Ruan Pienaar may get the opportunity to show that he is the man to succeed Fourie du Preez as Springbok scrumhalf when the Boks play against France at Newlands on Saturday.
Du Preez will not play rugby again this year because of surgery to his shoulder, which means that Pienaar is likely to take his place at the base of the scrum.
Ricky Januarie, who played scrumhalf for the Boks against Wales on Saturday, will probably be picked on the substitute’s bench when coach Peter de Villiers names his team for the Newlands Test.
Du Preez’s unexpected injury is a setback for De Villiers’s plans. And, to make matters worse, Francois Hougaard is also injured.
Hougaard can only play again in three weeks’ time and should make the Boks’ Tri-Nations squad, but Pienaar may well have the opportunity to make the No 9 jersey his own with good performances against France and Italy.
Du Preez and Hougaard’s injuries may be good news for Griquas scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius when the team for the Tests against Italy are picked.
Uncertainty about the fitness of Andries Bekker and Jean de Villiers may well mean that Dewald Potgieter and Joe van Niekerk were playing for places in the starting line-up against Wales, while Gio Aplon could play a Test in front of his home crowd.
Bekker’s absence will mean that Danie Rossouw stays at lock, but if the tallest Springbok of all time is fit, Danie Rossouw may play as No 7 flank.
De Villiers’s fitness will determine who plays right wing, with Aplon and Odwa Ndungane set to benefit if the former Munster centre cannot play.
With the overseas Boks now allowed to represent their country, De Villiers has a number of options in that regard.
With the return of CJ van der Linde to play Currie Cup rugby for the Cheetahs and Super 14 rugby for the Stormers, and Gurthrö Steenkamp having revived his international career with a superb Super 14 season, things are looking promising up front.
Meanwhile, the French have already started complaining about fatigue, but they were also “tired” last year when they beat the All Blacks in New Zealand.
Coach Marc Lievremont believes that the Bok scrum is strong, and he is also impressed with their effective lineout and the number of world class players at their disposal.
“The main advantage is that they have rhythm and that most of the team will consist of Bulls and Stormers players,” he said.
Article by JJ Harmse
time to decide where we want to play ruan
its either 9 OR 10 NOT BOTH!!
yes, he’s a good enough player to cover both positions (and even a few others), but its time to settle down
.. anyway, i’m glad that i wont be the one who need to make that decision!!
(i’m the one who will, with the help of hindsight, always know what the coaches sholdve done, lol)
Selecting overseas based players is nothing else than a broken promise towards local based players. Thus it is difficult to guess where a player like Gurthro Steenkamp will feature in the national team. If CJ is selected as loosehead Gurthro can just as well stay in Pretoria and play for the Bulls in the CC.
Dweeper, are you basing your concern on the fact that Katvrou was rested on Saturday? I thought that that was the original idea ie to rest the overworked Bulls players (until injuries kinda forced Snor’s hand)?
There is a weakness in this coaching team, in that faced with an embarrassment of playing riches, they still need to make decisions that bring stability and confidence to the team.
Ruan has to be the scrum half now and that is that.
He should have played on Saturday to get ready for the French this Saturday, but no they have to play Ricky.
One thing is for sure, and that is that the French are the one team that will alaways match us physically, so the quality of your scrum half becomes even more important in that he will not be getting good front foot ball like against Wales.
Talking about selections can anyone tell me when last Chilliboy played rugby and for what team!!
How on earth can you put a guy into a test match, who has not even being playing S14!!
4@ tight head:
I share your fears… that’s why I have maintained that Dicey Dickie and Gary Glitter are weak-kneed assistant coaches.
Like you said, Ruan Pienaar should have been at No 9 all along, neither Januarie or Chilliboy should even have been in the plans, since both do not even feature as run-on players in their Super 14 Franchises… their selection can only be justified along dubious motives…
@ grootblousmile:
I was very unimpressed with Ricky on Saturday.
He is the Benny Mc Carthy of rugby.
Fat and slow.
That may be good enough against Wales, but he will cost us games against better test teams.
Chilliboy and the bench on Saturday were not great.
We also seemed to go back to the mistake we have made before of making changes in the last 20 minutes without good reason.
When your pack is eventually getting on top, you need to leave them there to finish the job and get confidence from that.
There seems to be very little understanding in the coaching team about the real dynamics in a forward pack, and how you mould that together.
6@ tight head:
Yip, could’nt agree more!
Why make subs for the sake of subs….
3 Players stick out as not being good enough…. Ricky, Chilliboy and Alistair Hargreaves.
Fark, and some people recon Januarie was good on Saturday… eishhhhhhhh
At hooker SA is blessed with special players at present, Gary Botha, Tiaan Liebenberg, Deon Fourie, Adriaan Strauss (injured)… and of course our Cappy, John Smit. Do we honestly see Chilliboy being better than any of these options? No, in fact he’s still behind Bandise Maku in the pecking order at the Bulls too.
Hargreaves… fark knows what anybody sees in that kid! What about Flip van der Merwe or Steven Sykes, hell I’ll play Fondse or Anton van Zyl before Hargreaves!
@ grootblousmile:
You are so right about the hookers.
It is total bullshit that Chilli is in the mix and people should just say so.
Hargreaves as you point out is just a kid.
He has potential, but for sucks fake we are talking about international locks here!!
@ grootblousmile:
I agree on Hargreaves…there are at least 6 locks in SA better than him (and I’m a Sharky). I don’t like Ricky either so I didn’t expect much but he actually had a better game than I expected(not that I expected much) but having said that we have a lot better scrumhalves in SA.
I see this being mostly a Bulls site nothing negative is being said about Zane’s contribution to the test on Saturday???
It’s also going to be interesting to see how Morne does without Fourie on his inside.
9@ Pokkel:
Zane had a shocker on that 1st high ball he faced, but be honest… he came on at 76 minutes… so he had 4 minutes to impress or not…
Be blatently honest, I saw Fransie Steyn make a few critical bloopers on Saturday too…
Zane has been outstanding in the Super 14 this year, so ideally I would like to see him in a full Test before giving my overall opinion… if he does not shape…. then it’s between Fransie and Lambie, now that Joe Pietersen has decided to go play in France as well.
This site is not a Bulls site… your perception is wrong… however we have some vocal Bulls Supporters here, mostly due to 2 good seasons in a row… time the rest of you climbed in and also became more prevelant or vocal…
@ grootblousmile:
I hear you but at the same time I think that we all have preconceived ideas about certain players and I’m also guilty at times…but I think most people here have been extremely harsh on Ricky who I thought had a decent (not great) game.
Hallo all.
I’m in a bar waiting on superBul for a pub lunch…
Die lewe is ‘n lied !!!
Wie sit almal by die werk ? 🙂
@ Pokkel:
I don’t think Ricky deserved his ‘below 3’ on that game alone….had it been Hougaard in that position on Saturday playing the same rugby he would have been at least a 7.
14@ Pokkel:
Friend, the thing with Ricky which gets my goat (rightly or wrongly) is that he, like Chilliboy, are not even No 1 in their position at their own Franchise (Ricky is behind Dewaldt Duvenage and Chilliboy is behind both Gary Botha and Bandise Maku)… yet they are favoured at National level.
What message do you send out to Dewaldt Duvenage, Gary Botha, Tiaan Liebenberg, Bandise Maku… with this type of favouratism?
I agree with you, Januarie was so-so….. nothing aweful, nothing great….
You asked the question, how will Morné Steyn fare without Fourie du Preez’s service… well, let me answer it this way. You need to choose someone at scrummie which matches Fourie du Preez’s attributes the nearest, someone with tactical appreciation and nous, someone who’s tactical kicking game is strong, someone who takes the right options. This is where Ruan Pienaar is closest, where he matches most criteria. Ricky is just a Terrier who plays on natural instinct, there is very little savvy and tactical nous, he plays by the seat of his pants.
Daar is nie een bloubul ondersteuner op hierdie blog of op enige ander blog wat sê Elastoplast Chili verdien sy plek in die bokspan nie. Daar is omtrent 5 hakers wat tans beter as hy is en hul plek verdien. Bloubul ondersteuners dink Maku is tans beter as Chili.
Daar is egter heelwat wp ondersteuners wat meen ou Hamburger Januarie verdien sy plek in die bokgroep en het saterdag nie te sleg gespeel nie. Die feite is egter dat daar omtrent 5 skrumskakels is wat tans beter is, en ou Januarie haal nie eers die begin vyftiental van sy eie provinsie nie.
Nou wonder ek watter span se ondersteuners is bevooroordeeld ?
@ grootblousmile:
Ek stem saam en ek hoop PdV speel Saterdag vir Ruan…..Ek probeer dinge objektief sien en soms maak dit my kwaad as spelers vooraf reeds afgeskryf word en selfs al speel hulle goed nog steeds sleggese word. Dit is dieselfde met Bakkies…daar is reeds die persepsie dat hy vuil speel en as die geringste voorval gebeur sal dit hy wees wat uitgewys.
As dit my Bok rugby kom verloor ek my provinsiale kleure en wil net die beste vir die Bokke he maak nie saak waar hulle vandaan kom nie.
17@ Pokkel:
Ja, mens MOET OBJEKTIEF kan staan!
Om terug te kom na hierdie blog…. interressant dat 20 uit die 30 top bloggers nie Bulle is nie… kyk maar self hier langsaan… die Sharkies en die WiePies kom sterk deur… met so strepie of 2 vannie Vrystaat… die Lions het hulle moerre vir ons gepluk, wel vir almal eintlik.
1 steenkamp
2 smitty
3 janneman
4 danie
5 vic
6 schalk
7protgieter
8 spierre spies
9 ruaan
10 morne
12 meisiekind
13 mossie
14 hougaard as hy reg is
11 branananana
15 pietersen
16 cj
17 flip
18deysel
19 maku
20 sarel
21bosman
22 aplon
dink dis omtrnt die beste as mens dan n fetcher soek stegman
Springbok squad – Zane Kirchner, Gio Aplon, Bjorn Basson, Jaque Fourie, Jean de Villiers, Wynand Olivier, Juan de Jongh, Butch James, Morne Steyn, Bryan Habana, Ruan Pienaar, Ricky Januarie, Pierre Spies, Ryan Kankowski, Dewald Potgieter, Francois Louw, Schalk Burger, Bakkies Botha, Flip van der Merwe, Danie Rossouw, Victor Matfield, Alistair Hargreaves, BJ Botha, John Smit (c), Chiliboy Ralepelle, Jannie du Plessis, Gurtho Steenkamp.
snor snor snor jy ja kak aan met cillo en fatso
@ bdb:
Ag go fly a kite man – jule almal reken Gary Botha is die kat se snor, so ons het maar almal ons probleempies. Rakende Ricky, dit sal goed wees vir WP/Stormers Rugby ook as daai outjie uittree of “gehelp” word om uit te tree. Om en of ander rede is die oud SARU manne (Snor, Coetzee en kie) baie erg oor hom. Hemel, as die reserwe skrumskakel dan ‘n outjie van colour moet wees, laat Heini Adams wegkom by die Bulls en gee hom ‘n gereelde game by ‘n ander provinsie, ten minste wil hy speel en is hy in rugby shape – round is not a shape in rugby, especially not if you’re a back-line player!!
@ KingPaul:
Same old same old. PdV’s favourites there again in Chilli,Ricky and Hargreaves. Duane Vermeulen, Jean Deysel and Willem Alberts would have added some brute to the squad. The Loosie are a bit light IMO especially against France.
22: nee man, Gary is nie die kat se snor nie, hy is die kat homself ! 😉
@ grootblousmile:
I am afraid I also have the perception that this is a Bulls site.
The most frequent posters are Bulls supporters fair enough.
But the most frequent guys writing articles are Bulls Supporters.
25@ Biscuit:
Pity… I’ll tell Saint, Sharky, KingPaul, tighthead and a few others to work harder…. the lazy bunch of non-bulls!
Hehehehe
I’m by far the most prolific writer here, but luckily we have Morne, McLook, Saint, Sharky, TonyM, Loosehead, Rugby_Princess, KingPaul, tighthead and snoek who write as well…. and luckily our bias is not as tainted as certain journalist based sites and publications.
I do not hear complaints from Sharks generally, usually only a few WP manne or Lions…
Hey, what the hell, I can’t please all the people all the time… as long as this site pleases most of the people most of the time, then I’m happy.
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