Springbokke NH Autumn Tour

[PaarlBok]

Wales vs Springbokke - Built up
This one not in the too far distance and the next assignment for the Springbokke. This one all important for the Springbokke and maybe their most difficult assignment up north. Both teams have one big obstical and thats the time both coaches have to prepare their teams for this one.

Springbokke
If I look at them I am very happy that the Bokke played Currie Cup before this tour. Think our squad will be much more stronger then it was during the 3 Nations. The CC have put some out of form players in form and the positive spin off was to gave other important players a much needed break with WP early exit. Players like Jean, Schalk, Jantjes, Mujatsi and Bekker will be freshen after a three week total break from rugby and players like Habana, JP, Meisiekind, Fourie du Preez, Pienaar, Matfield & Kankowski look like they hit top form just at the right time and injured oldies like Smit, Mossie & Bakkies will get back just in time for this one. Its just for the Bulls & Sharks lot last CC roll of the dice that may left some injuries otherwise I am sure this will be the best Bok squad of 2008 together. Add newbies like Baywatch & Deysel and chuck away Watson and you'll have a top notch Springbok side ready to rumble. Think the squad will look something like
Jantjes, Rose, JP, Nokwe, Habana, Mossie, AD Jacobs, Jean, Steyn, Grant, Pienaar, Januarie, Fourie du Preez, Kankowski, Spies, Deysel, Juan, Baywatch, Bekker, Matfield, Bakkies, Mujatsi, Jannie Doep, Bismarck, Smit, Strauss, Beast & Guthro.

Wales
The reports we get from that side is that the coach getting some trouble from the provinces and may have only 5 days to prepare for the Bokke. Also have a bit of injures with Mike Phillips & Jonathan Thomas out. Look like their provinces struggle a bit at the moment in the Heineken Cup but I think they will be a different team as soon as they pull on the Wales jersey. Important test for them for Lions places in next year tour and surely at home they will be different team that we saw in SA earlier this year.

Bit less then three weeks to go but surely a hard one and a make ot break test for the Springboks under Snor.

Less then three weeks to go, bring it on!

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke - Built up

The Bok squad
BACKS
Jean de Villiers - Vodacom Western Province
Fourie du Preez - Vodacom Blue Bulls
Jaque Fourie - Xerox Golden Lions
Bryan Habana - Vodacom Blue Bulls
Adrian Jacobs - Sharks
Conrad Jantjes - Vodacom Western Province
Enrico Januarie - Vodacom Western Province
Jongi Nokwe - Vodacom Free State Cheetahs
Odwa Ndungane - Sharks
Ruan Pienaar - Sharks
JP Pietersen - Sharks
Earl Rose - Xerox Golden Lions
Francois Steyn - Sharks

FORWARDS
Andries Bekker - Vodacom Western Province
Bakkies Botha - Vodacom Blue Bulls
Schalk Burger - Vodacom Western Province
Heinrich Br?ssow - Vodacom Free State Cheetahs
Bismarck du Plessis - Sharks
Ryan Kankowski - Sharks
Victor Matfield - Vodacom Blue Bulls
Tendai Mtawarira - Sharks
Chiliboy Ralepelle - Vodacom Blue Bulls
Brian Mujati - Vodacom Western Province
Danie Rossouw - Vodacom Blue Bulls
John Smit (captain) - Sharks
Juan Smith - Vodacom Free State Cheetahs
Pierre Spies - Vodacom Blue Bulls
Gurthr? Steenkamp - Vodacom Blue Bulls

ON STANDBY
Peter Grant - Vodacom Western Province
Jannie du Plessis - Sharks
Johann Muller - Sharks
Wynand Olivier - Vodacom Blue Bulls
Adriaan Strauss - Vodacom Free State Cheetahs
Heinke van der Merwe - Xerox Golden Lions
Jano Vermaak - Xerox Golden Lions

They join yesterday in Slaapstad and will fly out on friday.

Surprises are Earl Rose & Pienaar in 10 and John Smit as a TH. Myself would have picked Francois Steyn in 10. Pretty glad they finally gave Brussouw his change and would preffered to see Baywatch Grobler. Cant wait to see a loosie combo of Brussouw, Schalk & Kankowski /Spies in action.

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke - Built up

Stats about the 2 rookies
Superrugby

Br?ssow Grey?s newest Springbok

Heinrich Br?ssow is the latest product to roll off the Springbok production line at Grey College in Bloemfontein.
Log on to Topfan.com to see our winning Haka video which is featured as the video of the week.

Br?ssow becomes Grey College?s 32nd Springbok as the Bloemfontein institution moves ever closer to becoming the school with the most Springboks -- after Bishops (34) and Paul Roos (33).

Br?ssow, 22, who with Earl Rose (24) was named as one of two new caps in the Springbok touring side at the weekend, becomes Springbok No 801 with Rose as No 802.

Both young men boast records which display all the right building blocks.

Br?ssow (born 21/7/1986; 1.81m, 101 kg) played for the SA Schools side in 2004 (along with former schoolmate and fellow flanker Deon Stegmann of the Blue Bulls), made his Free State debut in 2006 (he?s already made 46 appearances for the Cheetahs), was included in the SA Sevens side in 2006 and made his Super 14 debut in 2007 (16 games).

He follows in the footsteps of famous Free State flankers such as Ruben Kruger, Rassie Erasmus and Andre Venter.

Earl Enver Rose (Born 12/1/1984, 1.86m, 77 kg) has also packed a lot of top-class rugby into his young life - SA Schools 2002, SA under-19 in 2003, SA Sevens 2003-04 and SA under-21 in 2004-05.

He made his first-class debut for his home province, Western Province, in 2004-05 (19 games), moved to the Lions in 2006-2008 (34 games) and packed in 11 Super 14 games for the Cats in 2006 and 17 more for the Lions in 2007-2008.

He becomes the Strand High School?s second Springbok -- after Colin Beck in the early 80s.

Think they have it slightly wrong, Earl Rose played for Paul Roos. :nta: Saw some material about Andre Venter over the weekend and still wheel chair bound.

 

[disco]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke - Built up

Surely Peter Grant is a better option than Earl Rose? Earl Rose makes James O'conner look big.

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke - Built up

Disco myself a Stormer and sort of Grant fan. Rose plays with a lot of flair and just maybe bring accolades bigger then many (myself included) thinks. Well I hope he prove us wrong like Januarie & AD Jacobs.

 

[disco]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke - Built up

I thought Grant was the best flyhalf in SA during the Super 14, probably deserved more game time during the inbound tests & tri-nations.

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke - Built up

Grant never the flashy type but also doing his basics so well. Anyway interesting to see punters pointing out tha John Smit play LH in his younger days. Simply not true he played TH.

 

[Pfitzy]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke - Built up

Grant at least is not a speedhump on defense. Rose has a lot of guts but he's no heavier than a prop's breakfast.

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke - Built up

Teams announced
Wales team
15 Lee Byrne, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Jamie Roberts, 12 Gavin Henson, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Andy Powell, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Ryan Jones (c), 5 Ian Evans, 4 Alun Wyn Jones, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins. Subs: 16 Richard Hibbard, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Ian Gough, 19 Daffyd Jones, 20 Dwayne Peel, 21 James Hook, 22 Tom Shanklin.

The Springbok Team is as follows: (Test caps in brackets)

1 Beast Mtawarira (7) 2 Bismarck du Plessis (19) 3 John Smit (captain) (78) 4 Bakkies Botha (52) 5 Victor Matfield (77) 6 Schalk Burger (46) 7 Juan Smith (52) 8 Pierre Spies (16) 9 Fourie du Preez (42) 10 Ruan Pienaar (24) 11 Bryan Habana (43) 12 Jean de Villiers (43) 13 Adrian Jacobs (18) 14 JP Pietersen (21) 15 Conrad Jantjes (21)
Reserves:
16 Brian Mujati (9) 17 Gurthro Steenkamp (18) 18 Andries Bekker (10) 19 Ryan Kankowski (4) 20 Ricky Januarie (31) 21 Frans Steyn (24) 22 Jaque Fourie (39)

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke

We may struggle in the scrums with John Smit on TH but insuranse with two fatties on the bench. Otherwise Mossie look pretty close to being pick and that bench full of impact with Steyn, Januarie, Mossie & Bekker.

 

[the gambler]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke

For Wales that Leigh Halfpenny is a bright spark. In the EDF cup game played a couple of weeks ago he made some brilliant runs and drew comparisons to Shane Williams from the comentators. Wouldnt go that far but he does look like he has a bit of class about him.

I would also rate Lee Byrne as one of the best fullbacks in the world at the moment. He had a brilliant six nations last year and from what I have seen this year he seems to be playing with lots of confidence.

 

[disco]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke

That's a bloody good 22 on paper hopefully the Boks can perfrorm like they did in JoBurg as they'll smash the welsh.

That's probably the best Springbok side on paper that I've ever seen even better than the RWC winning side.

If they stay injury free for the whole tour & De Villiers keeps pretty much the same 22 then I would expect them to go undefeated.

 

[Rugby Rat]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke

Sorry Paarl. Wales by 10 -15.

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke

Look like the roof will be closed. Pretty excited to see my team playing again, feels like a 10 year break since WeePee lose out. Will chop down a tree tomorrow morning if it can help the Bokke's cause to be honest!

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke

So the Bokke scrapped through by 20-15 but myself pretty happy with the way it panned out in the end. Think Wales as a team is much better then the one we played one year back and was pretty impressed with their debutants , specially Powell. I dont like a rugby player running with ball in one hand but the way he shrugged off some tackles and it look like only Schalkie being able to put him down. Anyway a deserved MOTM for this newbie and he sure look like something special. We always bragged with the likes of Spies & Kankowski but he showed them both the way it should be done. For Snor I think he should be more then happy with his experiments. John Smith & Ruaan Pienaar paid back the faith he showed in them with more then good performances. All is fine but I like Snors way he want the Bokke to play and the few times we attacked out wide we look much more dangerous then the Welsch. Myself want to see Habana & JP with Jantjes attacking not defending the whole match. The ref made it sort of impossible for our lot to have more ball in hand in the way he let the Welschmen do whatever they want at the breakdowns but kept on pecking our lot back when we try to counter ruck. Anyway a good first win and hopefull we can see more attacking flair against the Skotte and hopefull all the newbies and specially Brussouw in tandem with Schalkie and Smit & Pienaar another roll of the dice.

 

[Cutter]

Re: Wales vs Springbokke

I enjoyed watching this but, I'm sorry to say PB, the Welsh were the only ones doing the entertaining. The Boks defended well, but, more to the point, the Welsh support players werent close enough to the ball carrier who made the break. The Welsh must have bombed at least 6 opportunities in the second half. Pienaar was good without being great. He looked very comfortable though.

For the Boks, JP Peterson played well as did JDV (best 12 in the world at the moment I think). Matfield was imperious in the lineouts. The Welsh looked pretty good and will trouble the Wallabies in a few weeks. Shane Williams has the fastest feet known to man, but needs to look for support more often to be truly dangerous. This wasnt one of his better games. Powell was very good. Hook set up a lovely try for JDV, if only he could have done the same for Wales, they would have won.

 

[PaarlBok]

Skotte Team for saturday:
Scotland 15-1: Chris Paterson (Edinburgh); Thom Evans (Glasgow), Ben Cairns(Edinburgh), Nick De Luca (Edinburgh), Rory Lamont (Sale); Phil Godman (Edinburgh), Mike Blair (Edinburgh); Alistair Hogg (Edinburgh),John Barclay (Glasgow), Jason White (Sale); Jim Hamilton(Edinburgh), Nathan Hines (Perpignan); Euan Murray (Northampton), Ross Ford (Edinburgh), Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh)
Replacements: Dougie Hall (Glasgow), Alasdair Dickinson (Gloucester), Matt Mustchin (Edinburgh), Scott Gray(Northampton), Rory Lawson (Gloucester) Dan Parks (Glasgow), Hugo Southwell (Edinburgh)

Dont know to many of these lot and waiting now for the Springbok team. Hope we will see some more experiments and all the newbies but doubt it. Look like Snor dont want to make to many changes.

 

[PaarlBok]

The same as the team that played Wales
15 Conrad Jantjes, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Adi Jacobs, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Ruan Pienaar, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 John Smit (c), 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Subs: 16 Brian Mujati, 17 Gurthro Steenkamp, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Ryan Kankowski, 20 Ricky Januarie, 21 Frans Steyn, 22 Jaque Fourie.

 

[Cutter]

Mike Blair, the Scottish 9 and captain, had a cracker of a game last weekend and was one of the best players on the park. He is one to watch. I think the Scots will actually be tougher than you think. Their forwards are solid. The scrum battle should be interesting. Hines, one of their locks, is a very good player. Maybe he is one the NSWRU could target as a marquee player.

 

[Lindommer]

Nathan Hines is an Aussie who got away. He was born in the sporting capital of the western world, Wagga Wagga, and played league for the North Sydney Bears in the mid 90s before a stint with Manly RFC. He went backpacking around Europe and played a season for Galashiels in 1998 for fun. The rest is history.

If he had've made his way back to Oz before his Sweatie selection in 2000 he would probably've picked up a Super 12 gig.

Hines and Sharpe? Imagine the Wagga Waratahs with a second row like that. :thumb :thumb :thumb