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Whittling squad to starting team shows where Bok advantage lies

rugby07 June 2021 06:30
By:Gavin Rich
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Cheslin Kolbe © Gallo Images

The Springboks haven’t played a test match for more than a year and a half but South African fans who feel disquieted about that should have had those feelings allayed once they saw the names on paper following the big squad announcement at the weekend.

There will be a collective national holding of breath as we wait for the prognosis on Duane Vermeulen, a man of colossal importance to the Bok chances in the must-be-watched, iconic once in every 12-year series against a British and Irish Lions team that hasn’t been beaten in a series since they were last in South Africa in 2009.

Vermeulen left the field with an injured ankle leading the Bulls against the Stormers in a Rainbow Cup match at the weekend. Afterwards his franchise coach Jake White wasn’t optimistic, and neither was national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus when he spoke following the squad announcement a day later.

UNLUCKY BOK POISED TO BE SOLUTION

Fortuitously though, should the worst news be confirmed and Vermeulen be forced to miss the series or part of it, the man who has become known as The Unlucky Bok because of how he keeps missing out on big occasions and announcements, Marcell Coetzee, is perfectly tailored to take over Vermeulen’s No 8 role should it be necessary.

Coetzee isn’t in the squad at present as the Bok selectors opted to go for Marco van Staden as the like-for-like replacement for the retired Francois Louw, who was the Bok fetcher off the bench in the key games at the World Cup. But while Coetzee started at openside flank for the Bulls against the Stormers and excelled, he played much of his PRO14 rugby for Ulster as a No 8 and as a player who is good playing to the ball, like Vermeulen, and a busy defender but also a great carrier, he would be the perfect man to have playing off the back of the scrum should Vermeulen not be available.

And that is where this squad may end up differing from the World Cup squad and why Erasmus suggested in the television interviews after the live squad announcement on Supersport that it is a better-balanced group than the one that played in Japan. Because when you whittle down the group to a starting team, and then factor in who in the group would serve as back-up, there are more options available to the coaches and ways to get around injuries should they happen.

CONTINUITY IS BOKS’ ACE

And when you whittle down the squad to a probable starting team, you also see why the Boks could start with a telling advantage even though their opponents have been playing international rugby and they haven’t been. Continuity.

While there are a smattering of newcomers and young talented players in the group who will be experiencing being part of an international squad for the first time, it shouldn’t it be a challenge for the Boks to pick up where they left off in Japan when they won the World Cup in 2019. For that group, every one of them except three retired players and one injured player, is back again.

It may also turn out to be a blessing that they haven’t played together in the meantime and potentially lost that winning feeling, as happened to the Boks between winning the 1995 World Cup and losing the 1997 series against the Lions.

John Smit, the man who led the 2009 Boks to a 2-1 series triumph, was on the money when he said on Supersport on Saturday night that Lions tours have become more challenging for their opponents. That’s because the gap between southern and northern hemisphere rugby isn’t what it used to be.

So the Lions will be formidable and they will be emboldened by the knowledge they have not lost a series in 12 years. But they won’t have the continuity the Boks have as while the hosts haven’t played in nearly two years, the Lions, who are drawn together from four different nations, haven’t played together in four - and they are a very different squad now to the one that drew with the All Blacks in 2017.

With a core group of World Cup winners to introduce the additional players around, new Bok coach Jacques Nienaber has the foundation of a squad that can certainly challenge and, if they play to their potential, beat the best the Lions can throw at them.

DAMIAN COULD CHALLENGE WILLIE

So let’s prove that point by picking a starting team and including the back-up player or combination alongside. For a start, Damian Willemse is playing well enough to push Willie le Roux as the starting fullback, and Aphelele Fassi has a big future.

Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe choose themselves on the wing, and the Bok chaces will be hurt if either of them is injured. But there is plenty of gas in the group of back-up wings should it be necessary to call on one of them.

It would be a massive blow if Handre Pollard couldn’t start at flyhalf for some reason. But with the ever-green Morne Steyn now playing perhaps as well as he ever has, and Elton Jantjies there to do what he did at the World Cup by being first back-up, there are three flyhalves in the group who boast plenty of international experience.

Frans Steyn is another player who, like his namesake, just doesn’t seem to age, and there’d be no worries if he had to start in the No 12 jersey were Damian de Allende injured, while Nienaber would also have the option of calling in the overseas based Jan Serfontein. Wandisile Simelane is a precocious talent to back up the now world class Lukhanyo Am and Jesse Kriel.

Perhaps scrumhalf could be a problem if Faf de Klerk is injured. He was unfairly pilloried on social media for following team instructions by kicking the cover off the ball at the World Cup, but he is a long way ahead of the rest of the No 9s in the group.

MANY LOOSIE OPTIONS

There are many loose-forward options to supplement the probable starting trio of skipper Siya Kolisi, World Rugby Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit and Vermeulen. Jasper Wiese at this point looks like the second No 8 in the squad and there is also Dan du Preez, who used to play there for the Sharks. But both are inexperienced at this level and neither are a like-for-like replacement for Vermeulen, and neither of course is Kwagga Smith, so the aforementioned Marcell Coetzee looks the likely alternative No 8.

He’s not in the squad at the moment but don’t worry, he will be if Vermeulen is ruled out of the series, or even if he is just ruled out for part of the program the Boks face from the start of July, when they play two test matches against Georgia.

The locks could be problematic if RG Snyman or Lood de Jager, or both of them, are ruled out because of the injuries they are currently rehabilitating from. But if only one of them is absent, the inclusion of Jean-Luc du Preez as a utility forward increases the chances of Nienaber being able to employ the six/two split between forwards and backs on the bench that worked so well at the World Cup.

FRONT ROW

When it comes to the front-row, the retirement of Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtwarira has been offset by the progress made by his replacement in the No 1 jersey at the Sharks. And while Frans Malherbe has struggled occasionally to produce his best form for the Stormers, the opposite is true of Trevor Nyakane, who seems to grow in stature with each passing week.

We haven’t seen Malcolm Marx play since the World Cup as he’s been in Japan but whether Nienaber starts with Marx or Bongi Mbonambi he is well covered in that position, with Joseph Dweba also a very good back-up.

Possible Bok starting team with back-up/alternatives in brackets: Willie le Roux (Damian Willemse), Cheslin Kolbe (Sbu Nkosi), Lukhanyo Am (Jesse Kriel), Damian de Allende (Frans Steyn), Makazole Mapimpi (Yaw Penxe), Handre Pollard (Elton Jantjies), Faf de Klerk (Herschel Jantjies), Duane Vermeulen (Jasper Wiese in squad/Marcell Coetzee from outside), Pieter-Steph du Toit (Jean-Luc du Preez), Franco Mostert (Lood de Jager), Eben Etzebeth (RG Snyman), Trevor Nyakane (Frans Malherbe/Vincent Koch), Malcolm Marx (Bongi Mbonambi), Steven Kitshoff (Ox Nche).

National squad for Georgia tests, British and Irish Lions Series and SA tour game:

Outside Backs

?Aphelele Fassi, Cheslin Kolbe, Willie le Roux, Makazole Mapimpi, Sbu Nkosi, Yaw Penxe, Rosko Specman, Damian Willemse.

Midfielders

?Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Jesse Kriel, Wandisile Simelane, Frans Steyn.

Flyhalves

?Elton Jantjies, Handré Pollard, Morné Steyn.??

Scrumhalves

?Faf de Klerk, Herschel Jantjies, Sanele Nohamba, Cobus Reinach.

Utility forwards

Jean-Luc du Preez, Rynhardt Elstadt.

?Loose forwards

?Dan du Preez, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi, Kwagga Smith, Marco van Staden, Duane Vermeulen, Jasper Wiese.?

Locks

?Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Nico Janse van Rensburg, Franco Mostert, Marvin Orie, RG Snyman.?

Props

Thomas du Toit, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Frans Malherbe, Ox Nché, Trevor Nyakane,?Coenie Oosthuizen.??

Hookers

?Joseph Dweba, Malcolm Marx, Bongi Mbonambi, Scarra Ntubeni??

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