Esterhuizen (head blow) and flank Jacques Vermeulen (ankle) were all ruled out of selection because of injuries sustained against the Scots.
On Thursday, Golden Lions hooker Malcolm Marx was also ruled out of action for several weeks after he had suffered a knee injury during a training session.
Cornal Hendricks
Ruan Pienaar
JP Pietersen
South Africa’s Sevens Player of 2013, Cornal Hendricks, will make his debut for South Africa in the 15-man code next to ten players who started in the Springboks’ final Test of 2013 when they face a star-studded World XV, sponsored by Samsung, at DHL Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday (kick-off at 17:00 SA Time).
The speedy Hendricks is the only newcomer in the team as Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer opted for continuity in his team’s first match of the year.
The old firm of Bakkies Botha and interim captain Victor Matfield are re-united in the second row. JP Pietersen moves to outside centre. Schalk Burger makes a return to the side for the first time in two and a half years while Frans Steyn, Schalk Brits, Lwazi Mvovo and Johan Goosen are also back after playing no Test rugby last year.
Nick Mallett
The Nick Mallett-coached World XV players have been warned to have the right attitude when they run out against the Springboks in Saturday’s international friendly at Newlands.
Speaking n Cape Town on Tuesday, Mallett, a former Springbok coach, said he told his players at a de-briefing that they would be in for a “very unpleasant afternoon” if they did not approach the match in the right frame of mind.
Mallett said sound preparation was a hallmark of Heyneke Meyer’s coaching career over the years.
Nick Mallett
Heinrich Brüssow
World XV coach Nick Mallett says he was keen to include Cheetahs flank Heinrich Brüssow in his squad to face the Springboks.
The teams clash at Newlands on Saturday in what will be the Boks’ first international outing of the year.
Mallett requested to include the Cheetahs flank in his squad to face the Boks but he was already earmarked for the first Bok training camp of the year, which took place in Durban last week.
Brüssow was not included in Bok coach Heyneke Meyer’s final squad named last Saturday, but because he was part of the Bok training camp earlier in the week, he became ineligible for the World XV side.
Dawie Theron
The Junior Springboks suffered a huge injury setback on Tuesday with the news that three players were ruled out of their vital IRB Junior World Championship Pool C clash against New Zealand this coming Friday.
Midfielder Rohan Janse van Rensburg, who came on as second half replacement against Scotland in the JWC opener at the QBE Stadium in North Harbour on Monday, will return home after he sustained an ankle injury in the match. He will be replaced by Duhan van der Merwe, a SA Sevens contracted player and a member of the Baby Boks’ training group.
Powerful inside centre Andre Esterhuizen was ruled out of action for the next couple of days after receiving a blow to the head in the second half against the Scots. He will not be considered for the New Zealand clash. The team’s medical staff is currently managing him according to the Graduated Return to Play Protocol (GRTP).
The third casualty is flank Jacques Vermeulen. The Cape-based loose forward is also suffering from an ankle injury and has been ruled out of Friday’s encounter.
Francois Steyn
The good news is that the chronic knee injury that Frans Steyn is currently playing with won’t get worse and stop him from playing, but the bad news is that it is going to have to be managed for the rest of his playing career.
Steyn was the subject of quite a lot of consternation when Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer said he was concerned about his condition during last week’s national training camp in Durban. However, the Bok management denied suggestions in some media forums that they were unhappy with the Sharks for playing Steyn through the injury, and it now appears the Boks might manage Steyn in the same way the Sharks have – by limiting the load placed on his affected knee in training.
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).
Damian de Allende with crutches
DHL Stormers midfielder Damian de Allende was forced to withdraw from the Springbok squad on Monday and will be replaced by Marnitz Boshoff, flyhalf of the Golden Lions.
De Allende, one of seven uncapped players in the Springbok squad, suffered a medial knee ligament injury in the DHL Stormers’ last Vodacom Super Rugby match, against the Cell C Sharks in Durban on Saturday.
The 22-year-old centre was taken for scans by the Springboks’ medical team on Monday morning and will be sidelined for between four and six weeks, ruling him out of the Castle Lager Incoming Series.
Jake White
Heyneke Meyer
On Rugby-Talk recently, debate in the comments sections between Sharks supporters and other South African supporters often turned and revolved around Jake White’s management or mismanagement of his core players and around the players who will have to do duty for the national side, the Springboks.
The argument often used by Sharks supporters were that the June Internationals are less important, against weakened sides and that Jake White needed to do exactly like he did, play his players week after week and arguably into the ground.
Players like Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Willem Albers and more pertinetly Francois Steyn have looked increasingly jaded and this past weekend’s Sharks loss against the Stormers was a stark reminder of the situation.
One of the regular journalists I share the Press Box at Loftus Versfeld with, Brenden Nel, of SuperSport, penned an interesting article on this same matter. I think he nails this one on the head, here is what he says:
Nick Mallett
International stars from around the world, Wallabies Matt Giteau, James O’Connor, Drew Mitchell and All Blacks Hosea Gear, Carl Hayman, Andrew Hore and Jimmy Cowan are all included in the Samsung World XV’s 23-man squad to play South Africa at DHL Newlands on Saturday 7 June.
Joining them will be France’s French Top 14 highest point’s scorer Francois Trinh-Duc and back row forward Alexandre Lapandry.
Five players from Toulon’s double winning European Cup and French Top 14 side will also feature in the squad, including Steffon Armitage from England, who was recently voted European player of the year.
Handré Pollard
The Junior Springboks were off to an impressive start at the Junior World Championships in New Zealand.
The Junior Springboks opened their IRB Junior World Championship with an impressive 61-5 win over Scotland at the QBE Stadium, North Harbour in New Zealand on Monday.
The South Africans scored nine tries, with good improvement in all phases of play as the match progressed.
Damian de Allende
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer may find himself considering a change in plan for the midfield he was going to select for the opening match of the international season against the World XV at Newlands due to the injury concern over Damian de Allende.
The centre suffered a knee injury during the second half of the Stormers’ 21-19 win over the Sharks in Durban at the weekend, and Meyer said on Sunday that he was concerned about his condition.
“The doctor hasn’t looked at him yet but he is limping and it appears he has suffered a knee ligament injury. I was only informed of it late on Saturday night, after the squad had been announced,” said Meyer.
Heyneke Meyer
South Africa will wish to avoid falling into a fast and loose “Barbarians” style of play when they tackle the World XV in their first international of the season at Newlands on Saturday.
Coach Heyneke Meyer said at a press briefing here on Sunday that he saw the game as an important preparatory device for the challenge of Wales in the first of two more conventional Tests a week later in Durban.
He also said he was still thinking about the captaincy, given the absence at present of Jean de Villiers, who was seen on crutches at the team hotel: “I don’t want to make a too-hasty decision … I’m almost there but must still speak to the relevant people; I think I can tell you tomorrow (Monday).”
Seven uncapped players, Damian de Allende, Lood de Jager, Cornal Hendricks, Teboho Mohoje, S’bura Sithole, Marcel van der Merwe and Callie Visagie, have been called up to Springbok duty as part of a 36-man squad for the Castle Lager Incoming Series next month.
The squad also includes experienced World Cup winners Schalk Burger and Victor Matfield, while there is a return to the Springboks for Schalk Brits, Juan de Jongh, Francois Hougaard, Lwazi Mvovo and Frans Steyn, all of whom last played Test rugby in 2012.
The national selectors have also kept a great deal of continuity. In total, 12 players who started the final Test of 2013, where the Springboks beat France in Paris for the first time in 16 years, have been retained in the squad.
However, notable omissions include Springbok captain and SARU’s Player of the Year in 2013, Jean de Villiers, who is out with a knee injury, and the Young Player of the Year for the last two seasons and IRB Player of the Year nominee last year, Eben Etzebeth, who has been given more time to fully recover from the foot injury which has kept him sidelined this entire season.
The Springboks will also be without one of their vice-captains, Adriaan Strauss, who has been suspended for three matches as well as the experienced Jaque Fourie, who started all three Tests last November but has been ruled out with an ankle injury and Pat Lambie, a regular member of the squad for the last two years.
Lock Bradley Davies will miss Wales’ two-Test tour to South Africa in June because of a hamstring injury.
The Cardiff Blues lock, 27, who is heading to Wasps, suffered the problem in training and has undergone surgery.
Meanwhile, Racing Metro flanker Dan Lydiate is out of Friday’s Wales Probables v Possibles trial in Swansea.
But Lydiate’s hamstring strain is not expected to rule him out of the tour, which starts with a warm-up against Eastern Province Kings on 10 June.
Owen Williams
Leicester flyhalf Owen Williams will miss Wales’ tour of South Africa in June after being given a six-week ban which sidelines him until 1 September.
Williams, 22, would have been hoping to earn his first senior cap in the Test series with the Springboks, but the Rugby Football Union has handed a lengthy suspension to Williams, who pleaded guilty for acts contrary to good sportsmanship.
I was sitting bored on my day off, at home, watching whatever DSTV dished up as re-runs were as usual the norm. Anyhow as it is, I sat tweeting to a few friends when I came across an article written by a young black Sharks supporter, who I have on many occasions had the pleasure of chatting to on Sharksworld.
This young man happens to be a black man, but most of all he is a “RUGBY” lover of note, there is hardly a day that will go bye that he will not be online and discuss the sport he loves, be it on Twitter or on a blog.
If there is one thing I have seen from this young man, is that he is very honest in his opinions, he is actually a very good example of being a true rugby supporter. There are so many blogs one can visit and see people from all sides making total fools of themselves as they try to justify their knowledge or love for the game, but very few come across this honest.
Heyneke Meyer emotional and animated in the game between Wallabies vs Springboks, The Rugby Championship, Brisbane, 7 September 2013
The June Internationals are close at hand and Heyneke Meyer has already showed his hand to a certain extent by selecting a Springbok Training Group, which currently excludes players plying their trade in the UK and Europe.
The recent injury to Springbok captain, Jean de Villiers, now determines that a “Stand-in” Springbok captain will have to be selected and coupled to this the Springbok midfield positions are bound to be re-constituted.
Injuries to key players, specially flyhalf, as well as the 3-match suspension of Adriaan Strauss at hooker will see some juggling around of the match-day 23 and some very clear thinking will be required by Heyneke Meyer to address these issues.
We take a look at the Springbok Captaincy candidates as well as midfield combination and look at hooker options to function as back-up to Bismarck du Plessis.
Cheetahs and South Africa hooker Adriaan Strauss has been banned for three weeks for a tip-tackle, ruling him out of the Wales series.
The Sanzar duty judicial officer Adam Casselden has accepted a guilty plea from Strauss for contravening Law 10.4 (j) Lifting Tackle, after he was cited during a Super Rugby match at the weekend.
Strauss has been suspended from all forms of the game for three weeks up to and including 21 June 2014.
Victor Matfield & Bakkies Botha
“Blood brothers” Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha could be reunited as the Springbok lock pairing in Test matches this year, the Rapport newspaper indicates.
Botha, 34, recently returned to action for his French club Toulon after missing most of the year with a broken arm. He was a key figure for Toulon when they won the Heineken Cup final at the weekend, beating English club Saracens 23-6 at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.
Victor Matfield
Just a few months ago it would have been unthinkable, but the stage is set now for Victor Matfield to lead the Springboks into battle this year not only as a player, but possibly also as captain.
According to reports, with Jean de Villiers out for eight weeks with injury, Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer will have to find a new leader for the team as they head into four hard test weeks in June before embarking on a very important Castle Rugby Championship a year before the World Cup.
Much has been said about Matfield’s return to the playing field after he retired after the 2011 Rugby World Cup, but even now there can be few who don’t believe he is up to international rugby, even at the ripe old age of 37.