South Africa - World Cup 2015 Discussion Thread

[easy2288]

Just don't understand why Springboks need get Victor Matfield out of retirement. I have not seen him last a full match in any in Super 15 and SA tests this year. I am not sure it is correct pick even with his height advantage and experience

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Matfield is there because we lack experience in the lock department. His inclusion is not an issue in my book. I have an issue with Oosthuizen, who is just coming off an injury. Unlike Alberts and de Villiers he isn't a player with a unique skillset who can make a difference. Kolisi is a good player but Brussow would be a better option, even if it was just to have a 2nd fetcher on the team.

Rudy Paige is the weirdest selection since Ricky Januarie. I have nothing against the kid but this is not a tour where you can bring players to have a nice experience. The World Cup is too important to bring along passengers.

Kirchner and Steyn are experienced players with current jobs in Europe which makes is easier for them to get used to the environment, but both could have been left out and nobody would mind.

 

[TobesHodges]

Who's Rudy Paige? :/ :lol:
Surely Reinach or Faf De Klerk should have been picked, also would have had Hougaard for JP.

 

[austingtir]

Just don't understand why Springboks need get Victor Matfield out of retirement. I have not seen him last a full match in any in Super 15 and SA tests this year. I am not sure it is correct pick even with his height advantage and experience

What gets me is if they take Matfield they should of convinced Botha aswell. Botha was actually in better form this year than Matfield imho.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

The enforcer-role is filled by Etzebeth, who is miles ahead of Bakkies at the moment. I don't have a problem with Bakkies missing out on the World Cup. However, in the no 5 role, we only have du Toit, who is just coming back from injury. Who knows how he will do... Having Matfield there will help. He is a legend and can still play.

 

[TRF_heineken]

It's clear that there was political interference when this team was selected. If we just look at how PDV and Cosatu went about ripping HM a new one, and their reaction and satisfaction after the squad was announced.

HM has to make due now with these guys. I see Paige as featuring in only one game, and that is the match against USA. Which is just 4 days after the Samoa game. It will give the other guys a rest in preparation for the QF against Australia or England or Wales.

The props: Coenie an Trevor can both play loosehead and tighthead so HM went for the guys which offer more variety. And they are goid Fetchers too.

The hookers: They are the 3 best we have and Schalk's time in England will play a role.

Locks: very happy here.

Loose trio: Shocked about Kolisi's inclusion. It was between him, Brussouw and Mohoje. Coetzee's injury is too bad because he won't be ready for the first 2 games so they couldn't pick him.

Scrumhalves: Rudy F-ing Page!!

Fly Halves: pretty much knew they were the 3 to go.

Centres: feel sorry for Jan Serfontein. But the other guys have been in better form, apart from JDV.

Wings: Mvovo grabbed his opportunity when he got it and is a better defender than Hendricks.

Fullbacks: I'm actually glad Kirchner is there. Willie's defence has been horrible all year and we can't rely just on his attacking.

As Dr. Roberts said on thursday, all the guys picked is already declared 100% fit. So it's good to hear that Duane and Coenie are good to go.

I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

[SomeOke]

Firstly I'm actually pretty happy with the squad, Reinach can feel aggrieved for sure but to be fair he hasn't been that amazing this year, I know a lot of people disagree but I really don't think Brussow offers that much anymore, we might have a problem if Flouw gets injured however.

Also a few people still not happy with the squad:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/20...revent-Boks-from-competing-in-Rugby-World-Cup
Not that I expect anything to come from this but still.

 

[User1245]

Look, there are some questionable selections but I think it's a good team overall. Rudy Paige is a weird one imo. We have 2 very able kicking scrum-halves in du Preez & Pienaar. I would of thought a nuggety (sp?), game breaking 9 like Rienach would be a nice addition. Meyer seems to have a plan. He does this as a full-time job so I'm going to trust him. I've always liked Kolisi. He strikes he as an intelligent chap. He offers more in the line-out than Brussow.

My gut feeling of the Bok team is that there's too many injured players returning from injury at once. I feel uneasy about that the most.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Look, there are some questionable selections but I think it's a good team overall. Rudy Paige is a weird one imo. We have 2 very able kicking scrum-halves in du Preez & Pienaar. I would of thought a nuggety (sp?), game breaking 9 like Rienach would be a nice addition. Meyer seems to have a plan. He does this as a full-time job so I'm going to trust him. I've always liked Kolisi. He strikes he as an intelligent chap. He offers more in the line-out than Brussow.

My gut feeling of the Bok team is that there's too many injured players returning from injury at once. I feel uneasy about that the most.

Great post as usual and good to see you back (hopefully for good?), @Steve-o!

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Yeah, we've had worse squads go to a RWC.

I still maintain this RWC is either two years too late for the 2011 batch or 2 years too early for the youngsters Meyer has brought into the fold after PdV did very little for SA rugby ITO developing the player base.

I havn't felt at any point that we are likely to win this tournament but have felt we are in with a legitimate chance (just need that bit of luck that has been eluding us) but I've been very optimistic for our development post 2015. That said, if we are to have a hard and fast quota of 50% players of color at al times that does bring some needless logistical issues to the fore. Lets just for a second imagine the very likely scenario of two black starters being out injured and their encumbant replacements aren't black as well. Do we then have to change two other positions as well to accomodate two new black players so in effect the result is double the amount of disruption to a starting XV... ridiculous!

There is bound to be a lot of variance to what we'd call our best XV post RWC but I had in mind something along the lines of:

XV:
Kitshoff, BdP, Malherbe, Etzebeth, PSdT, Coetzee, Kolisi, Vermeulen (c), De Klerk, Pollard, Senatla, De Allende, Kriel, Combrinck, Le Roux
Bench:
Nyakane, Strauss, Koch, De Jager, Kriel, Reinach, Lambie, Serfontein

Now that team only has 2 black players starting and 1 on th bench. I don't know if De Allende still counts (how ridiculous!- too laugh or cry?!)

Also, a squad has 23 players and 15 starting. Do we round up or down to get too 50%?

Assuming the worst we need 16 non-white players preferably also with direct non-white replacements otherwise things are going to get tough pretty soon with injuries. I simply can't see us remaining competitive. At least not as competitive as we could be. I'd be surprised though if we fell outside of the top 8 world wide. Might this be a worth-while price to pay assuming that black kids will suddenly now flock to union en masse? Is success not a better draw-card? Can the politicians not accept the voice of those (majority as far as I know) black supporters and players who are against quotas? The talent will come through naturally I am sure. It hasn't actually been that long.

 

[Ospervat]

I can't believe this. A mate told me that there are efforts by some to prevent SA from participating at RWC 2015.

Didn't believe him so checked out his sources and sure enough here it is.

https://www.change.org/p/saru-south-african-rugby-union-scrap-the-new-racist-quota-system

WTF. This is ridiculous.

Let rugby be the winner, not some sinister political agenda.

 

[Tony Manx]

I agree with the argument but cannot sign the petition as the Isle of Man is not available on the country drop down!!!

 

[Ospervat]

Please check out this link and sign.
It might make a difference!!!!

https://www.change.org/p/saru-south-african-rugby-union-scrap-the-new-racist-quota-system

Thanks all.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Did any of my fellow Saffas watch the farewell dinner last night on SS1??

I had a very good laugh when they interviewed Lood De Jager, Jesse Kriel and Siya Kolisi.

I'm starting to get a very good feeling about this team. You could see that every single guy looks in good shape and extremely motivated.

 

[TobesHodges]

I know that this may have already been touched on, but surely bringing JdV is detrimental to this bokkies backline, DDA and kriel are the best and most balanced partnership, yet bringing De Villiers means that there going to have to play him at centre and remove probably Kriel..
I just don't think that JdV is quite the player he was compared to the centres you have now, yet HM will have to play him because he's captain..

 

[TRF_heineken]

I know that this may have already been touched on, but surely bringing JdV is detrimental to this bokkies backline, DDA and kriel are the best and most balanced partnership, yet bringing De Villiers means that there going to have to play him at centre and remove probably Kriel..
I just don't think that JdV is quite the player he was compared to the centres you have now, yet HM will have to play him because he's captain..

It's a slippery slope. But to be honest, If JDV is on form he'll bring a lot of positives to the team. His captaincy is a massive positive influence alone, and we need an experienced guy in our backline, especially with our young guns at flyhalf, centre and fullback.

He is still the master of the intercept, and I have a feeling that in this tournament, it will play to our advantage as most teams use the flatter attacking options. On Defence he's class, and this whole week with interviews and other things you could see the respect and admiration from his teammates and how much they believe in him.

 

[TobesHodges]

It's a slippery slope. But to be honest, If JDV is on form he'll bring a lot of positives to the team. His captaincy is a massive positive influence alone, and we need an experienced guy in our backline, especially with our young guns at flyhalf, centre and fullback.

He is still the master of the intercept, and I have a feeling that in this tournament, it will play to our advantage as most teams use the flatter attacking options. On Defence he's class, and this whole week with interviews and other things you could see the respect and admiration from his teammates and how much they believe in him.

Your absolutely right, Being that influential leader does go a long way, I don't avidly follow the SA team as much as I'd like so was an outsiders perspective, I would like to see Kriel go to full back and Le Roux and Mvovo to the wings.. Kriel would be a waste I think only having 20mins at the end of the game..
What's the deal on Frans Steyn? Did he make the squad, or will he miss out all together this year?

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I know that this may have already been touched on, but surely bringing JdV is detrimental to this bokkies backline, DDA and kriel are the best and most balanced partnership, yet bringing De Villiers means that there going to have to play him at centre and remove probably Kriel..
I just don't think that JdV is quite the player he was compared to the centres you have now, yet HM will have to play him because he's captain..

Its John Smit keeping out Bismarck du Plessis all over again. Either Bismarck was on the bench or or Smit was playing at prop..

Now either De Allende or Kriel will be on the wing (I doubt that though seeing as they are white and all manner of **** hit the fan when Kriel was played at 14- where he is wasted in any case) or benched and/or De Villiers will play at 13 where he doesn't look as comfortable as Kriel/Serfntein/Mapoe or as at 12 even if he weren't just back from a bust knee and a year out of rugby..

Now you got me started up agina... I'll just have a quick lie down to collect my...

 

[TRF_heineken]

Your absolutely right, Being that influential leader does go a long way, I don't avidly follow the SA team as much as I'd like so was an outsiders perspective, I would like to see Kriel go to full back and Le Roux and Mvovo to the wings.. Kriel would be a waste I think only having 20mins at the end of the game..
What's the deal on Frans Steyn? Did he make the squad, or will he miss out all together this year?

Frans is still recovering from a pectoral muscle injury. He is back at the sharks for Currie Cup duty, but they haven't selected him yet, with risking his injury. He has had a terrible year, the poor guy. First the issues about his contract, then he got suspended for a dangerous tackle, then injured. And then just as the Rugby Championship started, his brother committed suicide at their family farm. He was released from the Bok camp, and only made it back to the squad 3 weeks ago. HM didn't select him as he wasn't 100% fit, but he is most probably on the backup list.

 

[Anthony_Britt]

New to the forum. Anyway, I would rather play Kriel at #15 and De Allende at #13 and JDV at #12. I think Playing Le Roux in place of Kriel could be a tough decision but I guess I'd rather have JDV in my starting XV then having three young players in Kriel, De Allende and Le Roux.