The Boks vs the Aussies
September 22, 2012 in Uncategorized
The Bok squad for the last two test in the Rugby Championships sees little change with only Elton Jantjies and Jaco Taute coming in as uncapped players. Coenie Oosthuizen comes back into the squad while CJ van de Linde comes in as one of the few props in the country who can cover both sides of the scrum.
As I predicted earlier Jaco came in because “Jaco is big, strong, fast and versatile”. Make no mistake, I believe Jaco deserves a chance because he is good enough but I foresee Pat Lambie not making the match 22 now.
As for Elton, why is he there if Heyneke Meyer isn’t going to play him. In today’s game against the Sharks he displayed all the the skills of a great flyhalf. Playing with little ball he gave inside passes, outside passes, long passes, short passes, made long kicks, short kicks, chip kicks, everything to keep his team in the game, in short he was brilliant.
But will he get game time? I doubt it.
Jaco on the other hand will be on the bench for the test against Australia and get on the field after about 60 minutes. Not that I begrudge him that, he is a great young player. Even though he is only 21 it feels like he has been around for ages. But I feel for Elton, he is the most complete flyhalf we have and he is being screwed with.
Moving on to the game against the Wallabies, this is the ideal time to give the youngsters a go. The Bok forwards have started to gel nicely against the All Blacks and if they can repeat that performance on Saturday the backs should get more than enough good ball for the talented youngsters to give it a good go but unfortunately I don’t see HM making any major changes with only Dean Greyling’s spot on the bench to be filled by either Coenie Oosthuizen or Pat Cilliers and possibly Jaco Taute getting Pat Lambie’s bench spot.
Bok squad:
Willem Alberts (Sharks) – 15 Test caps
Andries Bekker (Western Province) – 27
Craig Burden (Sharks) – 0
Pat Cilliers (Golden Lions) – 3
Marcell Coetzee (Sharks) – 7
Juan de Jongh (Western Province) – 10
Jean de Villiers (captain, Western Province) – 79
Jannie du Plessis (Sharks) – 37
Eben Etzebeth (Western Province) – 6
Johan Goosen (FS Cheetahs) – 2
Bryan Habana (Western Province) – 81
Francois Hougaard (Blue Bulls) – 22
Elton Jantjies (Golden Lions) – 0
Zane Kirchner (Blue Bulls) – 19
Juandré Kruger (Blue Bulls) – 5
Pat Lambie (Sharks) – 15
Tiaan Liebenberg (Western Province) – 3
Francois Louw (Bath, England) – 12
Tendai Mtawarira (Sharks) – 39
Lwazi Mvovo (Sharks) – 7
Coenie Oosthuizen (FS Cheetahs) – 1
Ruan Pienaar (Ulster, N Ireland) – 58
Jacques Potgieter (Blue Bulls) – 3
Frans Steyn (Sharks) – 53
Morné Steyn (Blue Bulls) – 41
Adriaan Strauss ( FS Cheetahs) – 16
Jaco Taute (Golden Lions) – 0
CJ van der Linde (Golden Lions) – 73
Flip van der Merwe (Blue Bulls) – 18
Duane Vermeulen (Western Province) – 2
Heinrich said on September 23, 2012
Its a sad afair with Pat and Elton, they can produce the type of rugby we’ve been longing for a long time.Its sad, its all I can say.
powa said on September 23, 2012
I can’t reply on the string if there are more than four or five comment n replies. In your discussion settings the string can be set to a higher number.
Baylion said on September 23, 2012
I set it to three otherwise replies get too squashed up. Changed it to 5 now.
Met uysh said on September 23, 2012
It will be a travesty if Taute replaces Lambie on the bench.
powa said on September 23, 2012
Is Lambie on his way out???
Baylion said on September 23, 2012
What else can one read into HM not giving Lambie play time? And his words about Jaco is virtually identical to what he said about including Goosen in the Bok squad:
“I’d always wanted to include Jaco in the squad but an untimely injury meant we could not select him earlier. Jaco is big, strong, fast and versatile and it will be good to get him involved,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.
Meyer said: “Injuries meant we could not use Duane and Johan earlier in the season” “I also believe Johan has a long career ahead of him”
powa said on September 23, 2012
If that’s the case Lambie will go overseas. Both Taute and Oosthuizen are just back from injury. Too early to play against the Oz or AB’s maybe they’re going on EOYT
Baylion said on September 23, 2012
Um, may I remind you of one Johan Goosen just back from injury?
As I said in a previous post, HM has his ideal team in mind and that team includes Goosen and Taute and doesn’t include Lambie and Jantjies from the look of it.
I’m very happy about Taute but think that HM is busy screwing with Lambie and Jantjies’s confidence and careers.
BMT said on September 22, 2012
I couldn’t agree more with you on the fact that Elton is merely there to make up the numbers, probably due to pressure from the public and other inner circles of SA Rugby (probably due to the quota numbers), which is unfortunate since he is a quality player only going to waste – he may as well stay at his union and perfect his game. Let’s just hope that Lambie can squeeze himself into that 15 jersey for just one game to prove his worth to HM. The way I see it Jaco will eventually be the fullback in the long term. They should settle on Lambie being either a flyhalf or fullback and use him accordingly, there’s lots of rugby these days and having him as backup to Goosen or Taute will be a huge asset. What are your thoughts?
Baylion said on September 23, 2012
This should be a good problem to have – a number of talented players in a key position – and HM should look at how he can rotate play time for these players rather than fixate on one to he exclusion of others. Lambie and Elton got poor treatment from the coach so far and I don’t see that changing, they just aren’t big enough in his eyes. If HM was All Black coach he would have benched Dan Carter because he’s also not big enough
.
Somehow HM must find a way to accommodate the talent he has available (and there are more coming through in a number of positions). The top players are playing for virtually 52 weeks a year and player rotation is vital.