The South African Springboks squad, to take on the world’s best in England, at the 2015 Rugby World Cup was officially announced at 18:00 SA Time (16:00 GMT), live on SuperSport 1 on TV in South Africa.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer is on a hiding to nothing, no matter which squad he would have selected, whether it be from lobbyists saying that there are not enough players of colour in the side OR whether he is accused of player bias OR choosing old favourites… OR not choosing players on merit.
I urge everybody to accept his selection prerogatives, even though you or me would have done it differently, and to get behind this Springbok side for the Rugby World Cup, where they will be representing their country to the best of their abilities.
The “Ghost Squad” has already been discussed ad-nauseam, the announced squad is exactly the same and feature the inclusion of fringe players like Zane Kirchner, Rudy Paige, Siya Kolisi and Morné Steyn.
Injured or previously injured players like Fourie du Preez, Jean de Villiers, Duane Vermeulen, Coenie Oosthuizen, Jannie du Plessis is also be included in the squad.
A number of players are hugely unlucky not to be selected, they include Heinrich Brüssow, Steven Kitshoff, Marcel van der Merwe, Vincent Koch, Marcell Coetzee, Jan Serfontein, Frans Steyn, Cornal Hendricks, Cobus Reinach and Francois Hougaard.
Here is the Springbok Rugby World Cup squad for 2015, which is now official:
Springbok Rugby World Cup Squad:
Backs:
- Fullbacks: Willie le Roux
- Utility: Zane Kirchner
- Wings: Bryan Habana, Lwazi Mvovo, JP Pietersen
- Centres: Jean de Villiers (Captain), Damian de Allende, Jesse Kriel
- Flyhalves: Pat Lambie, Handré Pollard, Morné Steyn
- Scrumhalves: Ruan Pienaar, Fourie du Preez, Rudy Paige
Fowards:
- Loose Forwards: Duane Vermeulen, Schalk Burger, Willem Alberts, Francois Louw, Siya Kolisi
- Locks: Eben Etzebeth, Victor Matfield (Vice-Captain), Lood de Jager
- Utility Lock & Loose Forward: Pieter-Steph du Toit
- Props: Beast Mtawarira, Jannie du Plessis, Trevor Nyakane, Frans Malherbe, Coenie Oosthuizen
- Hookers: Bismarck du Plessis, Adriaan Strauss, Schalk Brits
@ Pietman:
SARU moet met hulle maak soos hulle met Fikele maak, n first class ticket Londen toe, VIP kaartjies met n all you can eat buffet in die losie vir hulle wedstryde en Bob’s your uncle, daai manne gaan die groep se praises sing en selfs aanbied om hulle tasse by die lughawe in te dra
@ grootblousmile:
Hulle mors die regters se tyd, en maak swak prokurowers ryk, dis al.
n Toneel so reg uit T.O Honiball se “Adoons-hulle” (seker ook verban al).
@ nortie:
Laat hulle aanf@k broer, hulle is seker deel van die 40% werklose statistiek in ons land, so hulle het tyd vir sulke dinge.
152 @ Pietman:
Mens sal met die lot woer-woer kan speel in ‘n Hof.
Maar ongelukkig is ons Regsbank amptenare ook nie meer altyd van die beste gehalte nie, jy moet die stories hoor wat sommige van die huidig-praktiserende Advokate en Prokurowers my vertel van hoe swaksinnig sommige Landdroste en selfs Regters geword het, met geen benul van regspraak op meriete en beginsels nie, en met weinig kennis oor die preseduriele reg wat respekteer MOET word.
So, stamp mens nou dalk ‘n onbevoegde Regter, en die sparks kan waai.
Comment got lost somewhere in cyberspace let me try again. Is Richie Gray, the breakdown specialist not the current skyscraper Scotland lock, still involved with the Boks?
155 @ Bullscot:
No, here is Richie Gray.
Attachment:
@ grootblousmile:
Ja, ek sien daai een magistraat is aangekla vir heeltyd oopbek gaap tydens verhore…
@ grootblousmile:
Thanks no sorry think got wrong message across in my question was trying to elaborate that it is the breakdown specialist and not the lock Richie Gray that am asking about. Have chatted to the Richie who was with the Boks my question is really is he still working with the Boks?
158 @ Bullscot:
I believe so!
@ Bullscot:
Bully, what happened to the Gray brothers, Richie and John? I see they are not in the squad.
@ grootblousmile:
159- ok thanks Gbs was wondering as he was getting some praise early last season for how the Boks were doing in that are but not much mention since end of year tour.
Hi Piet and others
Yeah doing fine thanks. How are you and all the regulars doing?
Only problem is were getting about 7 live games on TV rest are on line?
And have to pay for the on line streams too 🙁
@ Pietman:
160- hi Pietman they are both still in the extended squad and should both be in the RWC squad to be announced early in the week I think. Yesterday’s game against was Johnnys first game in a while has been resting as he is key player now. Ou boet Richie played against Italy last week, he has cut his hair so maybe you don’t recognise him. Think young Jonny has over taken ou boet in the pecking order. Both very good with a slightly different skill set, Jonny is the more physical ball carrier close in while Richie seems to thrive in an open roll at his best almost like an extra flanker albeit a very tall one.
Hi GBS Piet and others
Yeah doing fine thanks. How are you and all the regulars doing?
Only problem is were getting about 7 live games on TV rest are on line?
And have to pay for the on line streams too 🙁
My 2 cents on the RWC squad:
The negatives have been well established, but will rehash anyway.
Injured players – It is hard to judge what other coaches would do, Hansen and Cheika have been fairly fortunate so far, even adding the odd injured player to their squads, however 7 or so injured players recently injured or coming back from long layoffs is a big problem of course and a big risk, the big question then here is, why are we getting more injured than everyone else? Surely we are not doing something right, often the blame would be on too much rugby, but some of our injured players were also rested during superrugby. This issue really needs to be addressed by SARU, because we must definitely be doing something wrong.
(Out of) Form players – Well we have had very little form players this year, and those supposedly on form also struggled to assert themselves in superrugby against the top teams in the SR competition, while even this has regressed over the last 4 years, This has also been a glaring weakness in several key positions, especially scrumhalf, also some untimely injuries, to players like Kitchoff, Fransie was harsh on the players
People tend to make a big fuss about selections, but I still think that this is the majority of the squad people would have selected anyway: I would have swopped: Britz-Scarra, Burger-Kriel (tough one to make room for Kriel), JPP-Mapoe.
Transformation – For a person who allegedly signed a 4 year extension, it certainly appears as if Meyer has the political games down at SARU, it is truly remarkable that little attempt is made to fool the public, i.e. IF the quota is 8 or 9 P’sOC in the RWC squad, then why not include 9 or 10 and publicize that you overshot your targets? Sure I doubt this will not really help support, as people would try to find something else to complain over, but it is certainly what I would have done, especially considering that 5-8 of these players will likely only get game time in case of injury (then again, that appears likely to our old as well as our young players), maybe the quota is less than 8, maybe there is no quota at all.
World Cup Game Time – It is highly highly likely that we will play the same matchday squad in all of our games, unless we get a good win first up, , while we are already petering on the brink due to attrition, we are already very far on the back foot compared to our SANZAR partners, who have had their best players available pretty much all year, having been able to make non-injury enforced changes. I hope to see some rotation of 2-3 players each game
Not as good as we think – We have local losers on the international stage for 5 years now, with the only positive record of 2 undefeated trips through Europe which has not been done in a very long time before, and have been fairly starved of match winners in the country, I think the player we will miss a lot is Fransie, I can’t bemoan him missing out on selection due to circumstances, but I believe it is a big blow… though when he was selected, he didn’t even kick long range goals, and the ones he attempted he missed, so I suppose it would probably be another selection out of desperation.
Positives – Well little really, though I hope the public rants makes the bokke a tighter group, having to not only play against their opponents, but also large sections of their own “supporters” who really want them to fail to suit their own agenda, the expansive ball in hand gameplan is a hit or miss flop that was not good enough to defeat the australasians and not intimidating enough to beat the Argies, we regressed in our tactical approach, the Durban loss not only hurt some eggo’s in the bok squad, but also killed of the selection of some players RWC aspirations, unfortunately because of that, I don’t think Pollard should start, because of his kicking game (however I disagree with those who want him dropped AND who wants us to play expansively, the level of stupidity in that is astounding). Hopefully the Boks will now go back to what they know and what has been “successful” in the past.
The All Blacks kick more balls in field than anyone else, and then rely on their defensive system, with guys like Aaron Smith at the forefront, his kicks are not always perfect or great, but they pay off in the end in unison to their danger on the counter attack… yet whenever our player even looks like he is about to kick the ball, people immediately start groaning and beat their chest. The team just needs to shut this out and do what they believe will be the best to go in this tournament as far as possible.
My ideal team would be
15. Zane/Willie
14. JPP/Lwazi
13. Jesse/Jessie
12. DDA/JDV
11. Habana/DDA
10. Lambie/Morne
9. Pienaar/FDP
8.Duane/Schalk
7.Alberts/Duane
6. Louw/Kolisi
5. Matfield/PSDT
4. Eben/Eben
3. Jannie/Malherbe
2. Bissie/Strauss
1. Beast/Coenie
I also read here somewhere about our “proud history” and wonderful W/L record and our proud record against Australia is being tarnished… It is all quite funny when our W/L record over the last 4 years has been 2.25 and over Australia 1.3 compared to 1.67 and 0.5 during 2008-2011 and 2.12 and 1.2 during 2004-2007… Maybe our “proud history” is only in our heads when we see something we want to see… then of course pretending to be the almighty all seeing deity superior to everyone else 😆
@ MacroPolo:
Phew, two cents worth?
Thank goodness you didn’t make it R1’s worth!
(Only joking)
@ BrumbiesBoy:
Gaan spring in n dam 😳
And in other news:
http://ewn.co.za/2015/08/31/SANZAR-asks-Japan-for-assurances-on-Super-team
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