Bloues

To be honest, I never thaught that, when I started this blog, I would be able to see it through for more than six months. Especially since it meant that I would have to stop my habit of WP bashing in the name of objectivity. But, when it started, it wasn’t easy.

This is a post that I wrote way back in December last year, Bloues – WP, stop mocking me!. In this post, it was clear that breaking my habit of WP bashing wasn’t easy. They were leaking players like and old sink, fighting with each other and lost one of the country’s greatest rugby minds in Rassie Erasmus. This coupled with their lack of trophies just made bashing them in a post so easy.

But, sadly, those days seem to be gone now. Their Vodacom Cup side finally won them a trophy, the Stormers have beaten the Bulls twice during this year’s Super Rugby Championship, new youngtsers are coming through and playing very well and their coaching staff seems to know what they are doing.

And this morning I read this gem, Rugby365 | WP keep their Dysselsdorp promise.

I’m sure the people at Dysselsdorp can’t wait for this match to happen and, although stars like Habana, Jean de Villiers and Andries Bekker will not be present, they will get a chance see the famed hooped jersies in action in their own back yard. I hope Juan de Jongh will feature in this match. He looks to me like a perfect ambasador for such occaisions and I’m sure he’ll make some young hearts very glad. Pity that Gio has to be in the Bok camp now.

Good on you WP!

(That’s as close as you’re going get me to shouting Province!)

Cheers!!!

Bloues

PS – I’m getting soft. Last week I complimented the English and now this. I think it’s the Pink jersies. At least it’s Friday and I can open up a few Windhoeks tonight and keep it real.

First of all, I mean no desrespect to Peter de Villiers with this post. I have said many times that I think he is a brilliant coach and on the accounts that I’ve read by Matfield and John Smit as well as a few extracts from his own book it’s clear that he knows how handle his players, but his technical accumen still needs some work.

I was pleasantly surprised by the baby Boks’ performance yesterday. Like many of you I didn’t think that they would make it, but I was wrong. After trailing 3-0 at half time the four tries seemed out of reach, but whatever was said by coach Dawie Theron and the substitutions he made payed off.

This reminded me of what happened on Saturday in the test between the Boks and the Poms. The Boks came out firing in the second half and managed to lift the pace and broke the deadlock. The similarity between these two matches lies in the fact that whatever was said during the team talk, worked. It shows that the coaching staff of both teams were able to evaluate procedings in the first half, worked out a remedy for what went wrong and they were able to get this message through to the players.

But, a team talk together with tweaking your approach at half time is not enough. These scenario’s must be prepared for in advance during the lead up to the match so that you can still change your approach to something that the players are familiar with and all credit must go to the coaches for this as well.

Meyer and his men will, at some stage, make a bad coaching decision which might cost us the match. They will always be up against equally astute personell from the opposition who’s job it is to outsmart their opponents, but this time the decisions made by the coaching staff of both SA teams payed off and it bodes well for the future!

Cheers!

Bloues

Just one day to go before the Boks play the English, but I cant really say that I am in test rugby mode yet. Maybe this is because the good folks at Groblershoop decided to play the league final on 4pm Saturday afternoon and I was asked to be AR, but I think it is mainly due to the lack of media coverage so far for the incoming tour.

Here I want to compliment the English.

Incoming tours from NH sides were usually marked by a lot of pre match talk from the visitors. They will say things like their here to win, they do not rate this and that player and accuse us of some form of foul play before the first test has even kicked off. But this there was nothing, nada.

I think this shows that the English intend to do their talking where it matters, on the field.

Although the banters that was reported in the media usually provides good entertainment in between mathces, I think it also caused some bad blood between the two teams on field. It’s great to have a go at each other, but sometimes the jibes from both side tended to be petty and degrading to the spirit of the game.

Some part of me still hopes that, whatever the result, the Boks will envite the English players for couple of beers in their dressing room after the match and that the English will accept.

This will just show the value of the return of full test series with weekday matches. It is what rugby was about in the amateur days and some of that can still be saved for the modern game.

Here’s to the English, may your silence thus far be a sign of good sportsmanship. To the Boks, please do not dissapoint me by being the first ones to offer cheap shots at the opposition.

Cheers!!!

Bloues

PS – I you are lucky enough to be in Durban this weekend, but unlucky enough not to be at the Stadium on Satruday, try whatching the match with some English supporters. I’m sure it will be a memorable experience no matter what the result!

Heyneke Meyer unvealed the first Springbok lineup of his tenure and this time there were no surprizes.

Springbok team: Zane Kirchner, JP Pietersen, Jean de Villiers (captain), Frans Steyn, Bryan Habana, Morne Steyn, Francois Hougaard, Pierre Spies, Willem Alberts, Marcell Coetzee, Juandre Kruger, Eben Etzebeth, Jannie du Plessis, Bismarck du Plessis, Beast Mtawarira.

Replacements: Adriaan Strauss, Coenie Oosthuizen, Flip van der Merwe, Keegan Daniel, Ruan Pienaar, Patrick Lambie, Wynand Olivier.

Thank you Supersport.com for this info.

But it must be said that the fact that there were no surprizes was mainly because we were all prepared for how the team would look by watching Monday’s training session. By reading the comments on the various news sites that reported on this team you will find Zane’s inclusion at full back in place of Lambie and Olivier’s inclusion on the bench to be the objects of many people’s disgust. There were even some bloggers who still haven’t gotten over Brussuw’s exclusion from the squad.

I have said already that I’ll reserve my critisism on Meyer and his selection until the team actually played and I’ll hold myself by that.

But the one thing that I can say about this team is that it is very well balanced and this team can definitely play for the full eighty minutes, something that was especially lacking in most of the SA franchises’ games thus far.

This also states the obvious that Meyer is planning to keep the Poms in their own half with long touch finders and high up and unders and smash the living daylights out of them without compromising too much on attack.

The front row that is selected is aruably the best combination in the country and Oosthuyzen will slot in perfectly later on in the game. It has been hard all season to decide who should wear the backup number two jersy, but Strauss definitely deserves his place ahead of Ralapele and we wont even miss Bissy when this guy comes on.

At lock we had to take what we could get. But at least this is still more than most countries can produce. Kruger has been superb in the lineouts thus far and Etzebeth’s presense will surely be felt by the English. I have my doubts over Flip, but hopefully he can keep his composure and not get a yellow card. I think that, if Kruger doesn’t get injured, Flip will replace Eben for the last sixty because there were some concerns about Etzebeth’s workload at the Stormers being too much. Flip has played next to Kruger for a while now and this will ensure continuety when this replacement is made.

The abovementioned scenario’s will keep a fit and physical tight five on the field for the full eighty minutes which will lay the platform for the rest of the team to shine.

At the loosies Meyer just confirmed what we all expected. He wants big ball carriers in all three positions. Coetzee has really made a name for himself and I hope that he will be able to keep it up. With Alberts and Spies, however, it is more a case of what they can do than what they have been doing. These two, together with Duane Vermeulen, have the potential to be the most destructive runners at loose forward in South Africa. Meyer is notorius for bringing the best out of his charges and it remains to be seen if he will be able to get them close to this level come Saturday. They will be greatly aided by the abovementioned tight five and the loose trio can make it a long afternoon for the Poms.

Keegan Daniel, although lacking the bulk of the three starters, has the destinction of being able to cover all three loose forward positions. Meyer said that he wants a player lacking the physical atributes he wants to have some other ability that separates him from the rest. In Daniel, it is his versitality.

Moving on to the half backs. No real surprizes there as well. Hougard has been the best number nine in 2012 and Morne Steyn’s overall game have improved a lot this year. Together with Hougard they form a formidable combination that can be used in both an expansive as well as a conservative strategy.

From what I have heard, Pienaar has been superb in Europe and he is an excellent option should Hougard get injured or moved to the wing. Patrick Lambie has spent most of the season at fly half and this is where he will be utilised on Saterday. He will surely be able to keep up should the Boks opt for a high tempo finish to the game, especially if he can bring fresh legs to the party after sixty minutes. His kicking at goal so far will also make substituting Morne at an earlier point should he get one of his brain farts again a lot easier on Heyneke than it has been on Frans Ludecke.

If there is one player that the English do not want to play at inside centre it is Francois Steyn. He will challenge their 10/12 channel throughout the afternoon as well as ping them back in their own 22 when he gets the chance. It will be interesting to see how he links up with Jean de Villiers, who will be playing at a somewhat unfamiliar outside centre, but these two have almost 130 tests between them and I’m not too concerned about this. I’m sure that, apart from Fourie, De Villiers would not have wanted anyone else at his inside in his first test as starting captain.

Wynand Olivier must be the Percy Montgomery of this era. Immencely talented, but a few shockers in a Bok jersey together with his blond locks means that he’ll always get some flack from supporters outside his province. Wynand has played some of his best rugby under Meyer and he has played very well this season. He can cover both inside and outside centre, he has created a few tries this season and he can tackle his opponent back. No other centre in the squad can tick these boxes and De Jongh (A player that ticks other boxes, but not the ones Meyer wants) isn’t in the squad. Wynand, like the rest of the bench, can ensure a flawless transition should he replace Steyn or De Villiers (Hopefully not De Villiers).

At wing Meyer went for thesafe option of playing Habana and JP. Both of them are world cup winners and both of them have seldomely let their country down. Although these two are not nearly at the form they were in 2007, they haven’t lost it all as well. If the rest of the team can dominate, then these two will be able to find that spark that was missing all this time. Expect one of them to be replaced by Hougard later on should injuries allow this.

At fullback, to everyone south of Pretoria’s disgust, we have Zane Kirshcner. Zane has been solid for the Bulls and his kicking from the back has been accurate. When you want to play it safe in your first test in charge then there isn’t a lot more that you would want from your full back. The only other players who can provide this would have been Lambie and Frans Steyn. Frans is already deployed at centre and will probably slot in at full back later on. Lambie is regarded by the coaching staff as a flyhalf and will be deployed in the manner I stated above. This means Kirshner is our go to man.

Meyer have recieved a lot of critisism for his selections, but I will definately be surprized if this team loses to the Poms. The above mentioned scenarios are all things that I would have done if I was the coach and if I wasn’t disrupted by injuries. Meyer might choose a different path altogether.

I am impressed, though, with how the bench covers every position perfectly. We do not only have players capable of playing in those positions. All of the versatile players have covered various positions with distinction.

Cheers!!!

Bloues

First of all: Happy Bitrhday to me.

Second of all: Congratulations to the Stormers for pulling off a very surprising victory.

To be honest, I only watched the Bulls/Stormers match this weekend so most of my conclusions will be drawn from what I saw in that perticular match.

The biggest revelation for me during that match was Jean de Villiers. Not only did he play a superb game, but he managed do rally his troops in a way only John Smit managed to do. He was given a rag tag team to charge the Loftus gates with and he did a fine job.

This leaves Allistair Coetzee with a bit of a conundrum. What will he do when Schalk returns. I never really rated Schalk as a captain. I have always felt that, when the chips are down, he always tried to do too much by himself. Some may see it leading by example, but I saw it as a lack of trust in his team mates. I have seen too many promising backline moves come undone just because the incredible Schalk decided to take on three defenders by himself rather than letting the centre next to him do something with the ball.

The Stormers have lacked that killer ability for quite a lot of seasons ow and they never really managed to put a team to the sword when they had the oppertunity. On Saturday, though, that all changed abd it all came down to whatever Jean de Villiers did or say to his troops.

Speaking of captaincy. I was very surpised not to hear Fourie du Preez’s name called out when the Bok group was announced. He really looked like the obvious choice. In my opinion, the position as captain of the national side agianst the English now lies between Spies, Strauss and De Villiers. If Saturday’s match is anything to go by, Jean will win this race hands down.

He has more experience than the other two, he has captained the Boks on a few occaisions already (THAT win against the All Black in Dunedin, 2008 comes to mind) and on Saturday he showed his true ability as a captain. He definately will have the respect of every member in the Bok team and he should make a fine leader.

By losing against the Stormers on Saturday, the Bulls made this competition a lot harder than it should have been. They now face a very steep uphill batlle to stay in te playoff race and even then they’ll have a hard time winning at every other venue than Loftus when the bussines end of the competition starts.

Lastly, the announcement of the Springbok group. Heyneke again infuriated the rest of the country by selecting 13 Bulls players and only three Stormers. There’s no de Jongh and no Kolisi. Heinrich Brussouw is another surprising ommision. The inclusions of JJ Engelbrecht and Jaques Potgieter must have raised a few eyebrows.

I am of the believe that, no matter how much I want the Boks to win, there’s nobody who wants them to win more than the coach. It’s his jib that’s on the line and it’s he who must make the calls in order to achieve his goals. These are choices that he must feel comfortable with.

Meyer have been tracking the progress af Potgieter and Englebracht for some time now and he saw something in these two players that we are yet to see. He also trusts that gut feeling his enough that he is willing to put his job on the line while hoping far the to suceed.

I know that most of you are not happy with these selections. I know how you feel because I sometimes felt that some of the Bulls’ players did not get the recognition from the national coach that they deserved, but I want to urge you to reserve judgement at least till the end of the English tour.

Meyer has the credentials of a quality coach and I don’t think that he would have selected a group of players that he does not feel comfortable with. Let’s wait and see what Saturday has in store.