Springbokke vs All Blacks : Soccer Stadium , Soweto

[PaarlBok]

Bok team announced
15. Gio Aplon, 14. JP Pietersen, 13. Juan de Jongh, 12. Jean de Villiers, 111. Bryan Habana, 10. Morne Steyn, 9. Francois Hougaard, 8. Pierre Spies, 7. Juan Smith, 6. Schalk Burger, 5. Victor Matfield, 4. Flip van der Merwe, 3. Jannie du Plessis, 2. John Smit, 1. Gurthro Steenkamp

Substitutes: 16. Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17. CJ van der Linde, 18. Danie Rossouw, 19. Francois Louw, 20. Ricky Januarie, 21. Butch James, 22. Wynand Olivier

 

[chief]

Should be a great game at a great stadium. I'll be awake to watch it, I'm pretty excited to be honest. SA by 8

EDIT: still surprised at the selection of Smit. I think his time has passed and gone. He's not up to it anymore

 

[PaarlBok]

Surprise to see Klein Flippie starting iso Pakslae. Know Pakslae is a bit injured but what a test to try in the hot headed Flippie. He show some grunt so lets hope he stay within the laws. Bit worried about the 10/12 channel defense. Know JdJ is a strong defender but worried about Jean/Morne's channel. Nunu will go their often and hope they will be ready for it. The back three tells me we may see more running. No way Muskiet will kick and chase, he only knows one way and thats to run back.

 

[DPK]

Very interested to see how Hougaard goes with some serious gametime. Must be quite relieving to see Smith back, am I right SA guys?

Typically, the game will be won in the forwards. This is the clash of the titans for lovers of physically forward melee.

 

[RugbyFuture]

i want photos and recordings of the crowd!

 

[PaarlBok]

Very interested to see how Hougaard goes with some serious gametime. Must be quite relieving to see Smith back, am I right SA guys?

Typically, the game will be won in the forwards. This is the clash of the titans for lovers of physically forward melee.

Agree the tight 5 will win this one. Smit better get his lineout throwing shorted. Thats where we lost the first one with simple basic stuff and do his bit on defense.

Glad Juan is back but I dont like the lose forwards combo. We need a fecther badly and Flo was the closest to one in the sqaud. So Schalkie will have to do this job now, Spies is under immense pressure this time. Duanne Vermeulen and Willem Alberts is more the type of 8 I'd want to see against the All Blacks. Both excellent defenders and both not shy for the rough forward tussles. Spies and Kankowski is more the shining type of 8 but hopefull he'll man up for the All Blacks. He is due a big one. Anything not Pie Eater is a improvement but I have full trust in Hougaard. There is nothing stopping him from producing, this is his big change to nail that 9 jersey or backup for FdP.

 

[DPK]

New Zealand: M Muliaina (Waikato); C Jane (Wellington), C Smith (Wellington), M Nonu (Wellington), J Rokocoko (Auckland); D Carter (Canterbury), J Cowan (Southland); T Woodcock (North Harbour), K Mealamu (Auckland), B Franks (Tasman), B Thorn (Canterbury), T Donnelly (Otago), J Kaino (Auckland), R McCaw (Canterbury), K Read (Canterbury).

Replacements: P Weepu (Wellington), A Cruden (Manawatu), I Dagg (Hawke's Bay), C Flynn (Canterbury), J Afoa (Auckland), S Whitelock (Canterbury), V Vito (Wellington).

From scrum.com.

 

[Blue]

Should be a great game at a great stadium. I'll be awake to watch it, I'm pretty excited to be honest. SA by 8

EDIT: still surprised at the selection of Smit. I think his time has passed and gone. He's not up to it anymore

I was surprised at the selection of Mortlock for about 2 years. It's the same thing. Hard to ditch the captain, especially if he is as popular. PdV is showing blind faith in him.

 

[Blue]

Very interested to see how Hougaard goes with some serious gametime. Must be quite relieving to see Smith back, am I right SA guys?

Typically, the game will be won in the forwards. This is the clash of the titans for lovers of physically forward melee.

Yeah but we start without a fetcher again.

 

[Blue]

Bok team announced
15. Gio Aplon, 14. JP Pietersen, 13. Juan de Jongh, 12. Jean de Villiers, 111. Bryan Habana, 10. Morne Steyn, 9. Francois Hougaard, 8. Pierre Spies, 7. Juan Smith, 6. Schalk Burger, 5. Victor Matfield, 4. Flip van der Merwe, 3. Jannie du Plessis, 2. John Smit, 1. Gurthro Steenkamp

Substitutes: 16. Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17. CJ van der Linde, 18. Danie Rossouw, 19. Francois Louw, 20. Ricky Januarie, 21. Butch James, 22. Wynand Olivier

That is a terrible combination of backline replacements. A fat fuck, shoulder charger has-been and a Super 14 standard centre. There are some potential game breakers running around in the Currie Cup but like I said, PdV has no balls to pick one or two.

 

[Ham]

Has Juan de Jongh played at outside centre before? That is quite the call throwing a rookie into a position he didn't play all super 14.

 

[DPK]

Yeah but we start without a fetcher again.

Yeah, but would you say that the AB's have a fetcher? McCaw isn't exactly a full time fetcher like Pocock is, but neither is Burger; if Burger has to put his fetcher hat on I think he'll play very similarly to McCaw.

 

[Ruggo]

This will be a tight one but I will go with NZ by 5. The lack of a fetcher will hurt the Boks badly. They might be able to get away with it with strong counter rucking but no way will they get away with it against NZ. I expect the Boks to get the rub of the green with the ref on the back of the home crowd advantage. Forget the up and under kicking shit, the Boks need to keep hold of the ball and use the altidude to attempt to run NZ down. They stand a good chance of recieving kickable penalties for sloppy infringments which have been the result of fatigue and NZ taken out of their comfort zone. This will only happen if the Boks execution is first class.

Did anybody see the press conference on the news this morning with PdV and Matfield? PdV looked in a world of his own and Matfield was fielding all the questions. Fuck it looked like they had sedated PdV. :lmao:

 

[Newb]

anybody else think that bok front row is gonna get shoved straight through the arseholes of their locks? going with flip wouldn't seem to help. danie seems like the better pusher to me.

 

[PaarlBok]

Has Juan de Jongh played at outside centre before? That is quite the call throwing a rookie into a position he didn't play all super 14.

Juan is a 13 midfielder and moved to 12 to accomodate Fourie. He debut in S14 in 2008 in this position with Jean/Grant in 12

 

[Blue]

anybody else think that bok front row is gonna get shoved straight through the arseholes of their locks?

No.

 

[#1 Tah]

Will be great to watch this one. Again, am pleased that the All Blacks get to play them before we do.

 

[Muttonbird]

Eight changes after three heavy losses? Doesn't matter how you dress it up - that's hitting the panic button.

 

[Blue]

Eight changes after three heavy losses? Doesn't matter how you dress it up - that's hitting the panic button.

Okay. Players replaced.

15. Kirchner. INJURED and replaced by Aplon
14. Jean de Villiers. Move to centre because of Olivier struggling and Fourie's suspension. And we finally arrive back at the conclusion that he is not a wing.
13. Juan de Jongh. Complete merit selection . Has been carving it up in the CC. Fourie is SUSPENDED.
12. Olivier. JdV Simply a better option than Olivier who has been slow to adapt to test rugby.
9. Ruan Pienaar. INJURED
7. Kankowski. INJURED. Juan was always going to be back. It was decided before the away leg.
4. Danie Rossouw replaced by vd Merwe. Rossouw is INJURED and has not trained for ten days. He may not even make the bench.
3. Botha. INJURED. replaced by du Plessis, the number one TH who got injured in the Auckland test and offers much more.

Six injuries, one suspension, one player dropped to the bench.

Please explain to me what SA should have done which would NOT have constituted panic? You expect them to take the field with six injured players?

 

[PaarlBok]

One lot shout the players are to old and this one we hitting the panic button.

My own opinion is that we should have nailed that panic button and would want more changes. like Blou point out on the bench some kak players. Myself think the home leg was the perfect oppertunity to give more players a change to get into WC contentions. We spoke a lot about it but players like Peter Grant iso Bitch, Duvenhage iso Pie Vreter, Duanne Vermeulen/Alberts ipo the same type of 8 like Spies & Kankowski, fecther type like Stegman (injured unfortunately) or even Botes would have been great picks.

No panic buttons in a million years.