Duane spared as Deon starts
25 Jul 2012
MARK KEOHANE writes sanity has won the day and Duane Vermeulen has not been considered for the Stormers Super Rugby semi-final against the Sharks.
The Stormers management all week have hinted at Vermeulen playing, even though his last match was three months ago.
Vermeulen’s knee, like that of Schalk Burger and Nick Koster’s, has taken a beating in this year’s competition and it would have been unfair on the player to expect him to play a semi-final.
Deon Fourie, who started the season at hooker, will start at No 8.
Earlier today I wrote: Duane Vermeulen should be a Springbok. He should have been picked two years ago. He should have been picked for the Rugby World Cup. He should have … should have … would have finally had injury not prematurely ended his participation in the league stages of this year’s Super Rugby competition.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer, in private conversation, and publicly made no secret about his admiration of Vermeulen’s play. The player, said Meyer, had the kind of physicality suited to Test rugby but he also had a composure Meyer believed would blossom in the Test environment. The initial Bok Test plan was to start with Vermeulen at No 8 and introduce Pierre Spies from the bench. Vermeulen then got injured. So did Ryan Kankowski and with neither Schalk Burger nor Juan Smith available the Bok coach went with convention and with a player familiar in Spies.
The Stormers, without Burger, Vermeulen and Nick Koster for most of the season, have severely been tested in this department. Siya Kolisi has grown from boy to man with regular playing opportunity, but playing the likes of hooker Deon Fourie at No 8 is a short-term holding job and is no replacement for a player like Vermeulen.
I can understand the management’s haste to have Vermeulen play against the Sharks and, if successful, in the final a week later, but I also fail to see how a player who has been injured for so long can be expected to start a Super Rugby semi-final? I don’t care who it is, there is no way he can be physically or emotionally up to the demands of a match of this nature. We know that Saturday’s semi-final against the Sharks is going to be played at a frenetic pace and the opening 40 minutes is going to be taxing, brutal and, if you are sitting in the stands, bloody amazing to watch.
But who can expect a player to produce anything of substance in such circumstances if he hasn’t even had a club match to test the knee.
There was a similar rush to get Juan Smith back for the World Cup a season ago and all it did was add an additional six months to his rehabilitation and also potentially end his international career. We still don’t know if Smith will play again or if he will ever play to the ability that made him one of the best in the game.
I’d hate to see Vermeulen injure the knee again because of a selfless act in believing he has to play. I’d hate to see a player’s year ended because of the potential of a Super Rugby final at home. There is a bigger picture for Vermeulen, and it includes playing Test rugby this season and making a contribution to the Springboks in the Rugby Championship and on the end-of-year tour.
I don’t think he will be any better than what has been playing for the Stormers in the last month, purely because of his lack of match conditioning and because of the doubts concerning his knee in contact. To expect him to play and to play to the standard he has set in the last few seasons is unfair and unrealistic.
The Stormers management should have written him off as a possibility, as they have done with Koster and Burger, and focused on those fit and available.
I am sure it is what it will come to. At least I hope so because Vermeulen, the unluckiest player when it comes to Bok selection, needs a bit of luck and he needs someone to put his personal aspirations first.
Not to mention his long-term contribution to rugby in the Western Cape.
84 Comments
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25 Jul 2012, 12:43 pm
No article on Bryce Lawrence being sacked from international rugby? I thought there would maybe be just a little something?
25 Jul 2012, 12:47 pm
@thesaint-51: Let me do the honours:
The International Rugby Board (IRB) removed Lawrence from its elite panel of referees for future test matches, according to EWN Sport.
Lawrence became a hugely unpopular figure in South Africa last year after refereeing the World Cup quarterfinal between the Springboks and Australia. The Wallabies won the match, helped by Lawrence’s peculiar calls.
Bray confirmed the news by stating, “His time is over at [test] level.” He also added that it “would be a huge ask” for Lawrence to return to the test fold.
Lawrence was not given any Six Nations matches to officiate this year after his poor performance in the Wold Cup – despite being named New Zealand’s referee of the year.
Lawrence was also denied a chance to take charge of any matches in South Africa, with Sanzar fearing a public backlash in the rugby-mad country.
Lawrence has even been questioned in his home country this year. Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder lambasted Lawrence for his calls as the TMO during the Super Rugby match against the Hurricanes.
Blackadder criticised Lawrence after two botched calls – both of which led to Hurricanes tries and resulted in a win for the Wellington-based team.
“To me that was not a try. If there was a TMO like rugby league, they wouldn’t have allowed it,” Blackadder said.
“Even the second one [was dubious], when they had a guy in our defensive line as obstruction.”
25 Jul 2012, 12:47 pm
So much for “The Bryce is Right”.
25 Jul 2012, 12:48 pm
@>^..^< katman-50:
Indeed.
In terms of Cape Town Braai Society keo is a wors to be reckoned with.
25 Jul 2012, 12:52 pm
Sharks team announced… Jordaan out… Advantage Stormers…
25 Jul 2012, 12:53 pm
@>^..^< katman-53: Someone always has to be fcked before the something is done…and then it’s too late.
25 Jul 2012, 12:57 pm
@THE MAULER-55: who is in Bosman, he who sufferd from white line fever.
25 Jul 2012, 13:01 pm
RL yes… Haha… Hope he doesnt do that again…
25 Jul 2012, 13:07 pm
@thesaint-56: And to be fair, they chopped Kaplan too.
25 Jul 2012, 13:12 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther-54: Around the braai fires of the Atlantic Seaboard, they respectfully call him The Lawyer.
(he specialises in de wors)
25 Jul 2012, 13:23 pm
@>^..^< katman-53:
No one ever said that Bryce was right
Bryce had the assignment from the NZRU to derail the Boks and he did just that, he had been assured financial compensations in advance, only a fool like Jonker does it for free.
25 Jul 2012, 13:23 pm
I see sanity has won and Duane not considered
25 Jul 2012, 13:28 pm
@>^..^< katman-59:
For the opposite reason: Kaplan doesn’t follow instructions to swindle games which made him a thorn in the backside of SARU
25 Jul 2012, 13:28 pm
@keo-62:
What have you done with Nikita?
I miss her astute insightful commentary.
25 Jul 2012, 13:33 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther-64: Hey, at least he left her pic. That’s a nice touch.
25 Jul 2012, 13:36 pm
@Hondo-61:
or criag joubert
25 Jul 2012, 13:39 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther-64:
i just miss her
25 Jul 2012, 13:51 pm
@keo-62: I dont believe for a minute it had anything to do with sanity, He was never ready to play and it is all about the mind games, same from the Sharks side,
Lambie and Jordaan were never for to play
25 Jul 2012, 13:52 pm
@>^..^< katman-65:
It rubs the lotion on it’s skin or else it gets the hose again.
25 Jul 2012, 14:14 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther-69:
It does this whenever it is told.
25 Jul 2012, 14:27 pm
Sharks have a very kak centre combination……very kak with Meyer Bosman there…..kind of negates the Vermeulen injury quite heavily. Unless Plum is playing games.
25 Jul 2012, 14:52 pm
@>^..^< katman-65: she will be back
25 Jul 2012, 15:09 pm
The Sharks team was announced at the same time as the Stormers team. I’m sure it will eventually also appear on Keo – but only after three+ articles analysing and agonising about the Stormers team. Makes me wonder what, if anything, will be on Keo, should the Sharks beat the team that is number one on the log…
25 Jul 2012, 15:09 pm
@keo-72:
Has she gone to the Olympics?
25 Jul 2012, 15:13 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther-74: have you seen stormersboy? he’s been laying low or maybe bloggin more on “rugby focussed websites”…
25 Jul 2012, 15:24 pm
@Transformation-75:
We had a keo captains of industry chat the other day.
He is busy propping up the economy.
I am busy saving the planet and googling topless pictures of Pixie Geldof.
25 Jul 2012, 15:25 pm
@keo-72: Jolly good. That one is a keeper.
25 Jul 2012, 15:29 pm
@Transformation-75:
well he dissapeared round about the same time that nikita did.
break out the investigative journalism and solve this hot and cold case, transie
25 Jul 2012, 15:31 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther-76:
how does a topless picture of pixie geldof save the planet?
this sounds revolutionary
can we patent ?
25 Jul 2012, 15:34 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther-76:
supposedly if google switched from white to black for their browser page / homepage it would cut global warming by 0.75 tenths.
25 Jul 2012, 15:38 pm
@wait for it, wait for it…-79:
I’m multitasking.
It’s what separates me from apes like a boy named Sue.
25 Jul 2012, 15:41 pm
@the artist formerly known as gunther-81:
well keep your one good hand free for that.
if you’re a lefty then dont use your right and vice versa.
it never works properly otherwise.
25 Jul 2012, 16:40 pm
its possible it all could’ve been mind games…
25 Jul 2012, 17:37 pm
@wait for it, wait for it…-78:
She plays hockey, Keo gave her intensive short stick training before the 2012 Olympics
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