What Bismarck’s loss means
21 Aug 2012
RYAN VREDE writes that Bismarck du Plessis is the most significant of all the Springboks’ injuries to date and further erodes the hope of them winning the Rugby Championship.
I wrote at the time that I didn’t believe the absence of Schalk Burger, Jaque Fourie, Danie Rossouw, Bakkies Botha and Fourie du Preez (who was courted for a Test return) among a clutch of uncapped players (Duane Vermeulen and Johan Goosen for example) would be terminal to the Springboks’ cause against England. There were competent replacements available who subsequently got the job done. Neither did I feel it would hinder them against Argentina last week, even with Pierre Spies and JP Pietersen added to that injury list.
It was their unavailability against Australia and New Zealand that most concerned me, although I still believed the depth was sufficient to beat the former and mount an appreciable challenge against the Blacks. But Du Plessis’ loss is a hammer blow. To understand it’s significance you have to take into account the tangible and non-tangible impact.
Technically he is the most complete hooker in the game. He is a brutal defender who has also grown as a breakdown scavenger in recent years. Indeed Heyneke Meyer highlighted this as amplifying his value, especially in light of the absence of a specialist openside flank. On attack he is a force at the gainline, a constant source of go-forward. His work-rate in both these facets of play is unmatched by any hooker on the planet (I know this because I’ve seen the Springboks’ analysis of all their competitors in this regard). Furthermore, his set piece work is excellent.
Away from the technical competencies, his game intelligence and temperament under pressure has improved markedly, as has his discipline, which was a point of concern early in his career. He has also become an accomplished leader. Meyer’s estimation of him in this regard has grown to the point where he had considered him for the captaincy. Finally, his experience will be sorely missed. Forty six caps into his Test career, Du Plessis’s presence at crunch times would have been a boon for a youthful and largely inexperienced Springbok pack.
Seldom will one player’s absence be decisive to the outcome, and I’m not suggesting Du Plessis holds such sway at this point in his career. He was, however, the heart and soul of the side and embodied every quality Meyer sought in his players. He has the capacity to galvanise those around him through the standard he sets. He is a match winner.
His replacement, Adriaan Strauss, is a fine player but he isn’t in Du Plessis’s class. That said, Strauss faces a decisive phase in his Test career, where his success or failure will have a significant bearing on the Springboks’ fortunes. In the context of their game plan he is an important cog. His lineout feeds will come under the microscope and with the Springboks’ rolling maul being one of their primary weapons, Strauss’s accuracy will be central to their ability to set this in motion. It is also a facet of play where the Springboks have traditionally had the edge over the Wallabies and Blacks.
In addition Strauss will have to rein in his fondness for lurking in the loose. It is a strategy that suits the Cheetahs’ approach but the Springboks will need him to get stuck in at ground zero in the coming Tests.
In Monday’s press conference in Mendoza Meyer described Strauss as world-class. That offering and other examples of his professed faith in him is not lip service. He has an extremely high regard for the player, whom he brought to the Bulls as a youngster and whose loss he deeply lamented when he returned to the Cheetahs. Strauss owes it to himself and Meyer to take the opportunity that now presents itself.
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579 Comments
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21 Aug 2012, 15:40 pm
@capebull-200:
21 Aug 2012, 15:43 pm
@londonshark-178: how old was Aplon when he got his fisrt Bok cap?
21 Aug 2012, 15:45 pm
@mikeybrass-179: Props get better with age, and Juan Smith GOT better with age. Potgieter has shown no extreme promise or potential at all. The fact that he played Super rugby for the FIRST time this season, really does say it all IMHO.
No big union wanted him, until Meyer pulled him from the EC…..and fuckknows what he saw in Jaques.
21 Aug 2012, 15:46 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-203: We are all so glad you don’t coach the Bokke
21 Aug 2012, 15:46 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-203: A flying torpedo
???
21 Aug 2012, 15:47 pm
MAke that a black haired torpedo
21 Aug 2012, 15:47 pm
@mikeybrass-192: ja, as highly rated as gerrit-jan van velze or fudge mabeta @ the bulls.
21 Aug 2012, 15:47 pm
@mikeybrass-197:
that was the beauty of it. teams going at each other with just one or two malkoppies being naughty boys here and there. absolutely it provided a helluva spectacle when players did moer each other and the like but it was not the main focus of the occasion.
thats why you remember individual players for their naughty habits when looking back. sadly the same cannot be said for some teams in the modern era.
no sir, all you think of is the entire team and how negatively they played.
@poppa69-198:
just keeping the honesty in check pops, thats all
we dont wanna soil the facts of history now do we…
21 Aug 2012, 15:49 pm
Skeppie, strange that if you poke a dog with a stick he will eventually bite back… some of us bad kiwis (okay, I know everyone will refer to me, but thats cool,l I wear that badge with pride) just got sick of the continual lack of respect for NZ rugby, so threw it back…
what amazes me is that it is received exactly how we received it.. honestly, we have heard time and again for example that the 2007 1/4 final was the best reffed game, ever…. yet 2011 was rigged etc…
does this not strike you as strange? see, even though we hold the WC now, I’d still hand it over if it meant we kept our 80% win percentage, but many used our failure to win one for so long as some sort of noose, and devalued the whole AB/Bok rivalry..
since then, Ive done the same…and the reaction has been quite an eye opener…seems Saffas dont like it either, but again, it will be a lesson lost once your team beats us again..
21 Aug 2012, 15:50 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-208: the facts of history? lets not get into that bakkies, Im sure you dont remember any rugby pre isolation, so the whole facts of history you spout are only partially correct…
lets agree to disagree, ok?
21 Aug 2012, 15:50 pm
@Transformation-207: The Loosie showing promise at the Bulls is CJ Stander and Arno Botha
21 Aug 2012, 15:50 pm
@capebull-200:
people will blame the two props on either side of him.
because heaven knows it wont be the locks behind him.
21 Aug 2012, 15:52 pm
@poppa69-209: blah balh blah you big girl, grow up you sound like a whining child man.
ooh the saffas were nasty to me sob sob sob
21 Aug 2012, 15:52 pm
I just back the Boks so to be honest who ever is in the team come matchday?? i will supports
21 Aug 2012, 15:54 pm
GOOOOOOOO BOKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE KLap the ArgieBargies
GOOOOOOOO SHHHHAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRKSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Klap the BUlls
21 Aug 2012, 15:54 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-212: Are you talking about the locks that permanently stands in the backline and leave it up to Keegan to try and clean rucks, are they the same locks that could not win a single line out against from the Argies.
21 Aug 2012, 15:55 pm
@rangerman-213: I reAlly dont care what some poaching scumbag thinks of me..
or what he thinks of his countries president..
was a nice apology you offered though ranger…
he without sin may cast the first stone
21 Aug 2012, 15:55 pm
@sharks_lover-215: With the Bulls locks playing like a certain pair from the south, it could well happen.
21 Aug 2012, 15:57 pm
@poppa69-210:
fok off
i dont agree to nothing with you, ok
seeing as you’re on my side of the blog i would stay to ‘chat’ but i have work so cannot give attention. you can have it (by default).
21 Aug 2012, 15:58 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-219: I’ll always gracefully accept your admission of defeat..
run away then
21 Aug 2012, 15:58 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-219:
You have WORK???
That’s a first
21 Aug 2012, 15:59 pm
@Transformation-202:
Good point on Aplon. But the skills were always there.
I just don’t see it in Potgieter.
21 Aug 2012, 15:59 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-208: Just for you! more subtle admission by kiwis re RWC & bryce
IT’S not that long ago that any win at ANZ Stadium over Australia would have been cherished, no matter how it was achieved, so put in that context, the All Blacks 27-19 win over Australia was a good start to the Rugby Championship and the defence of the Bledisloe Cup.
They made hard work of it, bombing two or three clear try scoring opportunities that would have put the game out of reach of a Wallaby side that somehow kept itself in the game without ever looking good enough to win it.
To be fair the game suffered from a pedantic, officious and utterly unsympathetic performance from referee Allain Rolland, who refused to let a game between the two most attack oriented teams in the world generate any flow or rhythm.
But the players have to take the blame too, with countless handling errors, and maybe, just maybe, a reluctance to adapt to Rolland’s nit picking approach.
Chief culprit was Wallaby skipper David Pocock who must have thought he was back in Wellington in the World Cup under a ref who wasn’t prepared to penalise anything. His biggest crime might have been trying too hard, but he did his team no favours.
21 Aug 2012, 16:00 pm
@Dawn-221: more Dawn
does a squeegee and a plastic cup at the robots really constitute “work”?
21 Aug 2012, 16:00 pm
@sharks_lover-215: Although , with Burden also out, we have a chance
21 Aug 2012, 16:00 pm
@Transformation-223:
WTF happened to Fudge anyway
21 Aug 2012, 16:01 pm
@poppa69-224:
Is that “more” or “More” as in goeiemore
21 Aug 2012, 16:01 pm
@Dawn-221: Potgieter tackles well and he cleans rucks well , he runs well, what more do you want ?
21 Aug 2012, 16:02 pm
@capebull-216:
yip, that’s them
some okes easily forget the the basic arithmetic of their position
‘you are number 4 and i am number 5′….’what must we do?’…
21 Aug 2012, 16:03 pm
@capebull-228:
I didn’t mention Potgieter, but now that you ask …
He could do something about that greaseball hair
21 Aug 2012, 16:03 pm
@Dawn-227: “More” us security guards are usually the first to see the new day..
21 Aug 2012, 16:03 pm
Jacques potgieter is in the squad like it or not and so is any other bull that is in the squad…
My thinking is the team will read as follouw:
1-beast 2-adriaan 3-pat
4-eben 5-juandre
6-marcell 7-jacques 8-willem
9-francois 10-mornay
11-lwazi 15-zane 14-jj
12-frans 13-jean
There u have it…
21 Aug 2012, 16:04 pm
@capebull-216:
You guys now ambassadors for Keegan, who went saaaaaiiilllling on Saturday in the runaway rolling maul?
Bloody bullsharks
21 Aug 2012, 16:05 pm
@poppa69-231:
The day is dying here.
Almost chaila time
21 Aug 2012, 16:07 pm
@Dawn-234: its just become Wednesday here… not sure what chaila means?
21 Aug 2012, 16:08 pm
@poppa69-217: the only thing i poach is eggs poops.
now try going one day, just one day, without whining please.
p.s. every word i said about zuma i felt and believe, no apologies for that.
@Transformation-223: haha, kiwilands best ref circa 2011.
cheating hobbits.
21 Aug 2012, 16:09 pm
@poppa69-235: it means fokkoff.
21 Aug 2012, 16:09 pm
@poppa69-235:
Chaila – home time
21 Aug 2012, 16:10 pm
@rangerman-236: whose whining, was just responding to a question… but yeah, perhaps you could go one day without whining at my “whining”
21 Aug 2012, 16:10 pm
@rangerman-237:
21 Aug 2012, 16:10 pm
@Transformation-202:
Aplon apparently only took up rugby seriously when he was at varsity.
Potgieter on the other hand…
21 Aug 2012, 16:11 pm
@rangerman-237: hehe awwww whats the matter ranger, still upset your sharkies cant win a final?
what is it, 5 finals now? cough cough choke chokers…
21 Aug 2012, 16:11 pm
@poppa69-209: I would be happy if the Boks never won another WC, if they were winning 80% of their games against ALL opposition in between the ‘rugby festival’ that is the WC. I would be stoked if that ever happened.
@sharks_lover-206: A fuckingdoff flying torpedo with luscious black locks….. (In fact the only reason anyone notices him at all on the field is because of his Sunsilk locks)
Beyond me that someone like him already has a few Bok caps. Tragic.
21 Aug 2012, 16:13 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-243:
That’s grease not Sunsilk
21 Aug 2012, 16:15 pm
@Dawn-221:
ja
an important employee has taken his african goose (lovely girl, i like her a lot) home to europe to meet the parents (the hot chocalate makes them cuckoo for coco pops, hey. it is always happening).
nou vra die fokkenn direkteurs vir my oor die afgelope twee of drie dae vat die fok hier en daar aan gaan by die werk.
asof ek sal weet
@poppa69-220:
voetsek, and dont think i like you.
but like fern, i will be civil in my dislike
21 Aug 2012, 16:16 pm
@xtremebull-232:
Why do you have Pat ahead of Jannie? Is Jannie injured?
Pat on the bench because he can cover both sides.
21 Aug 2012, 16:17 pm
@Transformation-223:
shittfucks, transie
they have no shame and only gall these kiwis
the nerve i tell you… the farking nerve…
21 Aug 2012, 16:19 pm
@nama1-241: Correct. Huge diff between Appels and Potgieter. Appels was always talented,with skill to burn. His size (or rather what his size translated to amongst moronic coaches) kept him in the 7′s setup and on the fringes for a while, and the poor fellow had to prove himself over and over and over and over again, before he was ‘trusted’ to make any step up what so ever.
Potgieter on the other hand, had done fuckall, and barely registered on the rugby richter scale before Meyer ‘be having him’. And in this funny old world, his size propelled him forward, while Aplon’s held him back.
However, in the intelligence stakes, Aplon is about 275kg’s heavier than Gump.
21 Aug 2012, 16:19 pm
@Dawn-244:
21 Aug 2012, 16:20 pm
The only thing I poach is eggs.
Poopscoop’s egg was poached long ago.
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