Callie Visagie
Vodacom Bulls coach Frans Ludeke for the 1st time this season named Callie Visagie as starting hooker for his team to face the Chiefs in Rotorua on Friday. Visagie moves from the bench and replaces Adriaan Strauss for this Vodacom Super Rugby clash, with Jaco Visagie replacing his namesake on the bench. Jaco Visagie earned his 1st cap against the Reds earlier in the campaign.
Strauss, who has started in all the team’s matches this year, is rested according to the SARU agreement.
Ludeke also made 2 changes in his loose trio, with Jacques du Plessis and Deon Stegmann starting after playing off the bench against the Blues, and Arno Botha and Lappies Labuschagne this time tasked to provide spark as impact players.
“We are up against a very formidable side and will have to play much better than last weekend. We did not execute the way we wanted against the Blues and the Chiefs will pose even more questions to our defence and attack. So we have to start well and finish well,” Ludeke said.
“I have a lot of faith in Callie’s abilities and I am confident that he will perform well. He is an experienced campaigner with close to 50 Super matches under the belt.”
Vodacom Bulls: 15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Francois Hougaard, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Pierre Spies (Captain), 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Flip van de Merwe, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Trevor Nyakane
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Dean Greyling, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Arno Botha, 20 Lappies Labuschagne, 21 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 22 Burger Odendaal, 23 Travis Ismaiel.
Date: Friday 22 May
Venue: Rotorua International Stadium, Rotorua
Kick-Off: 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 17:35 AEST, 07:35 GMT)
Referee: Chris Pollock (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Aki Aso (Japan)
TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)
Bulle gaan hulle gatte sien sonder ‘n spieëltjie Vrydag!!
I despise Ludeke and this shows you why
> “I have a lot of faith in Callie’s abilities and I am confident that he will perform well.”
When has he EVER performed?
On his very best day, when he really, really tries hard Callie might be a Vodacom Cup player
>”He is an experienced campaigner with close to 50 Super matches under the belt.”
That’s entirely your fault Frans, to have a substandard player in your squad, and to keep selecting him although he keeps playing subpar rugby
grootblousmile wrote:
Nee nee, dink groter as dit
Dink 2009 se finaal, hulle skuld ons, maar net erger
Dink 2007 teen die Reds, maar net erger
Dink 2005 teen die Stormers, maar net erger
Hulle gaan ons ‘n GROOT MIELIE ROL
3 @ Victoriabok:
Met hierdie spankeuses, dink ek Frans buk al reeds vir wat gaan volg!
grootblousmile wrote:
Frnas buk al ‘n paar jaar vir Victor, hy’s al gewoond daaraan
Daai Chiefs Mielie gaan nie eers kante raak nie, soos ‘n gholfbal in ‘n drein af
5 @ Victoriabok:
Dis seker hoekom Frans se oë altyd so groot en wyd getrek is… hehehe
grootblousmile wrote:
Wie’s jou papa Frans?
Jy is Victor, jy is
grootblousmile wrote:
Nee, dis pyn en die afwagting van nog meer wat gaan kom
Onthou Victor is oor die twee meter, klein Victor is seker ook maklik oor die twee voet lank 😛
Guys lets be clear. If it was up to Frans he would select Strauss every game and play him the full 80+ minutes.
It’s not up to him. The Super Rugby franchises have an agreement with SARU to give the contracted Boks a rest, and this is part of the deal. We have to rest Duanne, an equally key player for at least 5 matches, of which he still has to rest 2.
The fact is, Frans has no decent no 2 hooker, as is the case with most franchises. That being said he isn’t exactly going to come out and say “look, Callie has been woefully disappointing but he’s all we’ve got and our season is stuffed anyway so what the hell….
The same applies to the Sharks with Bismark, and us with Scarra.
No decent backup.
So we go with what we have and preach the company line…..
9 @ Stormersboy:
There you hit the nail firmly on the head.
That’s why the Lions need to work some kind of magic with Akker vd Merwe, and in a year or so with Malcolm Marx.
How do you keep great “impact” players that come off the bench, but could also easily start happy.
Take Willie Britz as an example.
He EASILY covered all of the back row options, as well as lock off the bench. Hence he was an ideal squad player, but left to another franchise for the sake of getting into a starting line-up.
How do the Bulls (or any team for that matter) get it right to take on a player in any position who is there purely to make up the numbers?
All professional sportsmen want game time at the end of the day.
@ Scrumdown:
Correct-a-mundo.
It’s a hard balancing act. Wesay it with Kolisi who is a Springbok but struggled to get a regular starting place as a result of a whole bunch of good loose forwards in the mix. So he signed elsewhere.
At the beginning of the season we had:
Duanne
Carr
Kolisi
Burger
Rhodes
Elstadt
Next year we will have
Carr
Elstadt
Burger (probably not)
So we became a victim of our own depth.
9 @ Stormersboy:
Right on, when you look at PW’s centers as well, a few guys have left the team in recent years because they were always goign to be second choice, and with the market as it is, average to good quality players can go to europe and get game time and more money, so it looks like a trend where the next best is already going to be “of less quality” and when injuries hit it is disastrous (if you compare the Sharks and Cheetahs vs the Lions).
We all want rotation and also believe that the country comes first 😀 but it appears to be only when it is convenient to do so.
Personally I am happy with Strauss getting rested, Calie may not be close to that same standard, but we just need to deal with it..
Out of the selection, the only thing that really stands out for me, is JJ starting again (though he has been fairly underrated this season as he has easily been the best defender in the backline and is regaining some confidence in attack)… I would like to see Burger start and Jan to 13.
Oh and another selection I would maybe gammble and have selected Lappies at 7, The Chiefs are going to use their backline all day (if you go by the media) so another quick loosie on the field to get around and make tackles would have helped, and none better in the Bulls team other than Lappies for that responsibility.
However, it will probably be another close game where the Chiefs will take the Bulls on physically and probably win that battle anyway.
So 2 or 3 Chiefs forwards settled for my fantasy league team.
Stormersboy wrote:
I don’t agree, it is all up to him
Frans knew Callie wasn’t up to it for the last two years
I’m sure it won’t be hard finding a better hooker in the Vodacom squad or Tuks Varsity Cup team, it’s not as if Callie set the bar that high. Frans could have tried other hookers from the bench
As for the Stormers, if you’re not happy with Bongi please return him, we’ll send you Callie, JJ and Visser, hell we’ll even include Dean and Werner to sweeten the pot 😛
Victoriabok wrote:
LOL I think Bongi has been a bit disappointing to be honest.
I would have stuck with Coetzee who played CC last year but he signed for the griquas along with Michael Van der Spuy
PS Stephan Coetzee (see post above) has the best line out accuracy stats of any SA Hooker in the Super Rugby comp (minimum of 10 throws)
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