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Preview: Italy v Springboks
Thursday, November 19
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The winless Springboks aim to return to their winning ways when they face Italy in the penultimate Test of the season in Udine on Saturday.
It has turned out to be a nightmare end-of-year tour for the Springboks who had an otherwise phenomenal year in which they won the British & Irish Lions series 2-1 and clinched the Tri-Nations title.
Experts such as Springbok fitness and conditioning coach Neels Liebel and sports scientist Tim Noakes warned that it might be one tour too many and with three successive defeats – including two against English club sides – their prediction has panned out.
Equally worrying is the way in which the Boks have been manhandled by their northern hemisphere counterparts. Gurthrö Steenkamp, Chiliboy Ralepelle, CJ van der Linde and brothers Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis have all been left broken up front, while Andries Bekker, who was tipped to start on Saturday, and Schalk Burger add to the Boks’ injury woes.
The main destroyer-in-chief, who sidelined three Boks, is Leicester and Italy tighthead Martin Castrogiovanni. The scrummaging powerhouse put the entire front row of Steenkamp, Ralepelle and Du Plessis out of commission and continued his dominance by adding a few All Black scalps to his hit list last weekend.
However, it has now emerged that Castrogiovanni may have had an unfair advantage at scrum time. Australian referee Stuart Dickinson, who officiated last Saturday’s Test between the All Blacks and Italy, was earlier this week condemned for his officiating by Director of elite referees, Paddy O’Brien.
Scrums have been an utter mess for most of the year and matters were complicated that much more when the IRB instructed referees to crackdown on scrum infringements following a meeting in London last week.
Many believe South Africa have been handled unfairly in the scrums, which has undoubtedly been the biggest concern of the Boks’ game on tour. However, with debutant Wian du Preez in the starting line-up, BJ Botha on the bench and allegations of Castrogiovanni ‘boring in’, Saturday’s clash may well be the turning point for the Boks in this regard.
Adriaan Strauss is a more than capable replacement for the injured Bismarck du Plessis and has been one of the standout performers on tour with his prominent ball carries. Another effective ball carrier, Danie Rossouw, fills in for the injured Schalk Burger, while athletic lock Andries Bekker has recovered from a hip injury in time to fill in for Victor Matfield, who gets a deserved break on the bench.
Along with Du Preez, there are two other uncapped players in the matchday 22 in replacements Jean Deysel and Francois Hougaard. The pair has enjoyed stellar Currie Cup seasons and will certainly not look out of place in the Green and Gold. Somewhat worryingly, De Villiers has stuck with the midfield combination of Adi Jacobs and Jaque Fourie. The duo failed to make an impact against France last weekend, while Wynand Olivier produced the goods for the midweek team.
The Test largely boils down to the referee’s interpretation of the scrums and the players’ ability to regain their confidence. A prime example is flyhalf Morné Steyn, who had his first bad spell for the Boks last weekend. The SA Players’ Player of the Year will be keen to show that he has put the blimp behind him with an improved performance against Italy this weekend.
Key Battle: Front row vs. front row. The emphasis in this Test is on the performance of the players in the scrums and referee Alain Rolland’s officiating of the all-important set piece.
Prediction: The Bok are on a terrible run and look well and truly jaded, but things are slowly but surely looking up. Saturday’s clash will be the turning point of the tour. Springboks by 10.
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Yoh Deysel is a machine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some of the players in the Starting line as well as on the bench are clearly not the best number 2's.
Ideally I would have liked to see the tight five get a complete break as well as Fourie Du Preez.
deysel should have started, oliver shuld get a chance
oh a dewald poetgeiter for next bok captain... what a man
4 very important things need to be done before 2011...
1) Get rid of Gary Gold, it seems no matter who our front row is he'll turn them into back peddlers.
2) Find a proper replacement for Morne and accept that Pienaar is no flyhalf.
3) More depth for the lock department
4)Change the policy on over seas based players
Expected Mentality.
The guys don't have the intensity that they have the whole year and we'd love them too do, but it's thinkable that it's not as important as winning a B&I or trinations tournament, not matter how hard bakkies tells the french his gonne murder them.
This end of year tour carries a weight of .....what..... 10% of the achievements this year or less?, so one should not loose scope.
Some worrying signs - but it's pulled out of order because most people can only see like 5m in front of their face.
Niggling aside, Boks will get there first win on tour hear. Italy’s national team is kind sad because they do the basics well enough to compete with most teams, but their major flaw is simply a total lack of ability to score points. They don’t know how to play a tight forwards based/defensive game, they cant play a field position / counter attack game, and teams know more than anything they have neither the will nor the ability to play a run game.
Italys one saving grace in my opinion is aussie Craig Gower. Those of you that have watched any NRL in the past will know that Craig is a genuine attacking player, has a decent kicking game, and can lead a team around the park. I have watch this guy play for Italy a few times now, and while he creates the odd chance, it is pretty clear that the rest of his team have no idea how to play off him. If the players learn to play around him over the next year or so they could actually create a backline that can score points. Until then they will have to settle for scraps.
Expect tries from Fourie and Habana. Brussow to have a field day. Boks by 10+.
He has brought through the Beast, Bekker, De Jongh, Potgieter, Morne Steyn, Kirchner etc. The reason it has been hard for most of these players to break in to the team is that he was taking over a world cup winning team whereas Jake was taking over a bunch of crap old farts so it was easy to get the talent in.
Having said that Jake should be commended for pulling some rabbits out of the hat e.g. Habana and Burger
Pls dont go crazy, i am not a fan of playing guys out of position. but i think he might just become a strenght there.
Spies is always gonna start anyway, and i think willem alberts is the future.
Any thoughts?? i know its neva gonna happen, just wanna know if anyone else agrees
1. Wing is the only way to fill the quota
2. We already have atleast 3 bloody good wings
3. There is a lot more to playing in these positions, particularly centre than just being a fast loose forward. Even if he has clocked something near to Fourie's pace his acceleration and agility won't be the same.
That is an easy one to answer. I say Give Kanko a chance because the number one 8th man in the country is not available, yes Spies. Olivier doesn’t get a chance because Jacobs is in and has played well for the Boks like against the French, Olivier has never played well in a boks jersey.
And the comments about my Blog name just goes to show how under your skin I am getting and just maybe my arguments are right and you have no better reply?
There scould be some sort of deal made: maybe they can play for the university side of whichever city they are in while on tour. It would increase the crowd attendances for those games (and they need it in aus, especially with the young student crowd all watching auzzie rules etc.)
Meanwhile, the young guys will get to play with an international player and the bok could get game time and have a good ol' jol playing rugga at one of its purest forms... Obviously the same can then be done here with NZ and aus teams.
I'm aware of the obligations to sponsors, and expectations of the European fans, but the senior players need a rest and the coaches need an opportunity to create depth for the next world cup and beyond.
The chopping and changing of the squad,calling up players who play in Europe, while sending others home is a clear indication of the immense pressure the coaching staff are under.
Critique don't Criticize.