Botha, Wentzel on standby
Nov 01,2012
As the Springboks prepare to travel to Europe for their end-of-year tour, coach Heyneke Meyer has secured two experienced locks in case the national side encounter injury problems.
"If we get an injury at [number] four, Bakkies [Botha] would be the standby man, but for five we've looked at Marco Wentzel," said Meyer during their training camp in Cape Town this week.
"I've been in contact with them and they're both on standby."
Wentzel received his second and last Springbok cap in 2002, moving to Europe soon afterwards where he played for Leicester Tigers, when Meyer was the English team's head coach in 2008.
Wentzel now plays for another English club, London Wasps.
In the event of injury, Meyer was not planning to play any lock out of position as set-piece management might pose problems.
As a result, it was unlikely specialised number fours Eben Etzebeth and Flip van der Merwe would make the starting XV as a pairing but offered options off the deck.
"Flip has really played well this year and Eben has been exceptional," said Meyer.
"In a sense you'd love to have two guys who really put in the grafting work. [They] could be tough guys in overseas conditions.
"The set-piece is so important over there. I'd love to play them together, so maybe off the bench it could happen."
Meyer said Etzebeth had been fantastic this season but with line-outs being a technical area, a specialist number five was required.
"Eben has been brilliant but they [him and Van Der Merwe] haven't called a lot of lineouts together, and it's such a technical area these days.
"It requires such a lot of preparation, and we only have three [training] sessions.
"I believe we need a specialist five lock in those conditions. I did look at a guy like Johann Muller [of Ulster] for the tour but he is also injured."
Comments (9)
Nov 02, 2012 at 04:34:08
HM, what are you up to man!! How is Bakkies or Wentzel our future? We dont need "polyfilla" to a hole, we need to seek long term solutions. I would rather play Etzebeth and Flip and lose than play Wentzel or Botha with same result! At least the first two will be gaining experience of the conditions they are likely to endure in the WC. Isn't that what rugby is all about now? The WC??
We have Steph-Du Toit, Bresler, the Marais brothers just at the Sharks that could do a good job with the right coaching and commitment. Why does every coach keep doing the same thing as the previous whilst expecting different results?
Nov 02, 2012 at 05:21:40
HM, you say all the right things, but then do the exact opposite. This guy really worries me because it seems he only wants to pick guys that "he's worked with before". We have plenty of young locks back in SA who could benefit from the experience, but no, he takes ten steps back with Botha and Marcos!!!
Nov 02, 2012 at 12:12:56
"We have plenty of young locks back in SA who could benefit from the experience,..."
Like?
Nov 02, 2012 at 13:30:46
Like, Anton Bresler for one, enforcer of note at the Shark tank but I do concede that we may be a bit thin in the specialsts 5 lock position and Steph Du Toit is not quite ready in my humble opinion. I would then be looking at Steven Sykes as the next best option.
Nov 02, 2012 at 13:21:10
Meyer is really pathetic with the geriatric calls and is so short sighted...........bloody hell how technical can line-out calls be, give me a break, so for that reason he wont look to play Flip and Eben together, instead he will stick with Jeandre Kruger who is clearly not physical enough for test rugby - go figure.......Marcel Wentzel or Johan Muller!!!
Nov 02, 2012 at 15:05:19
he sould just play eden and flip and kruger on the bench. he sould not even look to the old guy they cannt do anything for the green and gold get the good youn g players
Nov 04, 2012 at 10:23:05
HM is a POLITITION of note. I think PDV was a better coach. Atleast he didnt lie week by week. And he would have won the WC if Bryce didnt repay Aus but he would have had to go like JW did. Then we would be starting a good tradition of win and loose your job. LOL
Nov 02, 2012 at 00:25:55
HM...Johan Classens is available, just call him.