Du Preez faces daunting debut
20 Nov 2009
Springbok debuts don’t come much tougher than fronting Martin Castrogiovanni, and Wian du Preez is acutely aware of this.
The Italian powerhouse tighthead decimated the Springbok scrum while playing for Leicester a fortnight ago, and followed that with a commanding performance against the All Blacks last weekend.
He has built a reputation as one of the pre-eminent tightheads in world rugby, and the Springbok tight five, whose scrum woes continued against France and Saracens, will have to provide their rookie No 1 with sufficient support to counter the immense Castrogiovanni.
‘It’s going to be a challenge, I saw what he did against the All Blacks and it’s a real baptism of fire,’ Du Preez said. ‘Its up there, it’s my first experience of international rugby so it’s going to be a big test.
‘The Italians are a big physical side of forwards, you can see they work well as a pack, they’ve worked well on scrums and drives. Castro’s a big guy, it’s going to be a physical test on Saturday.
‘They’re really improving and they’re a passionate people. They’re very supportive of us, it’s going to be special representing South Africa.’
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has opted to select two props on the bench, one of those being BJ Botha, who anchored the Springboks’ scrum in 2007 before he sustained an injury at the World Cup which ended his tournament. He later penned a three-year contract with Irish side Ulster, effectively ruling him out of Springbok contention.
However, the team’s front row injury crisis has forced De Villiers to relent on his strict no foreign-based players policy, and the coach said he was gaining a valuable player.
‘We would have loved to have him here with us from the beginning but what a lovely position to be in, we’ve been through a full compliment of front rows, we’ve lost six at the moment, and we can still fall back on somebody with that much test experience,’ said De Villiers.
‘I think we’re in a brilliant position, although not the one we wanted to be in.’
De Villiers noted that fatigue had played a role in his side’s lethargic performance against France last week and urged his charges to to make substantial improvements in Udine.
‘We’re one or two seconds off the boil at the moment, so now we’ve got choices, are we going to start this game in first gear and keep it in first gear or are we going to use all the gears at our disposal,’ he said.
‘If we had played last week’s game against France in June we would have protected the ball much better because we would have been there earlier. We’re not looking for excuses, we’re here to win games and do our best.’
22 Comments
20 Nov 2009, 08:15 am
Prop dragon!
20 Nov 2009, 08:20 am
Let’s see if they rest or play? They’re mos tired.
20 Nov 2009, 08:21 am
More Mnr Staal.
Lekker reen ne?
Wat beplan jy vir volgende jaar werks gewys?
20 Nov 2009, 08:22 am
20 Nov 2009, 08:51 am
Du Preez could make a name for himself tomorrow . Good luck . When the occasion demands . . . . . GCB
20 Nov 2009, 09:03 am
Hard job ahead of him, pressure makes diamonds tho
20 Nov 2009, 09:06 am
I remember a few years back when they interviewed Jannie Du Plessis about who he thought was the strongest scrummaging loosehead in the country and said without a doubt Wian Du Preez, which included Os at the time.
So, I think he’ll do ok!
20 Nov 2009, 09:09 am
Unfortunately, this is not an ideal situation to be making his debut!!
Thanks to Helium, and his fellow clowns, we are in a situation where a promising player is setup to fail!!!
How different would the situation have been if the Cheetah frontrow played together against Leinster, and Saracens, instead of Heliums masterplan!! An unfit, fresh from injury Heinke as a TIGHTHEAD!!!!!
Now we have promising players thrown in at the deep end!!
Against Saracens, helium had the perfect opportunity to give Wian a run at LH, the reason he was brought across…. instead he started with Heinke???
Then when CJ went of, on comes on comes Wian, with the “failed experiment” moving to TH!!!
Agains France, Helium, missed another trick… Wian on the bench, Beast goes off, and he brings CJ on????
Now Wian must sink or swim!! how wrong is that!!
SARU should hold these imbeciles to task. **** Muir, Helium, and Gary Gold owe us Springbok supporters an apology, and throw in the selectors too!!!!
20 Nov 2009, 09:15 am
I think Smit’s inability to scrum is gonna make Wian’s performance look worse than it really is.
20 Nov 2009, 09:15 am
Will Paddy also apologize to us after the game?
20 Nov 2009, 09:16 am
#8 Cheetah 4 Eva: Amen ! This tour would have been ideal for players like WP Nel and Mapoe . We will need both come 2011. What Ndugane is still doing in the squad only Helium knows . .. .
20 Nov 2009, 10:23 am
#10 Hop Hop Spinnekop: Yes. But only two years from now, after defending another ref for ******** over your World Cup.
20 Nov 2009, 10:54 am
Wian can’t manage on his own! Hopefully the loosies and locks behind him will assist him in this game.
20 Nov 2009, 11:27 am
#8 Cheetah 4 Eva:
Be fair about this. There were no rookie Bok props in the original squad and I doubt whether PdeV expected to have to call on one, regardless of whether he should have been included.
Heinke was only included to see if they could develop him into a utility prop, and was taken for experimental purposes.
BTW, it was Leicester, not Leinster.
20 Nov 2009, 11:48 am
#14 David: I have a problem selecting any player fresh back from injury, into a tour squad without having played any rugby since April!!!
And what is fair about picking props like Gurthro, and Heinke, when in Gurthro’s case he was clearly being bested by WP Nel, and Brok Harris??
And in Heinke’s case without having played eny matches in any form since April 2009???
And then to compound the matter they expect Heinke to convert to TH, against some quality scrums!!
As for the Leicester error, I sit corrected!
20 Nov 2009, 12:35 pm
#15 Cheetah 4 Eva:
I agree with the Heinke situation. He should never had been on this tour. He needed game time at Provincial level to ease his way back. He was a quality loose head before his injury and I hope he gets back to his best. This tour was certainly not the time or place to test his abilities at tight head.
Guthro’s a loose head and WP a tight head. You can’t compare them.
20 Nov 2009, 13:11 pm
#16 stand-off: I know Guthro is a LH, the point is he was outscrummed by WP Nel, and Brok Harris in the CC
20 Nov 2009, 13:22 pm
I am going to say something that might not go down well, but maybe the problem is not Smit, but Beast. The only good scrum we had against the French was a powerfull right shoulder by Smittie, so maybe Beast needs some more work and gym time?
20 Nov 2009, 13:25 pm
I hope he does well. The only way into this bok team for our standout players appears to be by default. Morne and Heinrich only got their chances reluctantly. Make the most of it Wian.
20 Nov 2009, 13:33 pm
#8 Cheetah 4 Eva: Careful man … PDV is “of colour” you just cant come out and say these things about him ..
Judge him like that … sies!
You will have Xhosa and Transformation and other clowns calling you a racist …..
20 Nov 2009, 14:17 pm
#20 dr dre: Lol, I couldn’t care less, there little racist brushes everytime they post something is water of a ducks back!!
For every “white” player they claim got countless opportunities to impress at national level, I can name them dozens of “non-white”players that got ample opportunity, but were either to piss poor, or to lazy to take the opportunity.
Then I can give them a dozen white players that didn’t get a chance because that opportunity went to less deserving “non-white” players!!
Those okes are still stuck in 1992, most rugby supporters couldn’t give a continental, if the players are ethnic blacks, naturalised blacks, paler skinned blacks, or whites, we just want the best 22 players playing for the Boks, and any other SA team..
They can join Malema’s blog, they will fit right in!
21 Nov 2009, 08:26 am
#21 Cheetah 4 Eva:
The whole exercise was designed to protect the Beast from Castrogiovannie who can easily maim better than the Beast.
Also, must be a discontetnt about the Beast Non binding antics on the opposition ball, it takes a huge toll on the hooker, rest assured: Bismark and Adriaan do talk to each other!
I believe this Boks tight 5 are adequate to meet the Italian challange heads on, at the worst case scenario we shall have the fun watching the Beast takes on Castrog!
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.