SA latest – Smit back at tighthead
9 Mar 2011
Keo.co.za brings you news from South Africa’s Super Rugby franchises.
Smit back at tighthead -John Smit will start his first Super Rugby game this season at tighthead prop when the Sharks take on the Rebels in Melbourne on Friday.
Smit replaces Jannie du Plessis in the front row and takes over the captaincy from outside centre Stefan Terblanche.
The other change to the pack sees No 8 Ryan Kankowski promoted from the bench, which sees Keegan Daniel move to openside flank and Jacques Botes drops to the reserves.
Wing Odwa Ndungane has recovered from his light concussion to make the run-on side this weekend, while speedster Lwazi Mvovo replaces the injured JP Pietersen.
Sharks – 15 Louis Ludik, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Stefan Terblanche, 12 Meyer Bosman, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Patrick Lambie, 9 Charl McLeod, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Keegan Daniel, 5 Alistair Hargreaves, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 John Smit (c), 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Bench: 16 Craig Burden, 17 Jannie du Plessis, 18 Anton Bresler, 19 Jacques Botes, 20 Conrad Hoffmann, 21 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 22 Adrian Jacobs.
Sharks consider London fixture – The Crusaders are planning to stage their home match against the Sharks in London, but they will need the Durban franchise to agree to the change in venue.
Following the earthquake in Christchurch, the Crusaders have moved to Nelson as a temporary base. Since the disaster, there has been a move to stage a game in London in order to help their financial situation.
According to The Witness, Sharks CEO Brian van Zyl has been approached by his Crusaders counterpart and the Durban franchise is weighing up the pros and cons. The fixture is the Sharks’ fourth and final
tour game before they return to South Africa, so to travel all the way to London would place them at a disadvantage.
Both the Crusaders and Sharks stand to make money from the proposed fixture at Twickenham, but Van Zyl said a ‘rugby decision’ rather than a financial one would be made. The decision will be announced following the Sharks’ game against the Rebels on Friday.
Brussow back in action – Heinrich Brussow will make his return to Super Rugby against the Lions this weekend.
Sias Ebersohn will start at flyhalf while Andries Strauss has been named captain for the Cheetahs’ clash with the Lions. Naas Olivier has been dropped to the bench after some poor performances in the first three rounds.
Coach Naka Drotske has made several other changes, with Riaan Viljoen slotting in at fullback, flanks Philip van der Walt and Brussow introduced to the back row and Martin Muller coming in at lock.
Cheetahs – 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Philip Snyman, 13 Robert Ebersohn, 12 Andries Strauss (c), 11 Rayno Benjamin, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Ashley Johnson, 7 Philip van der Walt, 6 Heinrich Brussow, 5 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 4 Martin Muller, 3 WP Nel, 2 Ryno Barnes, 1 Coenie Oosthuizen.
Subs: 16 Skipper Badenhorst, 17 Kobus Calldo, 18 Kabamba Floors, 19 Francois Uys, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Naas Olivier, 22 Fabien Juries.
536 Comments
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9 Mar 2011, 14:55 pm
@Ratel Brussow(Morne Steyn is under-rated)-197: he’ll fk him up with his hands tied behind his back
9 Mar 2011, 14:57 pm
Anyway, bored now that Gwantie and Justtennis have run off with tail between legs.
Looking forward to Friday, hope John can silence his critics once again.
9 Mar 2011, 14:58 pm
@MTN RedLion Roars…(RL)-189: Somerville is a tighthead, so will not be facing up to Smit, but the Force’s scrum as a whole is probably not too strong, as they have demonstrated so far.
9 Mar 2011, 15:01 pm
@daydreamer(daydreamer)-203: yeah so will Rodzilla be the lucky one who is going to told Smit.
9 Mar 2011, 15:03 pm
@Ratel Brussow(Morne Steyn is under-rated)-202: When has Smit silenced his critics before? It will be very embarrassing if the Sharks scrum goes backwards because of past-his-sell-by-date Smit.
9 Mar 2011, 15:03 pm
@MTN RedLion Roars…(RL)-180: He does have integrity because he believes he is still there on merit and is therefore doing as he says.
9 Mar 2011, 15:18 pm
I don’t like this move.
9 Mar 2011, 15:25 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-207: Dont worry PA ” alles sal regkom”
9 Mar 2011, 15:28 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-207: keep the faith morne you are going to be pleasantly surprised
9 Mar 2011, 15:29 pm
@bananaboy(bananaboy)-206: piesangs , igjnore the butt ****** boet , that little Rl juvenile delinquent is a waste of time
9 Mar 2011, 15:29 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-207: Remember a couple of seasons ago what the folks on this blog were calling Janie DuPlessis. Oh how their tunes have changed. As you know its the whole and not the individual component thats important and JS is one of the best team players around.
9 Mar 2011, 15:30 pm
great to see heinrich brussow starting at cheetahs….just hope it is not too soon…
9 Mar 2011, 15:30 pm
I’m with Grant 10 on this one- JS is a passenger like RJ and Spies
9 Mar 2011, 15:31 pm
well smitty moves back to the position from where he led the boks to one of their most successful years ever.
plum is a beaut.
9 Mar 2011, 15:32 pm
@bananaboy(bananaboy)-211: jannie dup has been a revelation….no doubting that.
Plod should have been played at 2 for this game…rotated with bissy….I think this is a s a result of van stadens injury
9 Mar 2011, 15:32 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-209: why must you stick you fat nose in everytime? grow doos fcker.
9 Mar 2011, 15:32 pm
@daydreamer(daydreamer)-205: BI Lions tour. Last game of 3N 2009. Huge criticsim in press, our scrum destroyed them.
2003 – JS made captain, press said Gary Botha was better.
9 Mar 2011, 15:33 pm
outta here
again
farken business…
9 Mar 2011, 15:34 pm
@grant10(grant10)-215: haha, you are such a tunc really.
you used to call him jannie kanniescrumnie.
shows how useless your opinion is.
9 Mar 2011, 15:34 pm
@grant10(grant10)-215: jannie dup threatened to break Pockock’s neck … not nice behaviour from a doctor. His punishment was to get benched.
9 Mar 2011, 15:35 pm
Please I hope, Ratel is ready and Naka hasn’t rushed him back like he normally does with his stars.
Still, he’s played 2 Vodacom cup games hasn’t he?
9 Mar 2011, 15:38 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-209:
I have no issue with Smit’s ability, Plum made it clear he will cover all three during the campaign.
But that is just the point, to ‘cover’ all three imo means that if there is a crisis, John could step up and fill the void and do so with relative ease.
Fact is, all three positions are technically very different, and as a captain Smit has more to worry about on and off the field than his personal game jumping between three specialist positions.
If there was an in-game injury, or one days or hours out on tour or before a match with no time to call in specialist back-up players, Smit could have covered all three, but now they are asking him to become a specialist again.
He is a specialist hooker, and if anything should be rotated with Bismarck in this long competition and only used at loose-or-tighthead in emergencies.
That to me is the bonus Smit brings ‘covering’ all three, but ultimately being the team’s hooker, or one of their three specialist hookers for the Super 15 campaign.
This bonus now is being exploited a bit in my view and at too much of a risk to the player, the team and the campaign.
There is nothing wrong with bringing in Eugene van Staden for Jannie and either play Smit off the bench (covering all three) or rotating with Bismarck.
Smit will be okay at 3, but I think this is not managed correctly – but that’s just my opinion of course.
9 Mar 2011, 15:39 pm
Unless there are injury concerns in the team at tighthead of course, which would explain all this in an instant.
9 Mar 2011, 15:42 pm
See JS is back in the position that he and PdeV almost managed to mess the B&I Lions tour up with .. thank goodness for M Steyn and Brussow.
Well, I suppose they had to get him off from the bench at some time to justify the huge amount of money they paying him … the Rebels is most probably the best team to do that against as they are one of the ‘weaker teams’ .. but in the TH position .. eish.
I wish they did this before my SuperBru choices were made .. the Brumbies saw their asses because of backroom squabble .. and the sharks have made a tactical blunder here, including the captaincy.
Think they realize they cannot replace the intensity of Beast and Bismark with JS, so, now they are stuck.
9 Mar 2011, 15:42 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-222: i actually agree with your assesment , but i can tell you jannie does have a niggle, so its more precautionary
the other backup prop i dont think they want to rish as he is not the best of scrummages , thus the route they have taken
trust me van staden was a a huge loss to their planning and herbst has only just gotten back from a very long lay off
9 Mar 2011, 15:43 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-223: well you have just answered what i was typing to you
9 Mar 2011, 15:43 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-226:
Oh okay, happy days then.
9 Mar 2011, 15:46 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-227: also the rebel scrum is not the strongest morne and the thought is to get him some seriously needed game time right now
9 Mar 2011, 15:46 pm
@rangerman(rangerman)-219:
Slowly on the opinion stakes big boy, I remember you making a toti of yourself on the weekend with an opinion………remember !!!
Your comeback….”I have an opinion” …………………… well then your opinion is pretty damn useless as well !!!
9 Mar 2011, 15:47 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-222: Van Staden is injured.
9 Mar 2011, 15:48 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-225:
Agree 100% , this move is perhaps forced because of the Van Staaden injury !!
9 Mar 2011, 15:51 pm
@Paws(Paws)-224: Thats just utter tripe. Our frontrow dominated the Lions until it was altered for the last game. Any punter with an average brain would tell you that.
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-228: Actually its probably stronger than most SA scrums with Somerville and Rodzille.
9 Mar 2011, 15:52 pm
@justrugby(justrugby)-231: it is ,JR
although John is strong enough to play TH it is not ideal and what they were wanting to do
Van staden was a huge setback
Also dont forget a very good up and comming TH in Herbst that only last weekend played his first match in about 8 months after injury
9 Mar 2011, 15:53 pm
@Ratel Brussow(Morne Steyn is under-rated)-232: they have not shown it yet though ratel but i hear ya mate
9 Mar 2011, 15:53 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-223: Actually, John is technically best against big looseheads and struggles more against smaller ones, so should do well against Rodzilla. Beast will have his work cut out against Somerville.
9 Mar 2011, 15:56 pm
@Ratel Brussow(Morne Steyn is under-rated)-232:
Sure .. in the first test, Beast had a great game .. and I wonder now if not a little illegal, but not after that.
And any punter with an average brain would tell you that if not for Brussow and M Steyn we could very easy have been on the loosing side.
9 Mar 2011, 15:56 pm
I think this is quite a smart move , he needs game time to get match fit and he has not had oppotunities , now was the time, if jannie gets injured and smitty had gotten no match time lets say for against the saders?? well that could have made matters much worse
so smart move plum
9 Mar 2011, 15:58 pm
@Ratel Brussow(Morne Steyn is under-rated)-235: the sharks front row will do just fine trust me
9 Mar 2011, 15:58 pm
@Paws(Paws)-236: Agree about Brussow and Steyn, but there was nothing wrong with our scrum in those 1st 2 games, in fact we dominated and John scored a great try.
If you want to talk about a passenger lets talk Schalk at 6.
9 Mar 2011, 15:58 pm
Only the Law of Gravity seemed to be on par with the rule of Quota
Defies all rugby sense and logics just to maintain the Beast in the line up.
Jannie Dup must be wondering if he wasn’t better off accepting the Rebels offer (with Bismarck) last year?
9 Mar 2011, 15:59 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-238: Not worried at all, dude. All I’m saying is the Rebels have good personal in their side. The Stormers could do well with Yoda.
9 Mar 2011, 16:00 pm
i am also really pleased odwa is ok to play
he has in my mind probably been the best wing in SA this year
speed is fine defence is great his work ethics brlliant , man he is all over the park
9 Mar 2011, 16:00 pm
@justrugby(justrugby)-229: thats cute, sticking up for your fwiend!
but my opinion was about a teams chances, not about an individual players ability.
understand?
comprendo?
your opinion is more valuable than grants tbho.
dont get ahead of yourself now ok?
9 Mar 2011, 16:01 pm
@Hondo(Hondo)-240: Its a long season, A
r
s
e
h
o
l
e.
9 Mar 2011, 16:01 pm
@Ratel Brussow(Morne Steyn is under-rated)-241: i know mate , anyhows we speak the same language
9 Mar 2011, 16:02 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-242: Worried about Odwa, should have 10 days off after a concussion.
9 Mar 2011, 16:03 pm
@Ratel Brussow(Morne Steyn is under-rated)-244: i was about to say the same
hondo is rubbish racist like capo , RL , langeveld the doos, they one sick little family
9 Mar 2011, 16:04 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-245: Yup, we could field a front-row of Van Staden, Burden and Smitie and it would still be stronger than the Stormers 1st choice.
9 Mar 2011, 16:04 pm
@Ratel Brussow(Morne Steyn is under-rated)-246: not sure it was concussion boet , its international law that one must be off ex amount time for that
9 Mar 2011, 16:05 pm
@sharks_lover(sharks_lover)-247: Ruining the blog with their agenda. capo and youknowwho should have been banned by now.
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