RWC: South Africa vs Fiji (17-09-2011, 18:00)

[TRF_heineken]

Bekker, Smith, Matfield, Botha, Muller, Habana, De Villiers. With the exception of Bekker all these injured guys played in the 2007 RWC. Apart from the form issue, it looks like these older guys are dropping like flies. Age or a lack of match fitness? I'd wager it's the latter.

Nah, a hamstring injury is an unpredictable one... Jason Robinson pulled one when he was in full flight against us in the previous world cup and he certainly didn't lack match fitness...

Some injuries are just unexpected and rather take care of it now and nurse it properly while we can and be 100% ready come the QF's SF's and Finals...

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

The other guy we can call up off course is Wikus van Heerden... though i think he's past his prime... but he's still a bloody good fetcher!

We have so many loose forwards that are tall and good line-out jumpers that it shouldn't really bother us as much as it is.

Pierre Spies, Schalk Burger and Francois Louw are all the lengths of other nations first choice locks, and we are really blessed to have so many guys over 2m tall. These guys are also good line-out jumpers, they just need to get used to the scrummaging part of the job.

That didn't prevent Smit, Habana, Spies, Rossouw and James to get a call-up

 

[TRF_heineken]

That didn't prevent Smit, Habana, Spies, Rossouw and James to get a call-up

In all fairness i really feel for Spies and maybe I'm a bit subjective towards him because he's a Bulls player... but he really deserves to be at the World Cup... he missed 2007 due to illness when he was in the form of his life. he played a blinder against NZ before the world Cup and was a bit quiet vs Wales, though he did defend well... give the bloke a chance! maybe he'll impress you in this tourney

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

In all fairness i really feel for Spies and maybe I'm a bit subjective towards him because he's a Bulls player... but he really deserves to be at the World Cup... he missed 2007 due to illness when he was in the form of his life. he played a blinder against NZ before the world Cup and was a bit quiet vs Wales, though he did defend well... give the bloke a chance! maybe he'll impress you in this tourney

LOL, definately because you're a Bull supporter. Saying Spies had a blinder against NZ because he managed to hand-off 10 players while making 200m's (sideways!!) and didn't drop off the usual 4 tackles proves it.

 

[Sker]

Anyone know when the team is going to be announced?

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Since the match is only on Saturday, I expect the team announcement tonight

 

[Sker]

I'm really curious, can't wait to see what the hell Pdiv is going to come up with.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

I heard Lambie is at full-back, Ndungane and Pietersen on the wing and Steyn at inside center with Bakkies returning

 

[Shaggy]

Shouldn't we look to call up another lock and send someone home at this stage?

Bekker out before the tourney even began, Botha, Matfield and now Muller carrying small injuries. We'll end up playing with two backrowers in Alberts and Rossouw and who knows on the bench against Fiji.

Who though? Flip or Franco Van der Merwe? Mostert? Steenkamp?

From a neutral's perspective, if I was going to call up a replacement lock, i'd go for Mostert ... I think he was one of the better players in the early tri-nations games.

I don't think any replacements are necessary though, unless your locking crisis is likely to extend into the quarter finals ... you have already played the team that was most likely to cause you problems in the scrums and lineouts (Wales), so, you can probably play converted loose forwards against Fiji, Namibia, and Samoa ... more mobile, tackling players, may be an advantage against the PI teams, as they are likely to run at you all day long

 

[Seaton]

Well, there is that extra spot on the bench and against Fiji I'd rather have the extra back than the 5-2 bench split. Ndungane hasn't had a bad game for SA IMO; not near my fav choice but with injury and the squad selected..

Sometimes it just does not work out, eh?

Was trying to point out you put 'Akona' instead of Odwa

 

[Sker]

haha that explains a bit, thought you we're trying to say the Sharks Ndungane should be there instead of the Bulls one! I get confused with those two.

 

[Sker]

Boks starting XV taken from SARugby.co.za

15 Pat Lambie (KwaZulu-Natal) - 7 caps
14 JP Pietersen (KwaZulu-Natal) - 39
13 Jaque Fourie (Western Province) - 65
12 Frans Steyn (Racing Metro, France) - 44
11 Odwa Ndungane (KwaZulu-Natal) - 8
10 Morné Steyn (Blue Bulls) - 30
9 Fourie du Preez (Blue Bulls) - 58
8 Pierre Spies (Blue Bulls) - 43
7 Schalk Burger (Western Province) - 64
6 Heinrich Brüssow (Free State Cheetahs) - 16
5 Danie Rossouw (Blue Bulls) - 59
4 Bakkies Botha (Blue Bulls) - 74
3 Jannie du Plessis (KwaZulu-Natal) - 27
2 John Smit (captain, KwaZulu-Natal) - 107
1 Gurthrö Steenkamp (Blue Bulls) - 34
Replacements
16 Bismarck du Plessis (KwaZulu-Natal) - 39
17 Tendai Mtawarira (KwaZulu-Natal) - 29
18 Johann Muller (Ulster, N Ireland) - 24
19 Willem Alberts (KwaZulu-Natal) - 5
20 Francois Hougaard (Blue Bulls) - 11
21 Ruan Pienaar (Ulster, N Ireland) - 49
22 Juan de Jongh (Western Province) - 8


Why... WHY ODWA?! WHY?! Aplon and Hougaard are miles better, WHY?!

I didn't think it was possible for PDiv to be a bigger idiot, but well done Piet Helium, you just outdid yourself you ....ing roomyskind.

 

[psychic duck]

I wonder whether Habana will play against Namibia and try and end his try duck , if he doesn't score against them then he will never beat Joost's record!!!

He has gone 15 months and 11 months without a try now

discounting tries against Italy he has gone 25 months and 16 matches since scoring a try against a top 10 ranked nation

from Habana's debut in 2004 until the end of the 2007 World Cup, he scored 30 tries in 36 matches, since the 2007 World Cup he has scored 8 tries in 35 matches

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Let's see what positive and negative changes P Divvy has made:


+
Lambie
Steenkamp
Bakkies

-
Ndungane


Looking at the 4 changes, 3 of them are positive... Let's just go with that and stay positive

 

[Sker]

Yeah I wonder what happened to Habana after 2007, pressure? Wait didn't he get married? A woman would explain everything...

Now that I've had time to calm down I agree, Lambie at 15 is a huge plus. F.Steyn at 12 is not that bad actually, can't wait to see him in action there. (Still would've preferred De Jongh) Still would've liked to see Spies and FdP benched.

 

[FlukeArtist]

As much as I like Fiji, if SA cannot put 40 points on this current Fiji team, then they have issues.

Fiji struggled with namibia, and Samoa just comfortably put namimbia away yesterday without really raising a sweat.

Samoa-Wales this weekend will be interesting... imagine If Wales win that one, then somehow Samoa get over SA.... it may come down to points difference...

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

If it was up to me, the starting 15 would have looked like this, considering injuries and all:


15. Pat Lambie
14. Gio Aplon
13. Jaque Fourie
12. Juan de Jongh
11. Francois Hougaard
10. Butch James
9. Ruan Pienaar
8. Willem Alberts
7. Schalk Burger
6. Heinrich Brüssow
5. Gerhard Mostert (being called up due to injuries in the lock positions)
4. Bakkies Botha
3. Jannie du Plessis
2. Bismarck du Plessis
1. Gurthrö Steenkamp

16. John Smit
17. Tendai Mtawarira
18. Johann Muller
19. Pierre Spies
20. Fourie du Preez
21. JP Pietersen
22. Odwa Ndungane


Or is that too far of a stretch?

 

[Sker]

That would be one awesome team Eze, just hoped we had a better fly-half. There's hope for the future though if we look at the promising youngsters.

 

[Darwin]

A few surprises in the team: I would have thought Muller would have been paired with either Botha or Rossouw at lock, as both Botha and Rossouw a 4's rather than 5's (e.g they jump the front of the lineout, and pack on the tighthead side of the scrum). It suggests that Muller may not be 100%. I was interested to see they have gone back to only a single prop on the bench (a specialist loosehead), meaning Smit is the cover for tighthead prop again - fortunately (for South Africa) Fiji don't have the scrum to exploit this.

Good to see Lambie starting, but slightly surprised they have moved Steyn into the midfield rather than starting de Jongh. I've got no idea why they would start Ndungane over Aplon or Hougaard...

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Well, if it was up to me for the RWC squad, I would have picked Riaan Viljoen to go with the Boks as full-back so we have Lambie at fly-half...