Bittersweet blow for Boks
8 Nov 2009
Chiliboy Ralepelle and Gurthro Steenkamp have been ruled out for the rest of the European tour due to injury.
Ralepelle, the South Africans’ midweek captain, left the field in the 20th minute of Friday’s game against Leicester. It’s yet to be confirmed whether the foot injury is the same that sidelined him for the back end of the Currie Cup, and he will see a specialist on his return to South Africa.
On the back of a poor performance against the Tigers at scrum time, Steenkamp also returns from England having suffered a knee injury. Jannie du Plessis is also reported to have a hand injury, but at this stage will remain with the touring party.
Cheetahs duo Wian du Preez and Adriaan Strauss, who should have been included on this tour ahead of Steenkamp and Ralepelle by weight of performance in the Currie Cup, will now join the Boks.
The addition of Du Preez and Strauss should bolster the South Africa XV scrum significantly, but it will be interesting to see whether the coaching staff persists with the Heinke van der Merwe tighthead move if Du Plessis’ injury is serious.
The call up should also see the Free State pair warm the bench in the upcoming Test against France. Strauss played for the Boks last season while Du Preez has trained with them before. They’d be the natural selections given their experience, but it will be interesting to see whether Peter de Villiers picks them ahead of Bandise Maku and Van der Merwe.
Maku has battled for game time at the Bulls in 2009 while Van der Merwe is coming off a serious injury and did not play for the Lions in the Currie Cup.
It makes sense to pick Strauss and Du Preez, but it also raises the question of why they weren’t selected in the first place.
213 Comments
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8 Nov 2009, 09:13 am
What is all the fuss?
Face facts, the SA first XV is that, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th is not.
South Africa is kidding if we think there is real depth.
8 Nov 2009, 09:18 am
Poll needs one more option
It was a run for players who do not deserve test caps
8 Nov 2009, 09:19 am
Guys maybe I’m wrong but I suspect the problem does not really lie so much with the individual players (Chile worries me though) but more with the coaches. The FS front row was nothing special until Os got involved and then very quickly they were beasting just about everyone, including Beast. Sticking my neck out I would say Chris Jack did a similar thing at WP, not only adding power and effort but mentoring the younger floaters and glory boys. His influence lasted after he left but waned, ultimately costing WP a place in the CC final.
So, we need an outstanding front row coach (OS?) and for more players to stay in the Bok mix, not be plucked out of obscurity and injury and jammed into a makeshift team.
A flier: what about F Hougaard to be groomed as back up for Morne Steyn.
8 Nov 2009, 09:25 am
#39 fran1807: Agree except for one little detail!
Guthro got pummeled,in the final too, with both Vic and Bakkies behind him, add Spies, Rossouw, and Potgieter!!
Guthro isn’t the 2nd best loosehead in SA currently, and that’s fact!!
8 Nov 2009, 09:31 am
#48 bryce_in_oz: And your point is what actually??
You think Wian is a weaker option than Gurthro?
Oh dear, the Cheetahs front row destroyed most scrums in the CC, and they didn’t have bakkies, and Vic behind them, just a very well coached, and cohesive scrum
8 Nov 2009, 09:35 am
rugby writer is the biggest prick of all time
Gurthro Steenkamp and Chili Boy Ralepelle were both enshrined Blue Bulls Bok’s since 2005 or thereabouts discovered by Jake the Fake
Chili Boy has been groomed by the rugby guru’s of this country as J. Smits successor since junior level and Gurthro Steenkamp has been regarded as the best LH in the country in the tight loose mold same as John Smit along with Beast since 2007 so even if it were Jake White as coach those two would have been in the party to begin with.
Just because some pricks in this country have unparalleled prejudice eating up their brains since childhood don’t make these selections any more lucky or enlightened than they like to dream about.
Pdv is quite aware of who the best up and coming players are and who he would like to put in position but just like Bismark du Plessis and Frans Steyn were ‘discovered’ by Jake during Wc 2007 because Pierre Spies was withdrawn with roids clots and Jdv went down injured, so too do the cream players rise to the occasion when the selections take care of themselves.
8 Nov 2009, 09:46 am
#55 Cheetah 4 Eva:
Not at all mate… don’t get your Oranje knickers in a knot… I’ve rated Wian for quite some time and was chuffed when he (and Liebenberg) were included in the 2007 RWC extended squad… the point was simply that some are being quite harsh towards Gurthro… a bloke that has been the first choice for an entire season in his double CC and S14 winning team… simple as that…
8 Nov 2009, 09:49 am
#56 skopskiet:
Maybe Jake the Fake but PDV can only win with Jake the Fakes core team. The minute PDV selects a team without the CORE of Jakes team they get done by a CLUB team.
Anyway it augurs well for the future. PDV has proven that quotas, favoritism and plain politics do not cut it. Pretty much the same way Jake the Fake did.
Tell the admin / politicos to go donner themselves because they know absolutely Jack Sheeet about rugby.
8 Nov 2009, 09:50 am
#51 oodles: There is real depth Oodles, but the right players need to be picked! The following players in back up are right up there, except in certain positions!
1. Wian, Heinke, Blauuw
2. Strauss, Liebenberg
3. WP Nel, Kevin Buys, Pat cilliers
4. Sykes, Anton van Zyl, Flip vd Merwe (a gap here)
5. Bekker, David de Villiers, Muller
6. Stegman, Louw, Grobbelaar
7. Vermeulen, Deysel
8. Alberts, Johnson,Potgieter,Ernst Joubert, Johnson
9. Sarel Pretorius, Jano Vermaak, Dewaldt Duvenhage, Mc Leod
10. JL Potgieter, Lionel Cronje, Sias Ebersohn (big gap)
11. Nokwe, vd Heever, Mvovo, JJ Engelbrecht
12. Robert Ebersohn, Bosman, le Grange, Grant
13. Hollenbach, Newman, Uys,
14. Maoe, Basson, Demas
15. Kirchner, Pieterson
Add to that some real talent overseas, and in the under 21 ranks, and there is more than enough depth, it’s the selection of the right combinations that will be the real question!
8 Nov 2009, 09:54 am
#57 bryce_in_oz: Quite chilled mate, was just asking, not knotting my knickers at all!
Feeling a bit abrasive this morning?
8 Nov 2009, 09:59 am
that club team front row would have drilled our or Jake the Fakes first choice front row. We damn lucky it weren’t Beast Bismark and Smit packing down against that Italian Stallion prop and his mates because they would have been done in just the same as our other seasoned Jake the Fake stalwarts like Gurthro Chili and Jannie pup.
In fact I fear we in for much of the same with our Jake the Fake core team come next Friday in Toulouse.
8 Nov 2009, 10:00 am
#60 Cheetah 4 Eva: #60 Cheetah 4 Eva:
Nope mate… barmy evening here… Riesling in hand… and watching the replay of the greatest heavy-weight in Mixed Martial Arts 2nd round knock-out and re-emergence on the scene…
You can see it on mmascraps (dot) com…
Go Strauss and Wian!
8 Nov 2009, 10:07 am
#61 skopskiet: Front row has been faking it for a while. As all good things, they come to an end.
8 Nov 2009, 10:08 am
Take Matfield and Botha out of the scrum and the pack folds like a cheap deck of cards.
8 Nov 2009, 10:09 am
The scrumming was atrocious and the players and coaches must all take the blame.
But despite the player’s failings, everyone needs to acknowledge the power of combinations and continuity.
Just like a centre pairing, a halfback pairing, a loose trio, a back three etc. a pack needs to scrum together as a unit.
The pack needs time to do this, both in practice and match settings.
These guys had never scrummed together properly.
Some of them were playing together for the first time.
The front five, in theory, should’ve gone well as 1, 2 and 4 are all Bulls and 1 to 5 have all been in the Springbok set-up for some time.
But the loosies were all new to each other and to the Bok set-up, so the pack was always going to be up against it.
That said, in terms of PDV’s initial objectives for this tour, there is some success in the form of Ashley Johnson.
I believe he’s a real find and well suited to the game on northern hemisphere fields.
Frankly, I’d consider him in the Bok 22 mix for the game against Italy.
8 Nov 2009, 10:15 am
#61 skopskiet: Oh so after claiming that the past success has had all to do with PdV and nothing to do with Jake, you want to go blaming the **** up on Jake? Sounds very similar to the government and their tendency to blame stuff on apartheid 15 years after the fact….
When Jake was coaching, his scrums werent going backwards like that mate. That was ALL PdV’s chickens coming home to roost for just downright shoddy recognition of talent and his refusal to recognise form. PdV is NOT a great talent scout.
Hell the fact that it took so long and so many injuries for him to finally get Brussow in ther says it all – and then he wanted to take him out of the first team again! He needs a hat with those slap hands on it that slap him every twenty seconds to get him back to reality.
8 Nov 2009, 10:19 am
#56 skopskiet:
What an idiot you are. For one, it is preposturous to think that Chilliboy could come even close to bringing the leadership that Smit does (or Matfield for that matter). Jake had to put them in, PDV WANTS to. We all know Gurthro is not the best LH in the country. Wian and Blaauw are both way more effective. And typical idiot arguement, saying I’m “prejudiced”, for what? Becuase I insulted PDV? Where did I mention ANYTHING about race? You obviously choose not to argue with rugby facts, but with calling me prejudiced. You can’t deny that almost every great find by PDV has been because of injury to his favourites. JW didn’t FIND Frans Steyn becuase of JDV’s injury you stupid idiot. JW knew how good Frans Steyn was, but with James at FH, JDV at CT, and Percy at FB, there was no place for him, so JW had to put him on the bench. This as opposed to PDV not even putting Brussow in his original squad. This as opposed to him leaving out Wian du Preez who has destroyed his opponents scrums for a guy who hasn’t played in half a year. This as opposed to probably the most in-form hooker in the country not even making the squad behind 2nd and 3rd choice hookers. You my friend need to catch a wake up
8 Nov 2009, 10:20 am
It’s a win win situation really.
Those who shouldn’t have been picked in the first place are going home and those who should have been picked are rightfully joining the Boks.
8 Nov 2009, 10:21 am
and here you have cheetah4eva suggesting J. Muller should still be a back up 2nd row option, haven’t we tried that failed experiment time after time after failing time again and again and again already?
Only answer is to blood new up and coming players and stick with them you don’t create world beating players in one trial experiment, you identify the players that can do the business early on then you mold and develop them into a combination. What they done to Pienaar destroying his confidence like that is next to criminal.
8 Nov 2009, 10:34 am
yeah you are prejudiced for sure rugby writer both Gurthro and Chili boy where in Jake the Fake’s team before and would have both been in whether you agree with them or not just as they were in 2007. Furthermore I have witnessed you calling Pdv the ‘luckiest little *******’ not once but a few times already, so pretend all you like but your prejudice ooze’s out your brain whether you intend to expose it or not.
8 Nov 2009, 10:40 am
Old skoppie’s still frothing at the mouth about Jake ‘the Fake’ (wasn’t it Snake?). Things never change for small minded bitter people, I guess.
It’s time to let go skoppie, release all that built up tension.
8 Nov 2009, 10:42 am
#69 skopskiet:
Yet you know I am correct and you don’t stand a chance in debating the facts I’ve presented, so you persist in calling me “prejudiced”. Yes, I’ve called SNor a lucky little ******* a few times, why is that? Maybe – Just maybe – It’s becuase…he is infact…wait for it… a lucky little *******? I mean, I haven’t lied about anyhting and all my facts were accurate. You’re only arguement is that I hold a prejudice. Haha, idiot. This site is about rugby. If you want to talk politics go to news24 or something
8 Nov 2009, 10:43 am
Its funny how it is important to protect the confidence levels of every white player in country the but black players must learn to deal with it. Hats off to Earl Rose… 10/10 for tenacity… Imagine if he had the same protection from PDV as Ruan… WE would then really discover who is the Tiger Woods of rugby… It also amazes me how every coach in the country is afraid to play him at FH… but would throw him in teh scrum if they could… Long Live Earl Rose
8 Nov 2009, 10:44 am
#70 wooden spoon: How are you young man
8 Nov 2009, 10:46 am
#73 Langenhoven:
I would argue with you, but people like you are just a waste of matter
8 Nov 2009, 10:47 am
#73 Langenhoven: Hello Langers, where have you been lately, attepting coup d’etats on other racist blogs? Veni, vidi but not quite vici eh?
Lol, hows London these days?
8 Nov 2009, 10:48 am
#74 rugbywriter: I think you have an inferiority complex… maybe thats the reason why can’t argue with me… BUt thanks for elevating me to King of the blog
8 Nov 2009, 10:49 am
Well got to go out for lunch, lovely chatting with you chaps. I’m just loving the shlimp flied spling lolls out here, later.
8 Nov 2009, 10:52 am
#75 wooden spoon: There is always a warm place to have a drink in London… its like the sunny days in Africa even when its snowing… and BTW why do you guys keep giving me a nick when you went through all the effort to expose me…Shaun is the name
8 Nov 2009, 10:53 am
#76 Langenhoven:
I take it you’re black and have a chipon your shoulder about Apartheid
8 Nov 2009, 10:55 am
#75 wooden spoon: BTW.. have managed to dictate discussion on the BBC business blog…. I am awesome!!!
8 Nov 2009, 10:59 am
#79 rugbywriter: I am mostly human hence my preoccupation with fighting inhumanity… BTW Skop is not black either… your theory is therefore ****
8 Nov 2009, 11:00 am
#81 Langenhoven:
Did I say Skop was black? And what theory?
8 Nov 2009, 11:03 am
#66 rugbywriter:
It is a fact that Jake considered Gurthro as Os’s natural successor.
And it would seem from what has been reported that, if Jake continued as Bok coach, he would’ve urged Smit to retire and have Bismark and Chilli as his two hookers.
HAD to include them?
I don’t think so.
8 Nov 2009, 11:04 am
Well this is something….2 front row forwards on way home and the boggest slap snoek of them all has a hand injury too….
All we need is J Smit to do a hammie nd we well on our way to getting a proper front row!
8 Nov 2009, 11:05 am
#82 rugbywriter: The theroy that you have to be black to have a problem with Apartheid and racism in general… but you should stop now.. you are about to get slaughtered. Imbeciles are easily exposed
8 Nov 2009, 11:05 am
Come on people, let’s be reasonable.
Gurthro might not be a strong scrummaging loosehead, but he is a handful in the loose and tackles well.
He may be a little lower on the list of SA 1s in the scrummaging dept, but in the loose he is up there along with Beast.
Heinke (when game fit) can scrum, but where else does he impose himself at match time?
8 Nov 2009, 11:06 am
I am 100% saffa….whats all this colour kak!!
8 Nov 2009, 11:08 am
For all those that have an issue with size.. Damn you should have seen David slay Goliath last night… a bit better than Aplon lifting and driving Matfield back in a tackle
8 Nov 2009, 11:09 am
#86 puff: Agree puff….but if you happy to go with a slight less powerful loosehead to accomodate there other virtues, then you must have a brute of a 3….
J Smit aint no brute 3 !
And beast is like Guthro….excellent in tight loose but not the best scrummager.
Cant have a weak 1 and 3 scrummager.
Thats our dilemma
8 Nov 2009, 11:10 am
#88 Langenhoven: did he beat the russian???
Hell…how?
8 Nov 2009, 11:11 am
To all “mostly humans” out there,…………..commiserations.
In the Bad Old Days, the Boks took a mounted Springbok Head with them on Tour, and it was presented to the first Club or Provincial Side to beat them (if any).
I hope the tradition is still alive.
8 Nov 2009, 11:12 am
#87 grant10: Hows you broer… Raining out my way.. but the house is warm…
8 Nov 2009, 11:13 am
#91 cane: instead of leaving a Bok head can we leave Jannie Du Plessis behind….please..
8 Nov 2009, 11:13 am
rugby writer you a f.ak’d up prejudiced fool whether you ready to admit it or not. This other twit wooden spoon not all that much better. But nevertheless we still talking rugby here and as much as I or anyone else would suggest that Wian du Preez and Wicus Blaauw along with Tiaan Liebenberg and Adriaan Strauss with WP Nel and Kevin Buys should be in the squad ahead of Gurthro, Beast, John Smit, Chili Boy Ralepelle and Jannie Pap Broek Dup, it were never going to happen. All those players being entrenched in the front line since 2007 already thanks to who.
So talk a whole lot of prejudiced ‘little *******’ sh’t all you like facts remain what they are. This country needs to develop second tier talent and it needs to promote Poc players whether you ready to shove your prejudice where it don’t fit or not.
Pdv took Rose, Nokwe, Adams, Potgieter, Viljoen, Maku, Raubenheimer, Hargreaves, De Jongh, along as his selection of players who he believed were due some blooding and exposure. Out of those who let the team down on Friday. Guess who, Chili, Gurthro, Jannie, Danie, Ruan and Odwa. Those were the players, each and every one of them seasoned WC winners under Jake the Fake, that let the team down, not the new kids but the old Poc players of yesteryear, they the ones that let us down.
8 Nov 2009, 11:14 am
#92 Langenhoven: That boxing….what happened there boet??
Cold and miserable here too…..looking forward to chelsea and man u later
8 Nov 2009, 11:14 am
#90 grant10: He almost knocked him out in the 12th… He boxed clever thoughout the fight though… hit and run… The Russian hardly had a clear scoring punch
8 Nov 2009, 11:14 am
#85 Langenhoven: Idiocy knows no colour. You’re doing a good job of proving that point. Thank you.
8 Nov 2009, 11:16 am
#91 cane: LOL
8 Nov 2009, 11:18 am
#96 Langenhoven: so the brit won??
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