15. Lambie
14. Aplon
13. Fourie
12. Frans Steyn
11. Mvovo
10. Sias Ebersohn
9. Hougard
8. Vermuelen
7. Alberts.
6. Brussouw
5. Flip
4. Bekker
3. Jannie
2. Bismarck
1. Beast

16. Coenie
17. Chlliboy
18. Juandre Kruger
19. Schalk
20. Sarel Pretorious
21. jantjies
22. Ebersohn

9. Hougaard
10. Lambie
11. JPP
12. F Steyn
13. Jaque / Juan
14. Aplon
15. Taute (Kicker)

TRust me we cannot just make wholesale changes, the Boks are not that kind of team we will suffer if we make wholesale changes!!

Agree with your observations – he’s actually quite a courageous tackler (Morne Steyn) for a little bloke and did a lot against Samoa – thanks for pointing that out, he gets a lot of puerile comments on this blogsite – compare him to Keith Oxlee, Naas and all the othe “classic” Springbok flyhalves who never made a tackle in their lives – yet constantly succeeded in winning us games …

Just a tought and i will now await my criticism!!!

Can’t wait to see these backline players for the Boks post RWC:

Francois Hougaard, Sarel Pretorius, Ruan Pienaar, Johann Goosen, Morne Steyn, Lwazi Mvovo, Bjorn Basson, Francois Steyn, Juan De Jongh, Jacques Fourie, Johann Sadie, JP Pieterson, Gio Aplon, Patrick Lambie, Jaco Taute, Riaan Viljoen

Exceptional talents one and all.
If anything, Boks may be missing a defensively sound scrumhalf with a good kicking game.
But, that aside, game-breakers and match-winners abound in the backline!

very true regarding morne & strategy

Not really bud,making big proclaimations at the moment I see. Irish are doing well but have their vulnerabilities. Their pack is playing superbly at present but can be matched, as for 50mins the Italians manned up and score was 9-6 with Mirco Bergamasco guilty of missing 2 penalties.When Castrogiovanni left the picth,Italy lost ascendancy and ireland took control-Italy defence & backline is poor and you wont ANY of the SH nations with that. With parity at setpiece like Italians,SA/NZ can achieve that and backs can take game away from irish.

Wipe the floor? nah bud-hyperboles.The same irish team was well beaten by Boks at Croke Parl last year missing Brussow,Bakkies,Guthro,Juan,du Preez etc

Easy easy mate,these are precautionary and with a longer weak to recover,Habs & JPP should be ready for Sunday.In any event if the were out backline would look NOTHING like the one you posted.. Butch isnt going to play and De Villiers is not a wing(only emergencies) .If JPP & Habs are out(highly unlikely) SA with play

9.Du Preez 10.Steyn 11.Hougaard 12.De Villiers 13.Fourie 14.Aplon 15.Lambie

Many way argue that thi backline above is stronger with the attacking strengths and speed of Hougie/Aplon.And rightly so.

Oz have their own problems with Faingaa,McCabe under the weather,Pocock not operating at 100 %(Hodgson brought in as cover) and Mitchell out,Oconnor troubles,erratic Cooper,no goalkicker of repute and a suspect pack….Over??? Not a fark,not by a long shot.

Of more importance is how we play and what plan we implement on the day. In the first half on Friday, we were completely dominant with the only negative being perhaps our finishing, but we were all over them with a set piece dominant, ball in hand approach.

Then we come out the shed and go back into our shells and employ the antiquated 2009 game plan and let the Samoans back into the game.

Morne is fine with ball in hand and is actually getting his backs away quite nicely.
He had one or 2 BIG missed tackles one of which came after he kicked the ball away and then failed to tackle the guy on the follow up. BIG error which, had it not been for one of the tackles of the Toury by Lambie, would definitely had been a try.

The lesson here is for Morne to not kick away decent ball, our forwards are dominant enough to retaining it.

I am worried about this 5-2 split.
Why have it if CJ hardly ever gets on the field?
Is it just me or has Beast been uncharacteristically muted throughout the pool stage?
It’s almost as if the spectacle has overwhelmed him a bit.

I’d go for:

1. Steenkamp 2. Smit 3. Du Plessis 4. Botha 5. Matfield 6. Brussow 7. Burger 8. Spies 9. Du Preez
10. Steyn 11. Habana (I’m sure he’ll be fine to play) 12. De Villiers 13. Fourie 14. Pieterson (if fit, otherwise Hougaard) 15. Lambie

16. Du Plessis 17. Van Der Linde 18. Rossouw 19. Alberts 20. James 21. De Jongh (if JP is fit, then Aplon to take Juan’s place on the bench as Butch and Patrick can cover 12 if necessary and JDV can cover 13) 22. Aplon

Have you been watching this tournament?
JP may have been a bit quiet in the first game, but he has been invaluable especially when defending.
He owned the so-called new Jonah Lomu when the Boks played Samoa.
And, for my money, was one of the top Boks on the park.

becnh:-
Hougie
Ruan Pienaar

Butch at 12 gives us another flyhalf centre player!!!

Yes yes yes but we have also seen him fall off his fair share of tackles just 3 weeks ago vs Wales he was abysmal. He isnt as bad as many are making out to be but it would be foolish of us to think Wallabies wont be targeting that channel more specifically plus they have the most inventive backline that can exploit such frailties.Just in case Morne is a bit erratic,someone can fill in for him on defence at different periods,mixing it up etc.

morne steyn’s defence was perfectly acceptable. He made 15 tackles against samoa missing2. Do you think the wobblies will ask as many questions of his channels as the samoans. I don’t think so.

FH can cover the wings easily although I reckon both will be played even with niggles due to the political implications.