Bulls duo back for Boks
12 Jun 2006
Bulls duo Bakkies Botha and Bryan Habana have rejoined the Bok squad and will be considered for selection for the second Test against Scotland at the EPRU Stadium on Saturday.
Botha and Habana were injured in the Bulls Vodacom Super 14 semi-final defeat to the Crusaders on May 20. Both men have been on extensive rehabilitation programmes, but will not be rushed back unless fully fit.
The two, along with CJ van der Linde and Albert van den Berg, underwent medical tests today and will have to pass further on-field testing tomorrow. Centre Wayne Julies was the fifth man to join the Bok squad in PE as cover for Jean de Villiers who has bruised ribs.
“All those players will be monitored closely and after the medical tests today we will have a better idea where we stand,” assistant coach Allister Coetzee told keo.co.za.
The results of those tests were not yet available, but it is known that Botha in particular feels he is ready for action.
The return of the four players from injury will just about bring Jake White’s squad to full fitness ahead of must-win encounters against the Scots and France.
“When the guys get back to action after the rest day today we will put them through their paces with some on-field drills. Depending on the outcome they could all be incontention,” said Coetzee.
White though is in the enviable position of not having to push his luck, as the team that played the first Test, almost to a man, did enough to warrant re-selection for the series clincher.
It is almost certain that changes will be made for the French Test the following weekend in Cape Town. Until then the returning players will get a chance to get back into the Bok squad routine.
Meanwhile, Prop Jannie du Plessis (Cheetahs) and Sharks pair Deon Carstens and AJ Venter have been sent home. Utility back Brent Russell also did not travelled with the squad to Port Elizabeth.
Russell is currently receiving medical treatment in Durban due to thrombophebitis (inflammation in the forearm veins).
By Andrew Hollely
38 Comments
12 Jun 2006, 15:05 pm
JW should play them off the bench.
I feel sorry for JM and Gaffie, it seems like they will lose their bench spots.
12 Jun 2006, 15:06 pm
sorry for gaffie.. never in a million years… habana ad bakkies are better, thats the facts!!
12 Jun 2006, 15:09 pm
JM deserves another chance, he is not better than Bakkies and Victor, but he is never going to get a chance, untill these 2 retire or get injured. He has played his heart out for the Sharks the last 3 seasons and never lets the team down.
12 Jun 2006, 15:09 pm
What Test isn’t a must win encounter ? Bring them in off the bench, Paksale deserves another rub after Saterdays performance and we all know what hab’s can do – lets give Snyman a chance to show his worth !
12 Jun 2006, 15:10 pm
HABANA For Centre!!!
We have Bryton and Snyman doing a good job on the wings… Lets give old Habana some action and see what he makes with it!!
12 Jun 2006, 15:11 pm
Snyman is not doing a good job on the wing. He knocks half the balls and he is as slow as he is old.
12 Jun 2006, 15:15 pm
I actually hope pakslae gets another chance to boost his confidence even more after a good performance. It would really help if we have 3 really good confident locks in the group. And I really dont think we need bakkies against these guys. And Bakkies is sure to have lots of work to do come the french and the 3N, so maybve he can do with another week of rest. In any case things are looking considerably worse for the scots, this team look like it can be very strong come the weekend.
12 Jun 2006, 15:17 pm
canafunk
surely this is whites last chance to use habana on centre if he wanted to. cant see any other games where he will have freedom to experiment…
12 Jun 2006, 15:22 pm
9. half of 69
12 Jun 2006, 15:23 pm
Snyman will prove you wrong Skim. He lacks pase I agree but he will shape.
12 Jun 2006, 15:26 pm
We must stop mucking about & play specialist in the positons required. We need absolute pace on the wings and there is no way we should be using the likes of PAULSE & SNYMAN. I laugh when I read JW tell the public — ” we ahve not lsot a test were Paulse has played for the Boks” — so is he a lucky mascot. If so, then let him sit in teh “dugout” but play someone with oustanding pace.
There will be more wins using pacy players, than there will be lossess.
When will the BOKS 3/4′S BECOME CREATIVE AND RUN ANGLES, use the inside pass. I guess never, as long as Coetzee is the 3/4 coach. I wonder what JAKE actually does, cause there is SMAL, COETZEE, & the rest?? — umm.
12 Jun 2006, 15:35 pm
Interesting but you can’t just put exciting players in the mix and wait for the magic, you must have a balance and if you want to win you have to be careful who you select, you need a good mix of players with EXPERIENCE.
But I would love to see our backline be more creative with ball in hand…
12 Jun 2006, 15:58 pm
cant believe u guys rate he is slow!!! he is not!!
12 Jun 2006, 15:59 pm
im talkin bout snyman
12 Jun 2006, 16:11 pm
Snyman is not as fast as he was before he broke his ankles.
12 Jun 2006, 16:19 pm
Snyman was a huge dissapointment, THE TWINS , is far better , they actually have speed.
12 Jun 2006, 16:22 pm
Bring Bakkies of the bench for Victor and try Habana and Olivier on Centre
12 Jun 2006, 17:05 pm
Give Snyman a break man…
Surely the coaches looked at his play in UK before selecting him. It was his first test since **** knows when for the boks & he probably tried too hard to impress, as soon as he’s confidence is up he’ll do better…hopefully!
12 Jun 2006, 17:49 pm
Kan julle dink hoe ver gaan ons nou wen noudat daar nog 2 Bulle in die span is?
Bring Danie op in die 2 helfte vir Bakkies en Snyman vir Paulse.
12 Jun 2006, 17:52 pm
KTB lmfao, you wonder what Jake White does? HA HA do you realise what a prize prick you sound like when you make that statment?
What Jake Whitre very clearly does is get player in SA to perform for there country. Something no other coach seems to have managed since 98/99.
12 Jun 2006, 17:53 pm
I can’t believe that JW is recalling vetgat Wayne!!! He is by far one of the worst centre’s in SA. Even Gus will give him a run for his money. Let Olivier play with Fourie, and give Snyman one last chance, with Habana and Bakkies on the bench. I am a bit worried about the future with guys like Snyman, Paulse and Percy in the team. Can’t see them being on there peak in a years time. Would have loved to see some young talent being given a chance now.
12 Jun 2006, 18:01 pm
KingPaul
Nevermind Gus, he’s way better than Wayne. Even Jorrie will give Wayne a run for his money!!
12 Jun 2006, 18:06 pm
Jake should have picked Dries Scholz instead of Digat Julies. But Dries is too …… isnt he.
Selfde as Pruik Paulse. Ek was op n staduim bekommerd dat die ding gaan afwaai.
12 Jun 2006, 18:09 pm
Nee wat Stan.
Wetie so mooi van daai een nie.
Was baie bly toe Dries vir die Bulls gekies was vir die S14, maar die man was nerens nie. Pruik Paulse….Pis snaaks! Dink Olivier en Fourie is net die regte kombinasie vir Saterdag.
12 Jun 2006, 18:13 pm
Jy weet ek spot net oor Dries. Maar hy kan dalk later deurkom.
12 Jun 2006, 18:16 pm
Stan
Weet nie of jy die seisoen onthou toe Dries so ‘n groot uitval met die Bulle gehad nie, so 2 seisoe gelede..? Daai jaar was die man in ongelooflike vorm en in my oe ‘n verseker keuse as Bok senter, ma nie gekies nie want hy was nie eers by ‘n unie nie. Was nog nooit weer in daai vorm nie, maar dis soos jy se, die man kan altyd weer terugkom. Vir die noordelike halfrond met nat, stadige velde hoop ek verseker so.
12 Jun 2006, 18:24 pm
Give Snyman a chance. They guy was great overseas, he knocks on a few balls in SA and everyone wants his head. RIDICULOUS!! I honestly enjoy Dean’s comments and agree thoroughly. The biggest emeny of SA rugby, as with British football are the fans. An excellent player just needs to knock once or twice and suddenly he is ****.
You know why we don’t have good flyhalves? It is because they are put under so much pressure by the media and fans. Any human under immense pressure like not perform to their full potential on a regular basis, because if tehy make one small knock or kick out on the full we suddenly want them replaced.
I think, pick the person you think is teh most talented and let them play. If tehy mess up, so they had a bad day but don’t ridicule them because then they’ll end up having many more bad games than they should.
I watch Larkham makes some shocking kicks out on teh full on Saturday but he is still the best flyhalf in world rugby.
12 Jun 2006, 18:53 pm
What worries me the most is backup for Monty! The obvious choice is to move Jaco to 15, if that is true then he can’t be a specialist flyhalf. I know when Butch is fit, he will be Bok flyhalf, maybe then White will start resting Monty and play Jaco at 15. White should be playing Bosman this Sat, the Scottish r broken now, so would have been a great time to play Bosman. Play Jaco at fullback, player rotation ek se.
By the way where is Butch?
12 Jun 2006, 19:09 pm
Weet julle wat sal nou regtig befok lyk??? As Paulse sy pruik wit dye soos Kabamba Floors. LOL. Ek dink Bosman is saam met die onder 21′s. Johan Roets dalk beste opsie om Percy te vervang, of JP Pietersen??
12 Jun 2006, 22:08 pm
One of these moments Snyman is gonna fall into shape and then all the slackers who are slagging him are gonna say ” wow!! it’s so nice to see Snyman back”
I must try and find a good NZ rugby blog and see if their rugby public is as thick and fickle as ours.
The man has just returned home for goodness sake, has had to learn Jakes structures, which are vastly different from those in the land of the Pom. He still has to shake of stupid disease (which is what you get from being there too long) and get into his stride. Now, after one test “wah!! drop him, he’s too slow, he can’t catch, er, and it’s all the coaches fault so drop him too” In fact if I remember right the same fools were indeed shouting “drop the coach,he’s no good,he does’nt make the right selections” last week.
I’m surprised, cause normally the same ******** are after the black players. “Bok’s forwards were bad cause of Eddie” Was the call last week. The reason for this is that they could only see Eddies face as Carstens face was generally jammed into the turf. I hear no calls for Visagie this week, I wonder why. Oh, and when is Os going to be “Too old”? How quiet the Rousouw critics are this week.
I remembers an Ozzie post last week saying, give us Rousouw, we’ll take him.
You dudes are pathetic, instead of supporting the team as a whole(which includes the coaches) you try and down just about every aspect of an incredible sport. We’re supposed to have a united team, one that plays for each other, black and white, come hell or high water, and I’m surprised they can hope to get even this right (or even want to) with you bunch behind them. And you say Fester’s Bad!!!
I really hope none of the team ever read the drivel that gets posted on this site. It gets me down, so heaven knows what it would do to them.
You call yourselves rugby supporters. Please, next joke. It’s not even as if you’re putting your own oppinions forward, but rather those that have been driven into you by some other clueless twit. Og, I give up.
This does obviously not apply to all the muppits on the site.
12 Jun 2006, 22:26 pm
Seeing that Jake has the opportunity now to play around with the team before the 3N I would love to see Jaque Fourie at 12 and Habana at 13.
13 Jun 2006, 04:08 am
Bluecap
Snyaman was ‘average ‘ both games,World 15 too.
Because he was one dimensional and also knocked on a lot at the end of his last SA season ,people are not going to give him the patience that an Ndungane or an Olivier or a Pieterson would deserve.
The same would go for Paulse,they are seasoned campaigners. If Jake brings them back and they are poor vs weakish opposition then you cant expect the fans to be all that patient. Most of us do complain about some things which usually means all the things we didnt complain about we are actually very happy with.But we dont say it enough.
The fact is if we had no other options ,it would be fine,but some of us beleive there ae more promising players /witing in the wings’ so when the mightily experienced Mr Snyman looks very out of his depth then we need a place to voice our frustration. We all just choose different issues.
Snyman MUST play this next game ,it will be awesome if he can ‘find it’ as we do need experience and backup etc ,it just needs to be on form.
Bluecap ,I cant stress enough that I beleive if Habana had had the chances Snyman had there would have been another try or 2 easily ,down the left wing.
We need game-breakers and guys who take the chances. Its a pretty good time to experiment ,and Snyman is proving to be an experiment on wing at the highest level.We may have experimented witha few newbie’s who could bring a purple patch season to 2007.
It happens with a lot of new guys ,their 1st bok season or 2nd ,is as good as it gets.
ie:Russel,Habana (perhaps it will continue),Bob Skinstad etc etc
Andre Snyman needs to draw from all that experience and do more than run well when put into space.He needs to have vision out there,when to come infield,when to take the outside,when to chip,when to rush defence and leave his man in an double overlap situation.(Ala Paulse and sometimes Habana)
I hope you can swallow this ,or my wife will have to
13 Jun 2006, 07:12 am
Lay of Snyman. The weakest aspect of the Bok’s backline is that they struggle when playing in the North. Can no one remeber that at the 2004 end of year tour when SA had such high expectations of beating the Poms, the backline was useless. I was at Twickers for that game, and the backs could not play in the colder, wetter conditions, and most of those players are still first choice today (Fourie, Jaco, JDV, Paulse & Percy). Experience in those conditions is invaluable. Why do u think wingers like Cohen, Cueto, Horgan etc thrive in the Northern hemisphere. They are not renowned for has blistering pace. But, what they do have is size, strength the ability to finish of moves in those kind of conditions.
Whilst I do agree that Snyman has a dissapointing First Half against the Scots, one must understand that he has always being a confidence player. The Bok backline will be far better balanced if they had one wing with size & strength and one wing with pace.
On another topic, I bet you we dont see Brent Russell for the Boks again this season unless there is a few injuries to the back three. It does’nt look like he will b fit for this wkend, and I doubt Jake will give him a oppurtunity against a strong French team, and those will be his last two oppurtunities to impress before the 3N squad is finalised. Another exceptional South African talent lost!
13 Jun 2006, 08:23 am
Russell was on the bench for World 15 but never got any game time. I had hope when i saw him on the bench.I think you may be right Pete77.
I have some issue with a player who is a ‘confidence player’ …being our 1st choice.They say that about Russell,but he doesnt get the nod cos of his size.
Snyman has the size but it means squat if he needs to fumble for confidence for too much longer. Those were not super tough pressure games. All the commmentators could say about him was how strongly built he is. Nothing else to report. He does still look more like a 13 to me.
I still hope he makes it,we could do with it ,but its funny how you guys defend the big white guy.
We are still facinated by size. Means squat when you cant use it.
By the way I was never overly excited to hear about his return so im not being inconsistent.
I do realise Jake has done somewhat well with Percy and Jaco,and Breyton….but then many disagree with that too.
For the record,I agree with most of what Jake does and know he is the right guy for the job. the best we have and a breath of fresh air. I like his determination and decsisiveness whether i like its content or not. We may not win RWC 2007 but its ot a given for anyone and I think we’ll do as well do better than any other coach would if we changed now.
Go Jake ,Go Bokke ….and go Snyman….i do not want you to fail.
13 Jun 2006, 08:57 am
Yeah Snyman’s build is more of a Centres build, however I don’t think he could switch back to Centre now, & i dont think Jake would switch him back to Centre. I do hope that Russell is given a chance, I really believe that he could be a huge success if he was a least given the oppurtunity as an impact player. I do understand Jake’s argument that he might be too small & possibly a risk on defense, but then if your going to label a player as an impact player, put him on the pitch, and I don’t mean jst 4 the last 5-10mins, i mean for at least 20-25mins so he can have a impact on the game.
C’mon Jake see what every Boks supporter and foreign coach/pundit sees, play the Pocket Rocket.
13 Jun 2006, 09:27 am
Bakkies and Habana will definitely the strengthen the team. Least we can get rid of useless Snyman.
They should call up John Ackerman as well.
13 Jun 2006, 09:43 am
Pete ,re the pocket dynamo ….exactly,altho he’s good for certain games ,perhaps not every one….but he wasnt even given game time vs world 15 ! Seemed like a token gesture.
We the public paying fooos deserve to see the little man. He is useful at flyhalf too ! We need more flyhalf cover.
I dont see why Snyman couldnt switch back to his very well known position of center ? Soem training again but it should be 2nd nature. Not saying h should be picked there now ,but seeing as jake’s brought him back ,if he doesnt shape up on wing ,he should go back to Sharks CC and play at 13 till we need him to cover for 13. Who is Jaques Fourie’s replacement??
Back to the pocket….dont you find it strange how when we are loosing and need 2 or 3 scores to win as SA teams we play like we need to throw caution to the wind only i the last few minutes when its mathematically impossible to catch up.Pocket rocket sits on the bench while carthorses kick up upfield.
13 Jun 2006, 09:51 am
DDREK, please understand that my post was aimed at the useless mianderings of those who are totally uninformed and uneducated in the game of rugby. Not at constructive critisism. It seems the continual negative always come from the same people, and generally those same people don’t add much to the site. Funny, those same people moan at light hearted banter, which I also believe is part of this site.
Like I said, It most certainly does not apply to all Muppits.
Regarding Snyman, I hear what you say but I’ve seen him play some incredible rugby(at centre)and if he can get that back he’ll be awesome. And as Pete77 says, he does have Northern experience, which at the world cup could prove invaluable.
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