Toulon refuse to release Botha

Toulon refuse to release Botha

11 Sep 2012

Toulon are adamant that Bakkies Botha will play for the French club this weekend and not for the Springboks.

With a suspension to Eben Etzebeth looming, Botha was placed on standby by Bok coach Heyneke Meyer on Monday. It was hoped that Botha would join the Boks in New Zealand in the event that Etzebeth was banned for a headbutt on Nathan Sharpe.

Etzebeth has since been banned for two weeks, but the Boks will need to replace the Stormers lock with somebody other than Botha.

Botha’s club, Toulon, has decided to block the big lock’s return to international rugby. Toulon coach Bernard Laporte was quoted in French newspaper L’Equipe saying Botha would play for the club against Montpellier this Friday.

The Boks will have to make do without Botha’s services, and it now seems likely that Flip van der Merwe will join his Bulls team-mate Juandre Kruger in the second row.


335 Comments

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  • 1.JA-JA: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:27 pm

    If it’s in the international window they have no choice do they?

  • 2.Amerifikaner: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:27 pm

    Oops, French dragons make their voice heard. We don’t need Bakkies in any case.

  • 3.i_love_u_bakkiesbotha: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:28 pm

    uuurrrggghhhh!!!!!

    what a farking let down dragon

  • 4.Amerifikaner: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:29 pm

    We have several other walking yellow cards in the team and Bakkies copycat Etsebeth.

  • 5.i_love_u_bakkiesbotha: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:29 pm

    first question is do they have the legal legs to stand on?

  • 6.JA-JA: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:30 pm

    @JA-JA-1: Dragon

  • 7.PielNeus: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:31 pm

    Bakkies is dom goedgedaan so se:
    ‘Wat kan nie n kat met kos kotch misdaad is nie roeping beindruk gered’

  • 8.Amerifikaner: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:31 pm

    @i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-3: Believe me Bakkies probably told Laporte he don’t want to fly all the way south to go and sit on the bench. He can do that above the hills of Toulon, with a seaview to boost.

  • 9.Bouts: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:33 pm

    He doesn’t have a contract with the boks anymore, so they have all the right. Unless there is a stipulation in his contract, which I doubt… since Bakkies probably thought he’ll never play for the boks again.

    LOL! I can blame them! We tend to send the players back to them – broken.

  • 10.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:34 pm

    No big loss.

    Alberts and Juandre as locks, loose trio of Flo, Marcel and Duane. Problem solved.

  • 11.XhosaKid: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:34 pm

    Meyer’s disarray is starting to rival SAFA’s normal standard

  • 12.Bouts: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:34 pm

    @Bouts-9: Sorry. I meant ‘I can’t blame them’.

  • 13.Puma: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:35 pm

    Huge pity as Bakkies would have been a great replacement for Etzebeth.

  • 14.Transformation: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:35 pm

    Thank You Toulon!

  • 15.Transformation: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:36 pm

    @XhosaKid-11: Straeuli-esque!

  • 16.Puma: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:36 pm

    @Blokkies-10: That is the best way to go. Though will Meyer play Alberts at 4 lock? Somehow think Meyer will go for Flip and Kruger.

  • 17.Taahirah: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:36 pm

    @Amerifikaner-8: From all accounts Bakkies misses the Boks and SA big time.
    Im sure he’d have jumped at the opportunity.

  • 18.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:36 pm

    @ Bakkies #5

    They stand on frogs legs so anything legal doesn’t apply to them.

  • 19.TooMuchRugby: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:40 pm

    Thank you, Thank you. Don’t know if i could have faced another Bakkies encounter.

  • 20.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:40 pm

    @16.Puma – hope Heyneke resists the urge to start Flip and only uses him off the bench if he really needs him.

    I don’t think he’s that bad a player and he hits rucks pretty hard which I think is one a a #4 locks primary functions(he learnt from Bakkies;-)

    Its just that he attracts yellow cards like Brok attracts good quick ruck ball in the flyhalf channel…..

  • 21.John Galt: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:40 pm

    @Blokkies-10:
    Yeah my feelings exactly.
    No loss really.

    HM has already said that Bekker will start and that leaving him out of last weeks game was precautionary.

    So probably Alberts and Bekker at lock and that loose trio you mentioned.
    Kruger off the bench.

  • 22.XhosaKid: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:40 pm

    @Transformation-14: Surely a conversation with Toulon first, would have sufficed before mouthing-off Bakkies return, simply common sense and planning. But I guess if you are HM the Messiah, your incompetence is taken is someone/something else’s fault.

  • 23.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:42 pm

    Is there an easier way reply to a specific comment the rewriting or copy and pasting the persons name and post number?

  • 24.PissAnt: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:45 pm

    Okay I have read this article, I read the one on news 24 which is pretty much the same, I have read the French website even (from where this is quoted) and I am yet to see Laporte saying he is blocking Bakkies to fly to NZ.

    He is simply confirming where Bakkies is playing this weekend. And since he was only placed on stand-by by Meyer with no official call up made, I can only describe this as sensationalist rubbish.

  • 25.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:45 pm

    @ John Galt

    Of course… I forgot about Bekker – although he would be quite handy to have on the bench with Kruger and Alberts starting.

    Bekker seems better suited to a loose game and with his fresh legs in the last 30mins he could cause some damage.

  • 26.TooMuchRugby: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:45 pm

    @Blokkies-23:
    Click on the little arrow in the right hand corner of every post.

  • 27.PissAnt: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:45 pm

    @Bouts-9:

    He actually has just such a clause in his contract.

  • 28.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:47 pm

    @Pissant

    You are aware that this is Keo, nê? ;-)

  • 29.Puma: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:47 pm

    @Blokkies-20: Yip agree. Just not sure if Meyer will go with Alberts at 4 lock. Look he may surprise us and do that. Then who comes onto the bench that Flo will start? That is if Alberts starts at lock. Think we will see Potgieter again on the bench with Flip then to cover lock from the bench.

    Have to see.

  • 30.pokkel: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:48 pm

    @Blokkies-23:

    Check out the arrow in the top right hand corner of the comment box.

  • 31.PissAnt: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:48 pm

    @Blokkies-28:

    Its on News24 too but yes, I get your point!

  • 32.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:48 pm

    @TooMuchRugby-26: Eish!!!! I **** believe!!! Dankie bra :-)

  • 33.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:50 pm

    can’t

  • 34.Transformation: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:52 pm

    @Blokkies-23: click on the arrow in the right of the post.

  • 35.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:53 pm

    @PissAnt-31: Sensationalist stuff aside I don’t think it was such a good idea to bring Bakkies anyway.

    We heard last week how difficult it was jet-lag wise for Flo to fly all the way from UK to Perth….. now we want Bakkies to fly from France to Dunedin, and for what? To sit on the bench and get 30 minutes of game time? Or knowing Bakkies he’ll only get about 6 minutes anyway before he headbutts the scrumhalf and gets carded…

    Hair brained idea and a massive waste of airmiles :-)

  • 36.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:54 pm

    Thanks pokkel and Transie…. I think I got the hang of it now, hehe.

  • 37.XhosaKid: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:56 pm

    @Blokkies-33: Yes!!, you can!!!

  • 38.XhosaKid: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 15:59 pm

    @PissAnt-24: So you are saying Bakkies was never called up to join the Bok squad?, Keo was talking bollox as usual yesterday?

  • 39.patch: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:01 pm

    Bring Back bekker the greatest lock we have at the moment or is he the greatest wing ? not sure. We should move alberts there for the time being like the sharks used him. Either way its going to be a long day for the Boks on saturday

  • 40.i_love_u_bakkiesbotha: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:02 pm

    @Amerifikaner-8:
    bakkies would never do that

    @Blokkies-18:
    ****** frogs :lol:

  • 41.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:03 pm

    @Puma-29: ja, we’ll have to see what HM comes up with, but having both Flip and Potties on the bench doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

  • 42.Puma: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:03 pm

    @Blokkies-35: Would be a good idea to bring Bakkies for the games here at Loftus and FNB. Short flight and no jet lag. Meyer will know after this game if he needs to bring Bakkies. Well by that time he probably will not have too. Eben will be back.

  • 43.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:04 pm

    @PielNeus-7: Does your nose really look like a kn*b?

  • 44.PissAnt: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:05 pm

    @XhosaKid-38:

    He was placed on stand-by, not called up.

  • 45.Puma: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:05 pm

    @Blokkies-41: How about the home games with Eben at 5 and Bakkies at 4 lock? Now that is having some enforcers in your team.

  • 46.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:07 pm

    @Blokkies-43: No disrespect intended, I just fond it fascinating that someone would call themselves that….. :-)

  • 47.Blokkies: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:09 pm

    @Puma-45: Now thats would be a scary combination, they can give the opposing lock a headbutt sandwich.

  • 48.XhosaKid: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:12 pm

    @PissAnt-44: Then the below is typical kak standard on this site

    “Bok coach Heyneke Meyer has confirmed that veteran lock Bakkies Botha, who is currently playing for Toulon in France, will join the squad. Meyer clarified that Botha will not be considered to start against the All Blacks. Flip van der Merwe and Andries Bekker are existing locking options that didn’t start in Perth”

  • 49.Puma: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:13 pm

    @Blokkies-47: Headbutt sandwich… :) bwaaahaaa. Had a good laugh there. What a combination though, both fearless.

  • 50.PissAnt: Reply to this comment
    11 Sep 2012, 16:14 pm

    @XhosaKid-48:

    This is the only official statement from Meyer:

    “Losing Eben is a big setback in a very important week of our preparation, but I have the utmost confidence in the players that are in New Zealand with us. We will only make a decision on a possible replacement later in the week.”

    And that was yesterday.

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