Two Cents

Since Saturday the media, print, TV, viral and especially the blogging community have gone mad. A lot has been said about the 13 Bulls, 11 Sharks and only 3 Stomers but that is a thing of the past. The matchday 22 has been selected and I, for one, think it is a very strong team.

Bob Skins made a very strong point that coaches select according to their game plan and their type of player. At the Bulls Zane was the man at the back under HM and the same will go for the Boks. This is the only real debatable point in the team, in my opinion, but as mentioned before he plays the game the coach wants. Horses for courses.

What really makes me happy about this team is the blend of youngsters. The next generation of players that will take us to our third WC trophy, hopefully…

The lock pairing will be well supported from the guys around them, in the line outs and in the scrums, and I got the feeling that nobody is going to put the young Marcel Coetzee off easily. I hope more youngsters will be bled into the team in the coming years. Youngsters like Kolisi, Goosen, Van Zyl and Kitzhoff. I feel are the future of Bok rugby…but i am digressing.

Saturday’s team will out perform the English on all fronts and i feel they could only loose to themselves. I dont care how long the English team has been playing together or how well they did in the Six Nations, they are not the Boks nor anything like the All Blacks (i would have included the Aussies but they just let themselves down last night and given the Southern Hemisphere a bad name).

I still firmly believe that Super rugby is one of the hardest competitions in the world, only second to the Trinations, 4N will still have to prove itself. The fierce competition breeds fierce players and those that are left standing at the end of the day are the strongest, fastest and usually the biggest. They are the ones that represent their countries.

You may not have agreed with his squad but HM knows a thing or two about rugby and it is clear nothing is going to influence him on his team or his game plan.

All hail the new Coach and his new warriors! May they lead us into victory and defeat those rooinek, khakis and their pompuos accents… or else monday the blogworld will be calling on his head…

Saturday’s Match 22:

1. Beast

2. Bismarck (vc)

3. Jannie

4. Eben

5. Jeandre

6. Marcel

7. Willem

8. Pierre

9. Francois

10. Morne

11. Bryan

12. Frans

13. Jean (c)

14. JP

15. Zane

16. Adriaan

17. Coennie

18. Flip

19. Keegan

20. Ruan

21. Patrick

22. Winkel Pop

I named them by their firstname as many of you write of them as if you know them personally…

Last thing, WELL DONE THE SCOTS! I started singing Flower of Scotland for some reason last night and had a lovely single malt on them.