Wian: ‘Boks top priority’
8 Nov 2009
Wian du Preez signed a two-month deal with Munster on Friday, but says he will commit to the Springboks after his late call-up to the squad.
Despite displaying excellent form during the Currie Cup, Du Preez was intially overlooked by Peter de Villiers and co for the end-of-year tour.
This allowed Irish club Munster to sign the Cheetahs loosehead on loan to bolster the front row as they are struggling with an injury crisis.
However, Du Preez and Cheetahs team-mate Adriaan Strauss have been called up to join the Springboks in Europe to take the places of the injured Guthro Steenkamp and Chilliboy Ralepelle, who will return home.
Du Preez said he is looking forward to joining the Springbok camp, which will be his top priority.
‘I’m over the moon with the news,’ Du Preez told keo.co.za. ‘I will still help out Munster with their injury crisis, but playing for the Boks will be on top of my list.
‘If the the Springboks release me, then I will play for Munster. I will also stay behind after the end-of-year tour and play out the rest of my deal that I signed with them.’
Du Preez’s deal with Munster ends on 25 January. The prop will then join the Cheetahs for their Super 14 pre-season training.
By Gareth Duncan
59 Comments
8 Nov 2009, 14:22 pm
good lad…respect!
8 Nov 2009, 14:31 pm
Only thing he will have had no rest until the S14 starts.
Enjoy the experience though WdP. Nice to play in the NH for a bit to experience something new and only for 2 months that is great then we have him back.
Now if Frans Steyn only signed for 2 months!!! If only.
8 Nov 2009, 14:41 pm
What a boytjie
8 Nov 2009, 15:52 pm
W.dp plays loosehead, i know hes replacing guthro, but arent we more in need of tighthead cover for smity since Jdp is folding these days, think WpNel is needed more that du Preez, but hey what do i knw, i hope the coaching staff has a plan, why not draft Os in to help out? he did wonders with that cheetah front row
8 Nov 2009, 16:12 pm
Ok here’s a team we should consider:
15.) Zane Kirchner/Joe Pieterse
14.) JP Pietersen/Juan De Jongh
13.) Jacues Fourie/Jaco Pretorius
12.) Wynand Olivier/Peter Grant
11.) Bryan Habana/Lionel Mapoe
10.) Morne Steyn/Ruan Pienaar
9.) Fourdie du Preez/Heini Adams/Sarel Pretorius
8.) Ryan Kankowski/Ashley Johnson
7.) Schalk Burger/Jean Deysel/Duane Vermeulen
6.) Heinrich Brussouw/Deon Stegman/Francois Louw
5.) Victor Matfield/ANdries Bekker
4.) Bakkies Botha/Anton van Zyl/Wilhelm Steenkamp
3.) John Smit/WP Nel/
2.) Bismarck du Plessis/TIaan Liebenberg
1.) Beast Mtawaria/Wian du Preez/Wikus Blaauw
8 Nov 2009, 16:53 pm
One of the objectives of this tour is to bring forward CC players and see if they can withstand the pressure of playing at International level. The one position that we have the least cover for is tighthead. JannieDup needs to get on a plane. Not to be critical, but he is a known entity. Play the Cheetahs front row in combination for goodness sake. The other issue is that we should not rush to judgement on our front row but look at the scrumming of the entire pack. Heinke was made to look below average by a poorly drilled scrum
8 Nov 2009, 16:53 pm
JY VERDIEN DIT MY SEUN!!!!
8 Nov 2009, 17:10 pm
I am sure Munster are not impressed, but who cares?!
8 Nov 2009, 17:22 pm
#4 Mustard: “i hope the coaching staff has a plan”
Yes, the master front row plan involved Guffro, Chilli, Bandise, Jannie, Smittie, etc.
8 Nov 2009, 17:33 pm
yip this guy deserves to be there, he’s done his time and not a one-off wonder, whether he can keep the NH scrums at bay is another matter althogether, depends how he takes up the challenge.
8 Nov 2009, 17:36 pm
#6 Gouelepel:
I think the reasoning on sticking with Jannie and Gurthro for this tour was that bringing in a new front row, which double as bench replacements, that has only one season of S14 behind them would have been a risk for the tests. Especially considering the short prep period.
Most of the guys here are concentrating on the set scrum problems and ignoring the fact that the props need to perform as part of the team for the rest of the game.
8 Nov 2009, 17:40 pm
its very simple, when will the boks ever learn their lesson.
on EOY tours, you do not take the boys if you want to win.
this could be a very long tour, esp since the first team players are going to start hitting the wall.
its actually not clever selection, but anyway they want to blood them, who knows why, hope it pays off, but its just going to smash their confidence.
8 Nov 2009, 17:45 pm
#11 David: Agree, our tendency to field frontrankers with high loose-play workrates tends to work in SH conditions, but the tendency to select solely on this criteria is a high-risk approach that has the possibilty of going pear-shaped.
8 Nov 2009, 17:45 pm
du Preez should have been there in the first place. You cant just put 15 players together and hope they gel. Thats why Im a fan of trials. If we had had trilas, we would have known that the scrum we picked against Leicesters B TEAM was ****, and could have sorted it out BEFORE we left SA and embarrassed ourselves.
8 Nov 2009, 18:03 pm
I’m also a fan of trials and all anyone ever been telling me is its ou doos strategy. But if we had proper trials we would know who can cut it and who can’t.
W. Du Preez, K. Buys, WP Nel, W. Blaauw should all be pencilled in ahead of J. Smit, T. Mtwarira, J. Du Plessis, G. Steenkamp. But we don’t know it for sure, yet if we’d had a set of trials we would without a doubt.
Also the players would all go into the next game knowing who the playing alongside is the next best in his position and all manner of confidence would be the ensuing result. This way they all going in totally green not knowing one way or the other if they are an experiment that may or may not work.
8 Nov 2009, 18:05 pm
#12 cab:
It was our experience tight five that let us down on Friday, not the youngsters.
#14 Craig Goosen:
That’s what the S14 is used for, and why I think PdeV didn’t pick Wian or WP over more experienced players. Next year the 2 youngsters will have a second S14 to show their worth, not just as scrumming props but all round players.
As luck has it for Wian, his opportunity came a little earlier than planned.
8 Nov 2009, 18:10 pm
Sykes should definitely have been there, its not the tour for bekkers or hargreaves etc.
Guthro is great in the tightloose, but Jan Dup is not bok material and needs to be cutloose. I think the Boks are poked in this position, but it should have been WP Nel here who offers more in the scrums and tightloose. Sykes should have played alongside rossouw and it would have been a very different result. Deysel and ALberts should have been there too.
what ppl dont understand is that the NH play ou doos rugby, and you either adapt to it and be up for it or they will mow you down.
8 Nov 2009, 18:11 pm
#16 David:
i looked at that pack last week and knew they were stuffed.
too many green passengers to win against a team like leicester.
8 Nov 2009, 18:18 pm
#17 cab:
Two years ago Jannie was being touted as a Bok TH to back up BJ Botha, the same as WP and Nel at LH are being tipped now.
PdeV would have been mad to risk two rookies in the tests against France and Ireland, where experience is paramount. Sure, it might have worked, but it would have been a massive risk.
8 Nov 2009, 18:20 pm
#19 David:
yeah thats true, this result brings it all into perspective, sharply.
i reckon the Bokke without Bakkies and Bismarck are very vulnerable.
8 Nov 2009, 18:23 pm
and actually Burger will be essential for next week also.
8 Nov 2009, 18:23 pm
And the reason WP Nel is not on the plane too is … ?
8 Nov 2009, 18:25 pm
the pack that were cut down by Leicester were seasoned Wc winning Bok’s. Steenkamp, Chili, Du Plessis, Roussouw and Bekker. The loosie’s were green horns but not the tight 5.
Even if it were our A team front row of Beast, Bismark and Smit, they would have been taken apart just the same.
What the coaches failed to do was to identify the front row forwards who had been performing in the CC. The FS and WP front rows had been far stronger than the Bulls or Sharks up front, yet none of that form was taken into account, so they rather stuck with what they knew rather than gamble on what they didn’t.
They’d have been far better off if they’d realize that form is current and reputation is past tense, and in rugby a form player is always way better than a reputation that is hanging on by its finger nails.
8 Nov 2009, 18:29 pm
chilli, dupless and becker are very suspect in the tight and hardly seasoned, in fact, they’ve strugged to even get game time at their province – i mean wtf did we really expect.
raubenheimer is also not the sort to play at blindside in a NH contest, here its important for another hardman to impose himself both in the tight and in the collisions to get go-forward.
but everyone said its not about winning by picking thse okes, so fair enough, not sure what its all about.
8 Nov 2009, 18:30 pm
Damn, major storm about to hit. Cheers until it’s over, got to unplug the ADSL router. I’ve already lost one last week!
8 Nov 2009, 18:31 pm
Guys,
Wian deserves this. He is 27 years old, not a kid by any means and played well for the Eboks earlier this year. He has been matured slowly and properly managed till now, and now is his time, and he will be ready and up to it.
However, WP Nel is a youngster compared to him, albeit with huge talent. Same applies to Kevin Buys who is a retreaded 8 and is being talked about as a future hooker. The fact that they scrummed allcomers in SA doesn’t mean they are ready for the big time.
Remember they scrummed the very guys you are all now dissing. Let me tell you this- they too would not have coped on Friday and would have been the worse for it. Let’s not rush them into things. In two years they’ll probably be ready, not now, and we will need them then. We don’t need to break them now. Fact is, we have this problem now due to bad future planning earlier.
If push comes to shove, PdV can always call on CJ and co and he knows it, so why panic. He knows now what he wanted to, and that is that the incumbent prop reserves are not the answer for WC 2011, and can plan properly now.
And he will check out his options in every position like this.
8 Nov 2009, 18:31 pm
Jannie pap broek has never produced squat, ever, never and nooit. Not in Cc or S14 or test internationals. How many trials does this pap broek need to realize that he’s not a tight heads ***? Du Preez owned him and J. Smit in the Cc semi yet they persist with these players. Same goes for Smit and Beast. We are gambling with front row forwards who are not geared for the stringency it requires. Kevin Buys, H. Van der Merwe, WP. Nel, W. Du Preez, W. Blaauw are all head and shoulders better suited to the trying conditions in the front row to any of the reputations who’s heads are now firmly on the chopping block.
8 Nov 2009, 18:31 pm
see what should be happening is chilliboy should be the starting hooker at the bulls and playing S14 hard rugby week in and week out, instead he’s been shifted into captaining the Boks midweek team and merely aggravated his injury and destrpyed his confidence with a bad loss.
its madness.
8 Nov 2009, 18:35 pm
here;s the thing, i saw rallapelle first play in the u19 RWC and he was fantastic, probably the best player of the tournament – but what is happening at present is why the Boks will continue to lose players and destroy their careers.
It is not for the national coach to give black players an opportunity, this is not how it is going to work for all. Instead these players need to play at club, provincial and S14 level = and the coach should select the best (both first and second string) for these tours.
8 Nov 2009, 18:38 pm
Chili is as far as I can see an experiment that is going absolutely nowhere. Now they took Maku along as well as the next best scenario if Chili can’t cut it, and low and behold it came to pass. Maku actually has plenty potential and I would persevere with him. I’m glad he’s going to Lions because I reckon within a year we will see he’s as good as any of the other hooker’s been touted around as Bismark’s under study. Chili on the other hand I would simply give up on, he’s had enough chances in the top tier only to disappoint. I would far rather have Maku in my team than an overrated outright quota like Gary Botha any day of any week.
8 Nov 2009, 18:42 pm
Maku is also very talented, but again, the selection for the Springboks is plain madness. Let him play at least one season of S14 rugby week in and week out for goodness sake. the 3rd hooker on this tour after bismarck and smit, should have been liebenberg and strauss who are seasoned veterans and played topflight rugby for several years now and do what tightforwards are meant to do, impose themselves in the tight.
8 Nov 2009, 18:45 pm
That is quite right the national coaches hand is being forced to select these players like Maku Ralepelle Adams Raubenheimer Johnson De Jongh Hargreaves etc untried because the franchise coaches are not buying his philosophy of grooming development players for future. The entire system is divided against itself whereas in Nz and Oz and other countries its the national program that takes priority and 2nd tier competitions and teams take second place.
8 Nov 2009, 18:47 pm
chickens came home to roost…..why…because some bloggers and SA Management felt it okay to be disrespectful of the scrum…..I remember clearly being rounded on like a traitor for mentioning that despite winning we were being owned by the opposition at scrum time…..now we kakking ourselves?
Well…heres the punch line…not smitty or Bissy or Beast would have handled that Leicester front row either….
And France are waiting!
I say it again and again….tighthead must be able to first and foremost scrum!!
We have question marks about Beast and Bissy scrumming….but 1 good day against b lions and kiwis blinded us all to the obvious….my advice….get a scrum doctor….first and foremost…and i see PDV has done so…the ex french t head p de villiers joins boks tomorrow.
Second….last chance saloon for current front row…lets see how they do against France…italy …ireland….
If we get bliksemmed again….timme for PDV and the selectors to grow a pair and make the tough calls….
All i know is that Eng team yesterday would have drilled us in scrums…aussies have already…about 3 times this season….
Kiwis have Hayman coming back…..
France will be an acid test….we need to stop being sentimental….if smit is to stay as 3 he needs to hold his own now…same as beast!!!
8 Nov 2009, 18:49 pm
#31 cab: agree….these props are pushed a bit too early…and the hookers…even wp nel needs a season of superrugby first…
8 Nov 2009, 18:50 pm
actually this loss, may be the saving grace wake up call, cos like so many EOY tours before, i kind of got the feeling the Boks were not taking as seriously as the 3N.
Put simply if the Boks offer anything less than the committment offered up against the BIL and australasians in the 3N, they will lose. The French team is very good and probably just shade Oz. We are playing them at the home of french rugby is toulose, it is a massive task that awaits.
8 Nov 2009, 18:51 pm
anyone know the weight/height of maku and chilli?
8 Nov 2009, 18:52 pm
i have no doubt that emergency tel calls would have been made over last 2 days to at least 2 or 3 props in Europe….
Time to call in the cavalry…..
8 Nov 2009, 18:53 pm
#34 grant10:
you are correct that scrumming is important, esp in the NH, but we dont actually have props that can match castrogiavanni – i reckon smit would have gone better than anything else in SA since as a unit, the Bok tight 5 put in alot of work to prepare for the BIL.
8 Nov 2009, 18:54 pm
#35 cab: i am more than a little apprehensive about the french test…we will also have a new midfield combination as well….Kirchner will also need to step up….and Juan Smith will be missed….Schalk must climb in [ legitimately ] and fire the pack up….
8 Nov 2009, 18:57 pm
and actually the bok scrumming has been a concern for a long time now, long before PdV and Smit arrived on the scene, i remember the mighty os getting popped into the air in port elizabeth against the frenchh and drilled in the famous men v boys test at twickers, where the wrong studs were offered up as mitigating circumstances.
i think its time we got in a foreign NH scrumming coach and training program who gets our Boere tough again, and not just bravado tough, proper power. seems we just got plenty boep.
8 Nov 2009, 18:58 pm
check the other thread Grant Cj on board Jannie gone home
8 Nov 2009, 18:58 pm
#38 cab: At the Sharks Jannie Du Plessis is considered the premier tighthead [ and that says a lot !! ] .
I think smitty would have done better with Bakkies behind him….
Point is cab we want to win in 2011 we have to rid ourselves of the mentality that our front row of 2 x hookers and a retreaded 8 th man can do the job…..Frankly they will be brutually exposed …and we will lose. You are right in saying maybe a good thing….as Kobus Wiese and Garth Wright said a few minutes ago….time to go back to basics….
8 Nov 2009, 18:59 pm
#41 skopskiet: what!!!!!!!!!
8 Nov 2009, 19:02 pm
what happened to the days of real power?
koch, straus, laubscher, domgrag, visagie…
now Bokke strongmen made to look average by panda-face pizza eaters who play roundball as their first sport.
ag nee.
8 Nov 2009, 19:04 pm
that Italian Stallion would have popped Beast for pudding, no question. I doubt even the groot pens Os could stand styf against such down to earth low centre of gravity power. We gotta get some tough nut like Visagie to read the riot act to these pap broek props we call front row players these days.
Ozzie front row killed our guys, when that starts happening one should realize that something aint quite right in the state of Denmark.
8 Nov 2009, 19:07 pm
Bloody great news skop!!
Pap snoek Jannie dup on way home and CJ on way to Boks!!!!
Now CJ at 3…JS at 2…Beast at 1….On 45 minutes Bissy on…Bobs your aunt!!!!
Great great great news….
8 Nov 2009, 19:13 pm
Yeah Grant the dream is about to turn around. Now who would have guessed it two days ago. Least Pdv knows when he’s beat and takes remedial action unlike some stiff neck fools I aint about to mention again.
8 Nov 2009, 19:21 pm
#47 skopskiet: Yes…PDV a reasonable man …unlike the stubborn Jake ….poor Brussow would still be languishing in the cheetahs if that nutter still around…Danie would have been at 6 vs french!!
8 Nov 2009, 21:06 pm
#26 catleya: Hi guys,
I didn’t want to say you heard it here first, but hell man, the temptation was too big.
Now he can play the BBB combo – Beast, Bissie and Barney, with Wian and CJ off the bench and Barney to cover Bissie(to keep the cappie on the field), which will allow him to pick Andries Bekker(5), Danie Rossouw(4,7,8), a hooker or another loosie, RuanPienaar(9,10,15) and Wynand Olivier(11,12,13,14) on the bench.
This is going to be a fast attritional game, especially on the props, locks and loosies and PDV has to give himself dual and versatile options in each of these areas, which he can do given the luxury of RuanP and WO complementing the run-on backs extremely well.
8 Nov 2009, 21:44 pm
#14 Craig Goosen: the problem is pdv does not think like that.
8 Nov 2009, 21:45 pm
well. well, well, obviously Danie Craven and Kitch Christie have been re-incarnated as skoppie & aunt10 who know it all and every SA front rower is weak, useless etc etc except one or two untried WP and FS lads. Actually typical paniekerige hans oppers; fickle saffer supporters. Even I can see that if you take a mix and match, quota full team with marginal coaches you are going to battle.
And of course the Os you claim was crushed by various continentals has 2 RWC medals. How many do you genii have?
I think SA needs better, cleverer coaching at Bok level. PdV is fine – he just needs real support coaches and better planning.
8 Nov 2009, 22:08 pm
#46 grant10:
Bob isn’t your aunt, he’s your bloody uncle. Please get it right.
8 Nov 2009, 22:09 pm
#51 husky: I think that PdV must bring Lightfoot in as a forward coach – he has made Pukke and now WP strong in the forwards, teaching them to hunt as a pack, and having nothing to work from. Imagine what he can do for half decent props.
Gary Gold is losing my respect because he cannot put together a strong scrummaging pack.
I also think that of they are going to F@%$K around with experimentuing with 3rd and 4th string players to test their depth, then they should not be calling them the “Boks”. Rather SA “A” team or something like that. These were DEFINITELY not Boks. The Boks have beemn a symbol for the best that SA can put up. They may not always have been good, but they have been the BEST. Putting forward anything else is heresy.
Us supporters feel a lot for keeping the name unblemished and unconquered. Sies!
8 Nov 2009, 22:18 pm
#16 David: Actually teh youngssters let the try in. So they did let us down too.
But we had the most pressure and our ball was cut off the worst at the forwards pack, who were full of experienced hands.
9 Nov 2009, 00:45 am
At last the merit players are included. Pity it had to take a Leicester scumming lesson to expose the frailties of transformation.
9 Nov 2009, 09:09 am
#53 SjamBok: Players at international level should not need the Forwards coach to teach them how to scrum!
9 Nov 2009, 09:50 am
I’m not so sure CJ was the best option. He rarely scrummed with Wian. Jannie grew up playing next to Wian, but Jannie hasn’t been class since moving to the Sharks, and he’s form has declined at a steady rate.
WP Nel would have been a good choice. Yeah, he’s very young still, but they finally managed to get the combination right.
Oh well. Let’s hope CJ hasn’t grown lazy in the UK.
9 Nov 2009, 10:31 am
#32 skopskiet: I hear the same noises over and over again! Why should the franchise coaches play wet nurse to social engineering! They lose, they get fired!!!
Instead the government that cries the most should start doing something tangible instead of beating the transformation drum!!
Soccer has been the sport of choice for many non white players, whereas whites grew up in a rugby culture.
How can the government do this!
1. Expose the whole population to rugby, by making the sport available to them… How many people that don’t have dstv, get exposed to top flight rugby??
2. Make funds available, and build proper sporting facilities at schools, and actively promote the sport
3. Ensure that representative teams are picked solely on merit, thus ensuring a winning culture.
None of this is happening at present, and the administrators are left to market the game.
CC and S14 coaches should be allowed to pick the best player available to him… that is what he is paid to do.
If young children are exposed to rugby, and coached properly, they will get picked if they arre the best!!
9 Nov 2009, 15:06 pm
I have never been a fan of DMuir and felt that GGold only really got going this year. PdV seems to be a good manager but we need decent coaches.
Why did Muir get the Lions job ? he should be working overtime getting the boks ready for WC11 !!
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