JP Pietersen
RWC winning back JP Pietersen will replace injured scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar for home Rugby Championship Tests against Australia and New Zealand, it was announced on Sunday.
Pietersen, who can operate on the right wing or at outside centre, has been playing in Japan and was unavailable for the first four southern hemisphere championship matches.
“JP has always been part of our plans and did very well in June playing at outside centre,” Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer said in a statement.
Sport24
“We already have two scrumhalves in Francois Hougaard and Cobus Reinach and decided it would be better to bring in an outside back.”
Pienaar retired hurt during a 14-10 defeat by New Zealand in Wellington on Saturday and a scan on Monday will determine the extent of his knee ligament injury.
Pietersen, who played on the right wing when South Africa defeated England 15-6 to win the 2007 World Cup, joins a 30-man squad in Cape Town on Sunday next week.
The Springboks face the Wallabies at Newlands in Cape Town on 27 September and the All Blacks at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on 4 October.
Defending champions New Zealand top the table with 16 points, South Africa and Australia have 10 each and Argentina three.
So. HM replaces a scrummie with a wing.
Some of the respect that he regained on Saturday has just been lost.
@ Loosehead:
When I saw that I thought to myself WTF is going on?
Why no call up for Sarel? He seems to be the best of who’s playing in SA at the moment.
There is already 2 scrumhalves in the group and we will be playing at home, so if either hougie or or reinach a call up will be easy and quick, wont take a flight across the indian ocean… Three scrumhalves in the group for home test matches?
@ MacroBok:
The thing is that , as we all saw on Saturday, Hoohaah is shit at 9. Reinach is really inexperienced………………..so HM pulls in an excellent wing [not that their is much wrong with our wings at the moment] who doubles as a pretty average 13 [whole Saturdays 13 played really well].
I dunno. It doesn’t make sense to me.
@ Loosehead:
Hougie had a bad game, I agree, but he will start… unless you want to play 2 debutant scrumhalves? or call up a third one to help hold tackle bags… I would not have minded Vermaak, and if FDP was fit he would have been called, but we have no idea how Sarel will go in international rugby anyway.
I am 100% confident that JPP would have been called up regardless, and would likely have replaced Reinach.
If Ruan had not been injured.
pleks hy n replacement vir pissie gekry het
@ smallies:
As “pissie” nie elke week in SR forseer was om te speel nie het ons dalk Saterdag gewen.
Schalk Britz dink ek kan moontlik speel In sy plek… maar sal n groot roep wees om bismark te drop.
@ MacroBok:
@5
Why not give Sarel a chance to see how he will go at the top level in what will be a dead rubber anyway?
@ robzim:
a dead rubber? If we lose, who is going to say it was just a dead rubber?
Also why call sarel up when you’re second and third choice is still there?
I have No problems with Sarel, just not sure why we would call up a third scrumhalf at the end of the tournament.
MacroBok wrote:
It is a dead rubber having lost 2 matches…………..1 to a shithouse Aussie team.
@ Loosehead:
So you would be fine with us losing?
We might be out of the RC, but has these two matches lost their importance? No Ways.
The fact the we lost to a “shithouse” Aussie team and AGAIN to NZ, makes these next two test matches absolutely critical.
If we beat NZ no one is going to care about the RC, hell Beeld would have a pick on the front page how their kenners believe we are the favorites to win the 2015 world cup in Sundays paper, Keo will write seven articles that same week about why we are going to win the WC.
Unfortunately (for the second week in a row) I missed the match through work – does anybody have a link to watch it on youtube? From all the press and comments I have read on here, it sounds like it was an awesome match, and a damn shame that we lost. One wonders if HM will ever get the AB monkey off his back, but well done Boks.
Again, from comments, it seems that we still have a glaring weakness at s/h, although Pienaar played much better until he went off. Thus, I also find it very strange that another scrummie wasn’t called up – I know he doesn’t have much chance of playing, but getting to work with the Bok set-up would surely still be invaluable, wouldn’t it? JP is tried and tested, and he could come in at any time if there is another injury.
MacroBok wrote:
I am never fine with us losing, hence my anger at the way the Boks played against the Argies and Aussies. For me, Hoohah is way to out of form to pick.
@ Loosehead:
Not sure why you find that so confusing.
We’re back at home now so no need for a 3rd Scrummy. Hougaard, whilst being average on Saturday is the only experienced 9 we have now. So he will start with Reinach as his backup.
HM has called up another outside back which, considering how weak we are in that area, is no big surprise.
Jan and JDV will be the centres next weekend and should Jan go down, JP is the best 13 we have at the moment. DeAllende will drop out of contention totally now.
@ Loosehead:
Good opportunity for Reinach.
@ MacroBok:
Seeing that we are struggling at no 9 I believe this game would have been the ideal opportunity to try out Sarel. he has been performing consistently well and the time is running out to see whether he has what it takes at the top level.
What more must Hougie do to show that he is not a good enough international quality scrumhalf?
Re the world cup… we will most certainly be the underdogs to beat the AB’s (should the 2 teams meet during the tournament) irrespective of what the “kenners” think or whether we win or lose against them next month.
On that subject, the opinions of some “kenners’ sometimes make a person cringe. Krynauw Otto for example said that the Boks would have won if they made 10 fewer mistakes on Saturday. He could just as well have said that if the AB’s made x fewer mistakes they would have won by y more points. Total meaningless comment.
@ robzim:
I will be hard to recall any coach since the second world war that would select two debutants at scrumhalf?
Reinach is there, we should give him a shot, and It is not worth throwing Hougie away, I think the last game will give the boks the confidence they need, and we all believe he should play a running sniping game.
It is easy for us to all get carried away, I am just saying it is easy to underestimate the importance of one match, beating the kiwi’s is all this team needs IMO.
It is easy for us all to be kenners 😀
3 @ MacroBok:
“Three scrumhalves in the group for home test matches?”
We have 3 looseheads in the group for the remaining test matches at home and LH is not even regarded as such a specialist position like SH, TH or hooker.
16. @ John Galt:
“HM has called up another outside back which, considering how weak we are in that area,”
Where/how exactly are we so weak in that area?
Habana just played his 100th test and holds the SA record for the most tries scored in a test.
Hendricks has a good strike right so far. Been found a little bit suspect on defense on Saturday but he is not that bad.
Willie had a shocker but that was his worse performance in about 20 test matches.
Lambie waits in the wings.
Where/how exactly are we weak in the outside backs?
“JP is the best 13 we have at the moment.”
Nonsense! Did you not see Mapoe, JdJ and Sithole play over the weekend?
JPP is a wing/full back. Not a 13.
@ Nama:
We included the third loosehead for our final two matches?
I mean did we call up a third loosehead to play in the final two matches or were they part of the squad earlier?
You are saying that assuming no one will be released for currie cup duty after or during the last weekend of the RC.
@ Nama:
Reading through countless posts here on RT, I reckon you are one of the most sensible posters. The other guys mostly talk rubbish. Good on you for calling it like it is, and backing up your statements with facts as well.
Just a shame you support WP. But hell, we cant have it all 🙂
@ MacroBok:
So, you are saying that one of Beast, Trevor and Gurthro may still be released for the last 2 tests or maybe just the last one?
Do you really think that it is likely? 😉
@ Nama:
I think it would make sense to release guys like Guthro and Schalk especially.
Would you honestly call up a third scrumhalf with 2 weeks to go? Hougie hate aside 😀
@ MacroBok:
It’s a specialist position Macro. If either one of Hougie or Reinach gets injured in the captains tun next Thursday, what do you do? Call up Super Sarel or any other SH and expect him to learn all the calls and moves in 2 days?
Hooker, SH and TH you must ALWAYS have 3 players in the squad.
ALWAYS…
@ Nama:
If one of those gets injured though it is unfortunately likely that Piet will be called up anyway. We keep criticizing Meyer for an inflated squad.
Hey be positive, niemand gaan seer kry nie 😉
@ MacroBok:
Ons hoop nie so nie, maar mens moet beplan vir die onbekende ook.
This is a non story, not sure what the debate is about.
JP is one of our premier players, it’s great to have him in our squad.
Plus it’s a blessing having Ruan out of it.
@ Nama:
Ek wonder wel of daar iemand in kennis gestel was dat hulle op standby is, ek glo so? Ook watokal JPP se kontrak se, hy was ook nou eers vrygestel om by die bokke aan te sluit, ek dink hy was al vroeg in die beplanning gewees en sou waarskynlik inelkgeval ingesluit gewees het, so dit help nie mense is kwaad oor sy insluiting vir Ruan nie. Ek vind dit moeilik om te glo dat hulle die groep blindelings kies sonder beplanning.
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