June Internationals - South Africa vs. Samoa (22/06/2013)

[TRF_stormer2010]

Saturday, 15 June 2013
17:00 SAST (UTC+02)

Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria

Ref: TBA​

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Samoa seem to have totally forgotten about their humiliating loss to the Golden Lions and with solid wins over Scotland and Italy (almost more convincing in some ways than SA's victories over those same sides!) have set up the '***le match' with SA at our 'home ground' at Loftus.

The stuttering win over Scotland might be a good thing for SA as I can't see us coming into this match half-heartedly at this stage and there is no excuse to fall at the last hurdle. Whatever happens it will be a big game. It'll be interesting to see the SA side. I'd like some continuity but with rests for some AWOL players (Spies and JdP in particular);

1 T Nyakane
2 B du PLessis
3 C Oosthuizen
4 F van der Merwe
5 E Etzebeth
6 F Louw
7 S Kolisi
8 W Alberts (if over the stomach thing otherwise Spies will have to do)
9 P van Zyl
10 P Lambie (I wouldn't mind the encumbents starting but part of the problems for SA thus far IMO is no impetus from our halves; no taking the game to the opposition)
11 JJ Engelbrecht (Basson's defense is suspect and JJ's positional frailties in defense will be less of a factor on the wing)
12 J Serfontein
13 J de Villiers
14 B Habana
15 W le Roux

16 T Mtawarira
17 A Strauss (BdP won out last game and it should be a who was better in the previous match IMO; keep up the competition for the jersey)
18 J Kruger (Flip had a better game last week and at least hit some rucks)
19 P Labuschagne (better to blood him now while Botha is injured and we won't get 'easier' games in the Rugby Championship)
20 R Pienaar
21 M Steyn
22 doesn't matter
23 L Adriaanse (give the doc a rest and let him help some sick people!!)

 

[RWC2011Fan]

Come on Springboks!

Score prediction: 27-13 to South Africa!

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Come on Springboks!Score prediction: 27-13 to South Africa!

A NZ supporter rooting for the Bokke against Samoa.. it brings a tear to my eye. I only cheer the ABs on against Aus and England otherwise I tend to support the underdog (everyone else). That said it's great for rugby that Samoa can now be considered firmly in tier 1 and is a chance against the no.2 ranked team on home soil! I wouldn't have thought it after what SA managed against Samoa at the RWC 2007.. okay, so that is 6 years back already; now I feel old. All world rugby needs now is for a big economy country to join the tier 1 ranks, someone like the USA, Japan or Canada probably the most likely?

 

[TRF_heineken]

News Reports are that JDV is a doubt for this clash, after suffering a sternum injury. They will give him as much time to recover before making a final decision on him playing. He missed out on training yesterday.

This could mean that we will see an all Bulls-centre pairing for the first time in a very long while for the Springboks.

 

[Gena_ZA]

If JdV is out HM sits with a nice problem re captaincy
Strauss as cappy? with Bismark set to take his place in the near future...
Flo as Captain? but he doesn't reside in SA...

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

News Reports are that JDV is a doubt for this clash, after suffering a sternum injury. They will give him as much time to recover before making a final decision on him playing. He missed out on training yesterday.

This could mean that we will see an all Bulls-centre pairing for the first time in a very long while for the Springboks.

Well pace and width will be the best route to go against those big Samoan backs on the Highveld. Blessing in disguise? Not that I want JdV injured but he can do with a rest after playing so much SR and now these tests..

If JdV is out HM sits with a nice problem re captaincy
Strauss as cappy? with Bismark set to take his place in the near future...
Flo as Captain? but he doesn't reside in SA...

HM will go with Strauss I am sure of it; Strauss is vice captain and HM isn't the type of guy that will leapfrog someone and he'll also probably back Strauss after a less than stellar game last week and give him the start again. I'd understand that but jeesh.. to leave Bissie on the bench.. after the whole saga with John Smit! I'd personally have gone with Flo but there is the issue of him playing abroad. I hope WP make him an offer he can't refuse.

 

[TRF_heineken]

If JdV is out HM sits with a nice problem re captaincy
Strauss as cappy? with Bismark set to take his place in the near future...
Flo as Captain? but he doesn't reside in SA...

Yeah, I won't rush Bismarck back to a full 80 just yet. Let him play another game off the Bench, just to settle in again.

In all likelihood, Strauss to captain, and Flo to take over when Bissie comes on...

Well pace and width will be the best route to go against those big Samoan backs on the Highveld. Blessing in disguise? Not that I want JdV injured but he can do with a rest after playing so much SR and now these tests.

Yeah, Altitude will be our friend again. It would be nice to see the combo of Lambie/Serfontein/Engelbrecht for this match... Sparks could fly!!

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

It would be nice to see the combo of Lambie/Serfontein/Engelbrecht for this match... Sparks could fly!!

I wouldn't mind seeing that combination. But then we need our 9 to clear the ball quicker (and our forwards and ref to do their work at the breakdowns to let him unlike last time out against Scotland where the Scots were up to all sorts of shenanigans with the ref uninterested in policing the breakdowns while we didn't help ourselves either)

 

[TRF_heineken]

I wouldn't mind seeing that combination. But then we need our 9 to clear the ball quicker (and our forwards and ref to do their work at the breakdowns to let him)

After the Scottish performance, I'm sure our forwards got a "word Fokken wakker" speech from HM. and Luckily we won't have Poite as the ref again.

I hope Pienaar gets his **** together, otherwise Piet must take over. I wonder how our back row would look like after Arno's injury and Marcell's kak performance? 6. Flouw 7. Lappies/Willem 8. Spies/Willem?

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

After the Scottish performance, I'm sure our forwards got a "word Fokken wakker" speech from HM. and Luckily we won't have Poite as the ref again.

I hope Pienaar gets his **** together, otherwise Piet must take over. I wonder how our back row would look like after Arno's injury and Marcell's kak performance? 6. Flouw 7. Lappies/Willem 8. Spies/Willem?

Those are the big questions, yes. We have so many options in the backrow with all of Spies, Flo, Alberts, Coetzee, Vermeulen, Botha and now Kolisi in the mix and Labuschagne hammering on the door but we still lack balance and for me personally I don't think Spies, Coetzee and Vermeulen are long term options so that leaves a manageable lot of 4 (5 if Labuschagne could get a look in) quality and impactful loosies. Up front Beast and jannie need to make a bigger contribution in general play as they aren't irreplaceable in the scrums while we are really missing someone of the quality of FdP though we probably need to rather adapt our game to fit the players that we do have. The captaincy is also still up for grabs. Only time will tell.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Those are the big questions, yes. We have so many options in the backrow with all of Spies, Flo, Alberts, Coetzee, Vermeulen, Botha and now Kolisi in the mix and Labuschagne hammering on the door but we still lack balance and for me personally I don't think Spies, Coetzee and Vermeulen are long term options so that leaves a manageable lot of 4 (5 if Labuschagne could get a look in) quality and impactful loosies. Up front Beast and jannie need to make a bigger contribution in general play as they aren't irreplaceable in the scrums while we are really missing someone of the quality of FdP though we probably need to rather adapt our game to fit the players that we do have. The captaincy is also still up for grabs. Only time will tell.

And next year we will have a Du Plessis to add to that list...

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

And next year we will have a Du Plessis to add to that list...

You mean Jacques du Plessis? The guy is immense, yeah! I just hope some of our franchises make room for these guys coming through. I understand you want some experience in your squad but guys like Keegan Daniel- I mean Daniels- are using up space that we could fill with guys that COULD be Bokke. Lets face it he isn't up for tight games and neither was Kankowski and while Coetzee gets a lot of carries and tackles to his name the quality and impact of those hit ups and tackles aren't up to scratch IMO. Elsewhere Spies has become solid enough but are we really gonna persist into RWC 2015 with solid and experienced guys like Spies, JdV, JdP, Pienaar and Kirchner? You can only carry so many of these guys and then your entire team dynamic becomes nothing more than... dependable. At WP you have Vermeulen and Elstadt who fall into the same category. And lets face it, how can HM ever select players from the Kings or Lions if their futures are up in air? We should merge those franchises to form the Lion Kings with Disney as sponsor and let them play half their matches in PE and half in Jo'Burg; just joking but the whole Lions-Kings saga means we have effectively 4 franchises to select test players from rather than the 5 we had never mind the 6 we should in theory be having.

 

[TRF_heineken]

You mean Jacques du Plessis? The guy is immense, yeah! I just hope some of our franchises make room for these guys coming through. I understand you want some experience in your squad but guys like Keegan Daniel- I mean Daniels- are using up space that we could fill with guys that COULD be Bokke. Lets face it he isn't up for tight games and neither was Kankowski and while Coetzee gets a lot of carries and tackles to his name the quality and impact of those hit ups and tackles aren't up to scratch IMO. Elsewhere Spies has become solid enough but are we really gonna persist into RWC 2015 with solid and experienced guys like Spies, JdV, JdP, Pienaar and Kirchner? You can only carry so many of these guys and then your entire team dynamic becomes nothing more than... dependable. At WP you have Vermeulen and Elstadt who fall into the same category. And lets face it, how can HM ever select players from the Kings or Lions if their futures are up in air? We should merge those franchises to form the Lion Kings with Disney as sponsor and let them play half their matches in PE and half in Jo'Burg; just joking but the whole Lions-Kings saga means we have effectively 4 franchises to select test players from rather than the 5 we had never mind the 6 we should in theory be having.

Don't worry, We'll look after him...

With Juandre Kruger going North of the wall (sorry, Game of Thrones) he'll fit in nicely... The next Danie Rossouw

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Don't worry, We'll look after him...

With Juandre Kruger going North of the wall (sorry, Game of Thrones) he'll fit in nicely... The next Danie Rossouw

Don't say that! LOL; I still can't get over Danie's playing the man in the air at the line-out in our RWC 2011 semi-final vs Aus. If it weren't for that we could've still won despite FdP losing the ball over the line, Pocock off his feet and lying all over our ball EVRY SINGLE DAMN RUCK, the 20 high tackles that Lawrence also didn't see, THAT soft 'try' from Aus .... UGH!!! But I'm getting off topic. Samoa is actually a very good test for us at this stage; almost their entire team competes at the rucks and are good at it so that'll be a test and they will be a handful to defend against so Serfontein and Engelbrecht in particular will have a trial by fire along with everyone tasked to clear our ball at ruck time.

 

[sifplay]

Don't worry, We'll look after him...

With Juandre Kruger going North of the wall (sorry, Game of Thrones) he'll fit in nicely... The next Danie Rossouw

Turning him into what a prop or anything than its natural position and fcking him like the countless others.
Don't think so

 

[sifplay]

Seriously we are playing Samoa at Loftus with a number of Bulls players in the Springbok team. That basically means the end of any chance Samoa have to beat SA. They going to run themselves out of puff inside 40 minutes and looking up at the scoreboard despite running huge amount of yards they find themselve back where they started with just one boot and concede points from anywhere around 60 meters.

 

[Sam Owen]

Springboks! You're next..

 

[Big Ewis]

^
ohhh I dunno....it WOULD be a huge upset....

 

[Gena_ZA]

Springboks! You're next..

Challenge accepted