GOOD BYES AND HELLOS: DID HEYNEKE FIND THE RIGHT SQUAD? SET PIECES We were trounced by the Argentina Bjada scrum in the RC series. We lost critical scrums to both NZ and Oz. We did not dominate against England or Ireland. We battled against Italy, until Julian Redelinghuys came on. One swallow does not make a summer, but Jannie du Plessis and the Beast is losing ground to their international counterparts. Jannie is slipping tackles at an increasing rate, it is there for all to see. He needs to be replaced as soon as possible. Coenie, Trevor, Julian and Ruan Dreyer are 100% ready for the job, but they need enough playing time. Mattfield and Etsebeth are world class locks, but Lood is far from their level. Pieter Stef du Toit is the first choice, but will he be ready for the SR campaign? For the first time in 20 years, the Springboks may be lacking in the engine room... LOOSE TRIO The brilliance of Vermeulen and the work rate of Coetzee has kept us from realising just how badly balanced our 6,7 and 8 combination is. We lost to Ireland because of it and I can safely say we are way off where we should be in this area. One or two good matches by Schalk Burger gave us some peace of mind but what Mohoje brings to the party remains a mystery. Though I seriously disliked the off-the-ball antics of Nizaam Carr, he at least now displays an appetite for scrapping for the ball in the contact zone and playing rugby on his feet, not his ass, like Mohoje prefers to and keeps the ball in the air. Arno Botha is potentially the best ball running and contact zone contesting forward in SA, but will he develop enough in the SR campaign? We are not 70% ready for the RWC in this department and if Arno misses out, we can loose the RWC just by coming short in this area. 9 AND 10 We are failing to understand just how good Reinach, Fourie dP, Pollard and Lambie are! Enough said, because Heyneke does... 12 AND 13 Did you know that Tabita Kuridrani is 65 tall and weighs 20 kg more than Jan Serfontein? He broke our line repeatedly by force this year! Did you see that Jamie Roberts was man of the match yesterday against the ABs even after loosing to them, did you notice how frantic, almost panicky the AB selectors are in bringing SBW into their team? That is now, here, today the key position in the back line, brought on by solid defense systems. Jean dV will never let us down and Jan Serfontein is the best tackler in our backline. The only players that will beef the Springboks up in this department are de Allende and Esterhuyzen from the Sharks. It might remain a weak point. 11, 14 AND 15 In Willie, Cornal Hendricks, Johan Goosen and Jacques Fourie, we have a group of brilliant footballers. There are also JP and Mvovu that will never let us down. We are not vulnerable here. CAPTAINCY? I frequently, during both the Irish and Italian games asked myself the question whether Jean was leading the team or suffering from them. Please help me on this one and comment on my ideas if you care.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 09:43:35 +0000
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