Jean de Villiers
Springbok captain Jean de Villiers is the only player assured of his place in next year’s Rugby World Cup squad, coach Heyneke Meyer has revealed.
A squad of 31 players will be picked for next year’s showpiece event in England and Wales.
Sport24
At the announcement of his team to play Wales in Cardiff on Saturday, Meyer said: “Several players are close to being included in the World Cup squad. But only Jean’s position is safe. We can only pick 31 players and six of those will be props.”
Meyer said he was happy with the depth at his disposal less than a year away from the World Cup.
“We have three top players in every position and there’s not much to choose between them. That’s what we strived for in the year before the World Cup. Even the lock position, where I was worried about our depth, we suddenly have options. I also still rate Morne Steyn highly as a flyhalf.”
What happened to the old maxim: “Choose your best 23(15) and then choose your captain”? Seems like JW started a trend when he announced John Smit as his captain. PDV and HM have followed suit, by announcing captains early. OK, HM first appointed JDV as his interim coach, but to say that he is assured of his place for the WC is a bit much.
@ Lion4ever:
It has not been a state secret to be honest.
@ MacroBok:
Agreed. But to publicly state it, is a bit much. Look, the majority of the players in the NH tour are assured of their places, especially the likes of the all Sharks front row, VM, EE, both Lambie and Pollard, Habana etc. Short of injuries or dramatic loss of form, one would expect HM to bring his tried and tested players with.
Ross Cronje has been called up a slate cover for the Springboks in place of the injured Rudi Paige.
Mmmm Jean de Villiers, you wouldn’t kick him out of bed on a cold morning!!
Yeah right…whatever.
@ Lion4ever:
He has to be the weakest scrummie available?
What has got into HM’s head?
Lion4ever wrote:
Why does he need three scrumhalves for the last game?
Lion4ever wrote:
So frikken weird, dont even know how to justify this… maybe one of our scrumhalves has a niggle. 😆
Why even say it?… See no point in giving details about the composition of a shadow WC team… or in Meyer’s case that he has pencilled in one name…
@ Te Rangatira:
He could have been asked
Reporter “is the squad you brought on tour the same squad You settled on for the world cup mister meyer?”
So i take press conferencesn with a pinch of salt
MacroBok wrote:
What was weird was that Paige received the call before Cronjé, seeing that it was Cronjé that was on official standby when the Bokke left on the EOYT …
BTW, Cronjé had an excellent 2014 season for the Lions/Golden Lions … (he is just one of those players that saffa fans love to hate, giving him zilch credit for the massive improvement in his game … &, oh yes, the Lions/Golden Lions are brimful of such erstwhile no-hopers knock-knock-knocking on the Bok door – coach Ackermann & his assistants must surely receive the accolades for this phenomenon, cutting & polishing all those rough diamonds … long may it last! And such turnaround players deserve our respect.)
Victoriabok wrote:
You don’t recall Pieter Nel’s freak accident running down the Loftus tunnel towards the field in the historic 1990 Currie Cup final (still giving Naas Botha nightmares for his arrogant post match comments)?
Wasn’t the scrum half of the Purple People Eaters called up to camp as reward for good form as well?
Might as well have flown him over if it’s only to make up some numbers, at least then they would like like “putting their money where there mouth is” with regards to the legitimacy of those practice camps
nortie wrote:
Yes, Boela Abrahams was invited to the pre-tour EXTENDED Bok training camp.
That afforded HM the opportunity to have a close look at him after an apparently good season.
Perhaps HM was not convinced about his potential once he had an opportunity to assess Boela?
Be that as it may, Boela was not placed on EOYT standby, but Ross Cronjé was.
@ Angostura:
The Lions is at a massive disadvantage because of the 2012-2013 seasons where the lions fared badly in SR or did not play at all, most of the times we have really seen them perform was during the Currie Cup (Ross was really good in the semi final and final while Faf was really good during the SR tournament this year). I am not taking anything away from the Lions players though, the “front row” did well, while the locks would be the unsung heroes for sure, Jaco Kriel is superb and Whitely all came through well. It is worth remembering with all their forwards dominance and their “exciting” running rugby they were still one the lowest ranked try scorers of the tournament… why?
@ nortie:
Well he EP prop was also called up in those training camps, definitely more at play than just Meyer and Barend van Graan running a “two man ship” called SARU.
I think Paige and Mournitz were always going to go on tour with Vermaak, Morne Steyn and Johan Goosen leaving for the last game.
Angostura wrote:
Pieter Spannenberg?
Giepie Nel was his center partner that day, perhaps you are thinking of him?
I remember the incident well, Pieter left Loftus in disgust a few minutes after kick-off with a sprained ankle, while his wife was still in the main stand with the house keys in her purse! He watched the match on tv at the neighbours in Fairie Glen, no cell phones those years! And not Pieter’s day at all….can you imagine!
Apparantly The bok management tried to get Vermaak released for this game but was blocked… why can Wales select their players?
French* players
@ MacroBok:
The Boks used their French players during the RC which fell outside the international window, remember. The Toulon boss was not very impressed if I remember correctly.
@ Nama:
I thought that was also a international window to allow the pacific islands to play in their four nations? but i am not certain.
and yes, good point, a little give and take.
It is called the IRB Pacific Nations Cup, but I see it is held in June with the other test series.
Yes that Frenchman was not happy, but he was unhappy with the IRB, so maybe there is some sort of test window or loophole over that period, I am not sure.
Also if the Rugby Championship did not fall under an IRB test window the Argentinian side would be considerably weaker.
Ek weet ook nie presies hoe die storie werk nie. Onthou jy dat Habana verlede jaar op die Saterdag na die toets teen Arg, eers weer vir Toulon gaan speel het voordat hy hom in Aus by die Bokke aangesluit het. Twee jaar gelede was dit slegs Flo wat by sy klub toestemming gekry het om in die RC te speel en geeneen van die wat in Frankryk was nie.
So, ek weet nie of dit maar n ooreenkoms is tussen die unie en die klubs soos nou die geval tussen Wallis en die klubs nie.
The deal is that the clubs are not obliged to release the players outside of the test window period.
They can still choose to do so, but that will depend on each specific club and the player.
@ Stormersboy:
That’s what I thought. The confusion came about when the owner of Toulon made his statements wrt Habana’s and Bakkies’ absence from the club during the RC. Was the deal made between SARU and the coach/management of the club and was he as the owner not aware of the deal?
Pietman wrote:
Pietman, you are not perhaps thinking of Christo Spannenberg ? I know Jannie Claassens played that day
http://152.111.1.88/argief/berigte/beeld/1990/10/8/14/2.html
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