Smit set for No 2 jersey?
Peter de Villiers has hinted John Smit could return to hooker against Ireland next Saturday.
The Springbok captain has made the move to tighthead with mixed results, but in the last quarter of their win against Italy, Smit packed down in his favoured hooker position. With a specialist tighthead and the other positions in the front-row filled by players playing in their preferred positions, it was no surprise that the South African scrum looked at its strongest this year.
It would be the logical decision to start Smit at No 2 with Bismarck du Plessis returning from injury off the bench, and the Bok coach suggested this could be the case.
‘Maybe next week I’ll use John [Smit] and Bismarck [du Plessis] as hookers against Ireland,’ said De Villiers.
‘It’s a nice problem to have, knowing that we can change things around,’ he said in reference to their front-row options now that Botha and fellow overseas tighthead CJ van der Linde are in the squad. ‘I will have to make some important decisions in this regard.’
De Villiers also admitted he was worried about the Bok scrum in the build-up to the Italy Test, and he conceded they looked strongest in the final 20 minutes.
‘I was a bit afraid coming into this game that psychologically [last week's scrummaging problems] would give more to the players than anything else. I know the ability of our scrums, I know that our players are world class, I know they can stand up for themselves under all circumstances and I think the last 20 minutes instilled that kind of confidence that we tried to bring to them in practice.’
The Boks reverted to a physical pack in the closing stages that has the ability to dominate Ireland at Croke Park next week. The Irish struggled against Australia at scrum-time last week, and if the Boks select their best unit, they could use it to disrupt the hosts’ dangerous backline and loose forwards.
‘Our boys regrouped pretty well and again we fell back on that experience of battling behind the things that worked for us,’ said Smit. ‘We stuck to a lot of those things that worked for us today and it ended up becoming a good result.’
In other team news, worryingly Fourie du Preez is reportedly in danger of missing the final tour match with a hand injury. News will be released at Monday’s press conference, but if he is injured, out of form Ruan Pienaar or Francois Hougaard could start at scrumhalf.
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:26 am
Takler you would give anything for smit to be on your side.He is by far the best international captain around
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:30 am
Please give pienaar a go at scrumi. Even though I think FDP is the best around At the moment , we have to look to the future world cups
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:30 am
Great captain and hooker but no prop.
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:37 am
Sarel Pretoruis is the next best world scrumhalf…
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:38 am
Woo-Hoo, I’ve been counting down the days for this match since the Second Lions Test. And you can be sure so have the Irish Players. This match will decide the Team of the year and World player of the year. From what I’ve seen so far of the Springboks they are a bit like the French in they don’t seem to travel well. Some exciting battles all around the park
Kearney – Kirschner
Bowe – Habana
BOD – Fourie
HOPEFULLY Sexton – Steyn
Heaslip – Kankowski
Wallace – Smit
Ferris – Burger
O’Connell – Matfield
Flannery(Would have started for the Lions if not injured) – Smith
It’s the Front Row where SA really have the Upper Hand, Healy is outstanding in the Loose but he only just turned 22 this month and his opposite’s experience will really be a factor.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:06 am
Perhaps you muppets should just take a breath and look around before wailing that JS has been shown up. Why do I say this? Well look at what Italy did to the NZ scrum, even to the extent of bringing the NZ sleeper PoB out in defence of the AB’s. The Boks were not man shamed like the AB’s. Then consider that at least one of the penalties for the Eyeties was when they went around JS and wheeled the scrum. When the Boks did this to the Frogs, the Frogs got the penalty.
Finally, note that the scrum appeared to stabilise when the wily BJ Botha came on. A man much criticised by many keo muppets Botha pretty much proved his worth. He is probably SA’s only replacement for JS who will be better. The others touted by muppeteers are untried youngsters (from WP, that bastion of scrumming nogal), or have been shown up when they replace Smit in the last part of a game.
What to do? 2 choices – bring back BJ or coach JS and the SA scrum more intensively (Os where are you?) and pressure referees by analysing scrum penalties; pretty much like PoB did free for the AB’s. What will actually happen? Who knows as the administrative shambles that is SA rugby probably only has half an experienced person in total. And it’s the bottom half.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:00 am
Our scrum was the most solid it’s been all year when Beast and BJ came on and John moved to hooker…
This should be our starting line-up from now on… Bring Bismarck on in the last 30 to run riot… with John moving to prop or leaving the field – depending on the match situation…
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:26 am
pienaar is out of form because of the national coach
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:16 am
Div should drop this foreign based selection policy….our biggest defensive weakness at the moment is called Adi, so bring in Jdv (does ANYONE in their right mind want to see Adi defending BoD’s channel???) and recall F. Steyn at fullback…Kirchner was wobbly at best, dunno how anyone could say his kicking out of hand was good, it was p*ss-poor! 3 mistakes in the first 10 muntes against Italy, 2 mistakes in his first 2 touches against France….F. Steyn can be prone to brain-farts at times, but he can punish opposition mistakes from just about anywhere, positionally far better than Zane and much much more to offer on both defence and attack. With Irelands backline and the Boks gassed at the moment we need to shore up our defense big time.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:19 am
Div should drop this foreign based selection policy….our biggest defensive weakness at the moment is called Adi, so bring in Jdv (does ANYONE in their right mind want to see Adi defending BoD’s channel???) and recall F. Steyn at fullback…Kirchner was wobbly at best, dunno how anyone could say his kicking out of hand was good, it was poor! 3 mistakes in the first 10 minutes against Italy, 2 mistakes in his first 2 touches against France….F. Steyn can be prone to brain implosions at times, but he can punish opposition mistakes from just about anywhere, positionally far better than Zane and much much more to offer on both defence and attack. With Ireland’s backline and the Boks gassed at the moment we need to shore up our defense big time.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:22 am
HUsky one thing that surprised me was when Mils got banged into touch and didn’t score, he had the ball under the wrong arm!! Schoolboy error….I’m pretty sure if he’d had it inhis left arm and reached for the line he could have dotted down before getting hit into touch
That said, the AB’s never really kicked it up into top gear…
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:44 am
206. husky:
Yes JS did ok as a decent tight head.
But be honest, we (boks scrum) has been under pressure!!!
No matter the cause this is the fact.
I for one, understand referee bias/ bs. But I am also tired of blaming the refs and screaming unfair even if Wayne Barnes is a DOOS.
So rather than that, BJ in front row and get the perception back that the boks are the best scrummagers in the world, like we used to be.
At least we have JS option to move to 3 as additional cover.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
@husky: You are spot on Husky. Basically the only SA TH better than JS is BJ and he plays overseas. Give Bissie a rest this game (from the bench) and start with BJ. In the 3N its back to Beast, Bissie, Smit. We should have 2 props on the bench rather than a hooker.
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:16 pm
@Ratel Brussow (MSIUR): Ja, lets try Smit back at hooker this game and see how he goes. The only game the front row of Beast, Bismarck and John have struggled in was against Aus. The others they’ve held their own or dominated.
November 24th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Hope Smit is Hooker. He is absolutely sh1te anywhere else in the front row. His best performances have only been from wearing the No.2. He is totally dominated by his opposition as prop. Please PDV keep him wearing no.2!!!!