White culls Boks
5 Jun 2006
Springbok coach Jake White has sent seven players home as the international season proper starts in earnest this weekend.
Following the unconvincing display against the World XV at Ellis Park at the weekend, the move will hopefully settle the remaining players as they now slip into real Test match mode.
The national coach was always going trim his squad before the two-Test series against Scotland, with flank Wikus van Heerden the most notable omission.
Some of the players will play Currie Cup rugby for their respective provinces. Others who did not make it to Durban are centre De Wet Barry, scrumhalf Bolla Conradie, lock Andries Bekker (all Western Province), tighthead prop Jannie du Plessis and flyhalf Meyer Bosman (Cheetahs) and centre Wayne Julies (Lions).
“Not all these players will play in Currie Cup matches,” White told Beeld’s Hendrick Cronje. “I have put some on programmes to improve their strength and speed.”
White has admitted that the narrow win over the World XV did not help his thinking ahead of a punishing schedule that includes nine Tests in the next three months. Six of those will be against Australia and New Zealand in an expanded Vodacom Tri-Nations.
“I did not find the answers I was looking for on Saturday,” White told Beeld.
White is also hoping to welcome back some of his stars for the first Scottish Test in Durban on Saturday. Schalk Burger and Juan Smith will probably play on the side of the scrum, with either Joe van Niekerk or AJ Venter – who both played at Ellis Park – likely to don the No 8 jersey.
Van Niekerk was one of the most prominent players, playing on the flank in a lethargic Bok performance and White may be tempted to push him to the back of the scrum. It will add some much needed urgency to the Bok effort.
The front row that was well worked over by the World XV vets will also see the return of Os du Randt and captain John Smit, while lock Victor Matfield should also be fit again and included.
Two other stalwarts – Bakkies Botha and Bryan Habana – are unlikely to recover in time for the Durban match and quite possibly the second Test in Port Elizabeth too. Both men should be back in the mix for the crunch encounter against France though.
206 Comments
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5 Jun 2006, 12:57 pm
Jake_White,
The most dangerous was probably Muller, had a helleva rep. Mulder probably the most momentum, only real player that got to grips with Lomu in 95. Reckon, the best tackler for technique was Honiball, dropped the oppo player dead everytime.
The cleanest hardest tackler we’ve ever had is Os, that bloke can serious smash guys legally if he lines them up, just ask the Rolls Royce who had to leave the field for the Sharks after big Os got into Juggernaut mode.
5 Jun 2006, 13:03 pm
mannetijies Roux also was meant to have a helluva reputation, a bit dirty tho.
5 Jun 2006, 13:43 pm
Butch James is the best tackler that ever lived….
5 Jun 2006, 14:19 pm
Dont know Jake, old Butch was a bit of a headhunter…
5 Jun 2006, 14:42 pm
Jake:”I did not find answers I was looking for on Saturday”
well, the fans did get some answers. An NO suprises!
It seems Jake has something to loose all of a sudden, so cretivity and innovation is missing in more places then just the players’ game.
5 Jun 2006, 16:48 pm
The biggest surprise was finding out that Danie Rossouw cant run over anyone he likes! I was amazed that he had the presence of mind to show the defenders that he is not scared of them by running with the ball in his front arm, and not even trying to hand them off, because he knows that very few defenders can tackle someone of his good looks. In fact, he even did it TWICE to prove his point!
And what is more, he showed his compassion for the defenders by throwing the ball away forward twice in the tackle (strangely enough, this was the same two times that he showed how he could run over them, but I assume he must have had a change of mind halfway through a tackle, and after all a man god like Rossouw can change his mind when he wants).
He felt bad for the defenders, having to tackle him and all. This is why he is my hero.
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