Spies to lead Bulls
16 Nov 2011
Pierre Spies has been awarded the Bulls captaincy while Wynand Olivier has been named as his deputy.
The Bulls have lost a number of senior players to overseas contracts and retirement. Danie Rossouw, Bakkies Botha, Gary Botha and Gurthro Steenkamp will continue their careers abroad, while Victor Matfield will hang up his boots after the Barbarians vs Wallabies clash at the end of the month.
Spies was up against Chiliboy Ralepelle for the Bulls captaincy, and the Bulls management felt the Bok No 8 was the right man to succeed Matfield. This despite Ralepelle’s record at age group level (he captained the Baby Boks to a World Championship title in 2005) and the fact that he’s already led the senior Bok team, albeit in two tour matches.
‘It was not such a big surprise though, as I had it in the back of my mind that I could be asked to lead the team when Victor retired,’ Spies said. ‘I was privileged in my career at the Bulls and the Springboks to play with great captains and I could certainly learn a lot from them.
‘I believe a captain should lead from the front and I hope that will be something that I can do successfully. There are huge challenges ahead, but we are all looking forward to that. This group is younger than in previous years, but we have the same goals as those squads and that is to win the competition.’
Meanwhile, Spies’s vice-captain will be sidelined for the next two months. Olivier has undergone a shoulder operation and will only be available to the Bulls in early February.
‘I like that responsibility. Anyone who wants to write off the Bulls because we lost players, do so at their own peril. I think we have a squad that can with the competition again. There are new faces, so there will be a challenge to make sure all share the same vision, but I see no problems in that. We have a great management team and coaching staff and they will get everyone to pull in the same direction.’
419 Comments
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17 Nov 2011, 00:41 am
Anyways I am out, good chatting guys
17 Nov 2011, 00:42 am
Johnson bombed so did PdV.. probably for similar reasons.. too much buddy buddy with the players..
Rassie is a domdoos strategist making Burger the go to ball carry man.. also a dumbfck strategy that failed…
The entire song and dance routine around the super bench was a super fckup of note.. where Smit, Spies and FdP should have been far from the glory boy starters and Boks would have cleaned up Aussie and NZ on their way to a 3rd title if Bismark, Alberts and Hougaard had started instead..
White got some things right but only partly and EJ cleaned up his dismal back line play and gave them some direction.. without EJ I reckon Tonga or Fiji would have put Boks out the 2007 WC.. lets face it there was nobody else beside 13th and 14th rank who were even remotely competitive.. except a disjointed England and a fluked up France who got lucky against AB’s..
This time around France got distinctly robbed.. and SA did themselves in by playing Burger as the go to man.. and Smit, Spies, FDP ahead of Bismark, Alberts and Hougaard.
17 Nov 2011, 00:44 am
there’s one big difference between White and PdV tho, the latter was far more passionate about SA rugby imo, you would not seeing him touting for the BIL job a few months or chasing the england job or demeaning the current coach by graciously ‘offering to do a rescue job’. Poor form.
On the other hand, JW’s ego meant he was in charge, not SARU, Frik Du Preez, the president or the players, he’s fallout with Matfield was imo continuous and he was right to an extent too, since Matfield although brilliant had a tendency to coast in the tight in a great many tests and did not like to be called up on it.
17 Nov 2011, 00:47 am
dunno what you find even vaguely funny about one more pseudo arsed attempt at being clever which it distinctly is quite categorically not.. can spot a pseudo intellect a mile off.. a whole lotta pseudo arsed empty cleverness which equates to absolutely fokol
17 Nov 2011, 00:51 am
yeah PdV was a true heart on the sleeve no bullshit rugby man.. White just a puffed up piece of pontifical self centered trash that got lucky because his ego needed it that bad…
PdV’s weakness was he let his better judgment get derailed by those he entrusted with too much power and decision making prowess over his own.. that did him in the end.. But White without Jones would have been a blathering bewildered fckd up mess.. and I reckon he knows it..
17 Nov 2011, 00:52 am
@cab(cab)-403: ” you would not seeing him touting for the BIL job a few months or chasing the england job or demeaning the current coach by graciously ‘offering to do a rescue job’”…. Naah you wouldn’t see him doing that…
You would just see him stating his time is over and then contradicting himself followed by a reapplication for his position after been taught how to do it by Rassie and Nienaber… too late she cried…
17 Nov 2011, 00:53 am
I’m out… The farken hippy hypocrites are howling at the moon now…
17 Nov 2011, 00:53 am
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-402: So you admit that MJ was a pretty poor coach?
17 Nov 2011, 00:54 am
PdV was actually a very nice oke, but that non-selection of Bismarck was fkn horrific, sorry he must go, he also had injuries that white did not really have, but the non-selection of Bismarck means he’s gotta go, end of.
17 Nov 2011, 00:55 am
Matfield was probably the one closest to PdV’s ear and Matfield endorsed Smit to start and to lead the team based on some superstitious type jargon that he had led them to a fluke 4 years earlier… along with Rassie and Gold endorsing the ruse of the super bench bullshit routine… and that there is where it all fell down.. Smit starting over Bismark is what sunk the Bok along with the Bismark at the final hour..
17 Nov 2011, 00:59 am
imo matfield’s always wanted to captain the team, he also had a massive ego, but he could still back it up and was the best lineout lock in world rugby hands down, and in fairness probably should’ve been the onfield captain. Smit should have been the squad captain, doing all the pretty talk and so on and being heralded as mr selfless for stepping aside for the better player – and it would have all turned out so much better – now its all ended with a bitter aftertaste.
17 Nov 2011, 01:01 am
I expected more of Johnson I thought he could take charge of the team and make the correct decisions .. I don’t think Mallet is that strategically sound either he made some telling stuff ups of his own when push came to shove.. and so has Mitchell in his time.. so for my money right now the most astute rugby coach on the planet is Ewan McKenzie.. head and shoulders above all the rest… most professional wide awake and wised up coach going with less of the ego hang ups I’d imagine than many of the others…
17 Nov 2011, 01:25 am
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-405:
“But White without Jones would have been a blathering bewildered fckd up mess.. and I reckon he knows it.”
Tri Nations 2004 Winning Coach
1 x IRB International Coach of the Year Award 2004
What, pray tell, did Eddie Jones have to do with the above accolades?
17 Nov 2011, 01:26 am
@cab(cab)-411: Matfield was never ever a captain’s arse.
17 Nov 2011, 01:42 am
@cab(cab)-411: I think everyone was surprised at just how much game-time Smitty actually ended up getting in the last RWC. I for one was under the impression he would take on more of a senior mentor type role making calls from the sideline. Perhaps clocking up some time in the smaller pool games with Bismark taking on the big ones. It was just one bad call to start him against Oz really.
17 Nov 2011, 01:44 am
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-412: Problem for us is Ewan doesn’t want any job outside of Australia. Mallet, Mitchell, Rassie, Heyneke don’t want it….so who’s left? Alistair.
17 Nov 2011, 06:42 am
‘I am a God given talent’
17 Nov 2011, 08:34 am
To think my friends think i exagerate when i say there are some very interesting clever people on a rugby site.
17 Nov 2011, 09:02 am
for someone who is not a captains arse Victor seemed to do rather a good job i thought? I am however not convinced with the appointment of spies, as the pressure has been on him for a while now, and he has failed to deliver.
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