Ricky axed
31 Oct 2009
Ricky Januarie has been left out of the 37-man Springbok squad to tour Europe with the Bulls’ Heini Adams viewed as a better alternative to Fourie du Preez.
Coach Peter de Villiers has also failed to select Bok regulars Jean de Villiers and Frans Steyn, sticking to his policy of favouring locally-based players. De Villiers is currently playing for Munster in Ireland while Steyn is turning out for Paris-based Racing Metro.
The Bok selectors will take nine new caps on tour. Apart from Francois Hougaard, who has been used as a wing in the latter stages of the Bulls’ Currie Cup campaign, Adams will also head to Europe. WP centre Juan de Jongh and Bulls’ flank Dewald Potgieter are two players who’ve shown great promise. After a good season at No 8 for the Cheetahs, Ashley Johnson is also rewarded with a call-up.
Sharks lock Allistair Hargreaves is one of four shock selections, as De Villiers has also opted to include Griquas pair Davon Raubenheimer and Riaan Viljoen, as well as the Bulls’ third-choice hooker Bandise Maku.
Meyer Bosman gets a recall as does Zane Kirchner, who made his debut against the British & Irish Lions earlier this year. Lions loosehead Heinke van der Merwe is a good selection.
De Villiers has also persisted with Earl Rose despite the Lions fullback’s indifferent form.
Cheetahs blindside Juan Smith hasn’t been considered because of injury.
The midweek side will play the first tour fixture against Leicester next Saturday before the Test side line up against France on 13 November. The dirt-trackers take on Saracens the following week while the senior side will face Italy and Ireland on consecutive Saturdays.
Springbok squad:
Forwards: John Smit (c), Victor Matfield (v/c), Beast Mtawarira, Gurthro Steenkamp, Heinke van der Merwe, Bismarck du Plessis, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Bandise Maku, Jannie du Plessis, Bakkies Botha, Danie Rossouw, Allistair Hargreaves, Andries Bekker, Schalk Burger, Davon Raubenheimer, Heinrich Brussow, Pierre Spies, Ryan Kankowski, Dewald Potgieter, Ashley Johnson.
Backs: Fourie du Preez, Morne Steyn, Ruan Pienaar, Adi Jacobs, Jaque Fourie, JP Pietersen, Bryan Habana, Odwa Ndungane, Wynand Olivier, Earl Rose, Heini Adams, Meyer Bosman, Juan de Jongh, Francois Hougaard, Zane Kirchner, Jongi Nokwe, Riaan Viljoen.
208 Comments
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1 Nov 2009, 14:20 pm
#74 RedLion: LoL! Yip, young Earl is an enigma to us all
1 Nov 2009, 15:04 pm
PDV’S persistence with Earl is perplexing to say the least.
He’s actually doing more harm to Earl than he realises.
Every time Earl plays he’ll be under pressure to vindicate the coach’s faith in him.
He was already getting booed at Ellis park every time he made a mistake in the Lions jersey.
Not ideal if you’re a youngster trying to establish yourself in the national team.
Good luck Earl may you prove us all wrong but if I feel for you.
1 Nov 2009, 16:24 pm
#154 rugbygenius: how many chances do you want to give Rose?? He might have been a good junior player but junior talent doesn’t always equate to making it bigger in the senior teams. He has been given countless chances and still manages to bugger up consistently.
His only consistency is the consistency to consistently lose games or put his team on the back foot and under pressure.
1 Nov 2009, 18:03 pm
#195 Jeffers: div has a few more screws loose than straueli
2 Nov 2009, 08:03 am
some good selections but again it shows how PdV is blind to the talent and form that is on in the CC how did Adams and Maku get in they dont deserve to be there, strauss should be there and then scrumhalves there are others as well, sharks and lions have gr8 scrummies
2 Nov 2009, 08:54 am
#203 fish out of water: Div moves in mysterious ways, but as long as he keeps breaking winning records left, right and centre it’s hard to criticize him.
The comparison with Straeuli is completely misplaced. Straeuli selected a different team every week – he thought that coaching was just selecting the right players and that’s it. His relationship with his players was very poor and there was no sense of camaraderie or trust in his squad. He has the worst winning percentage of any Bok coach ever and he suffered record defeats against just about every team he faced.
In each one of those instances Div is the exact opposite of Straeuli.
I often disagree with Div’s choices, but at ther end of the day the scoreboard doesn’t lie.
2 Nov 2009, 09:17 am
The inclusion of Rose is still the most perplexing choice. No matter how talented he is, he has shown time and again that he does not step up to the plate in the big games when it really counts.
Time and again he has been thrown in at the deep end with the hope that he will swim and time and again he has failed.
If he is to have a future in SA rugby I would say that he rather has to drop down to a smaller union like Griekwas where the pressure is less and he can build some confidence.
Heinke is also a weird choice. He hasn’t played any rugby since April and according to reports here on Keo, he was only going to start playing again in next year’s S14. Even weirder is the fact that JC calls Heinke a “good selection”. In my mind there are many props who played well in the CC and deserved a call-up ahead of him.
Isn’t it about time we give someone else a chance ahead of the Ndungane brothers? They have served SA well as solid second stringers, but there is so much exciting young talent on the wing to choose from.
The one glaring omission is Adriaan Strauss. When he got his chance in a Bok jersey last year through the injury of the top three or four hookers he grabbed it with both hands. Since then he played brilliantly for the Cheetahs and has shown himself as a great leader as well.
2 Nov 2009, 10:00 am
#204 Dunx:
Dunx, Look at the positive aspects:
Lobbert and Shimanga were not selected
It is what it is, and we all will have fun if PdV will pick a Boks lineup comprised of mostly of darkyes
Part of the blame must fall on the senior players who prop up this farce, John Smit already has won it all, he can step down in dignity without making any confrontations, a thundering silence travels far.
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