Duane the real deal
12 Mar 2013
MARK KEOHANE writes that Duane Vermeulen in the past fortnight has shown the form deserving of a Springbok incumbent.
Vermeulen led the Stormers intensity and aggression against the Chiefs and he was equally present against the Sharks a week earlier. He struggled for an impression against the Bulls, largely due to his tight five taking a beating.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has always rated Vermeulen the No 1 and said Vermeulen would have started in the opening Test against England in 2012 had he been fit.
Should Vermeulen maintain fitness for the international season he will definitely start and on historical discussion with Meyer it will be a choice of Pierre Spies or Ryan Kankowski to provide loose-forward impact off the bench.
Spies was good against the Stormers, went missing for large parts of the game against the Force and very good against the Blues. His best role from a national perspective could be as a super sub when the game has loosened. It would make his contribution no less to the Bok cause and with the game’s evolution of substitutes more and more the strength of the bench is the difference between the good and the very good sides.
Some players are better utilized in a starting capacity and others can be devastating when introduced against fatigued defences and when the game has opened up.
Spies and Francois Hougaard immediately come to mind as a duo who could give the Boks huge impact if introduced to make impact and not as starting options. Again it is a compliment to their strengths and not an indictment of weakness.
Vermeulen, so often the bridesmaid in terms of national selection, has consistently been among the form loose-forwards in Super Rugby, but since making his Test debut late last year there is a maturity and confidence that can only come with international exposure.
South Africa is blessed with quality loose-forwards, more so than any other country, if you consider what is playing domestically and abroad. It obviously is all about getting the combinations going, but the form of Siya Kolisi, Arno Botha, Lappies Labsuchagne, Jacques Engelbrecht, Luke Watson (in the opening 30), Heinrich Brussow (in his comeback 30) and Coetzee has been more than encouraging.
Then you’ve got Willem Alberts and Schalk Burger to come back form injury, as well as Keagan Daniel.
Overseas Francois Louw has been the form South African loose-forward. And there are so many others doing well in France.
But for me it starts with a presence at No 8 and the man currently in possession of the Bok No 8 jersey has that presence.
823 Comments
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14 Mar 2013, 09:16 am
@Puma-800: You in Durban?
14 Mar 2013, 09:18 am
@Sharks_are_gonna_get_you-798: Yes that is the correct order and Lambie has done all the right things with the game plan we playing. As I think it is a gameplan for now as you see Mvovo, JPP, Reinach and Ludik all kicking. We will mix it up as the season goes have no doubt, but we need to have Mcleod back and game fit for next weeks game and we could try a better attacking game, also now that we have Keegan back. Just not sure the humidity allows for it though. Unless you playing a really weak team and Brumbies are NOT a weak team. They playing some very good rugby and plenty saffa style about them too. Like having 6th in a conference to play………..hahahahaha for us saffa teams… lol.
14 Mar 2013, 09:24 am
@Puma-802: lol yeah for sure
14 Mar 2013, 09:33 am
@ET.-775: oh do shut up you pathetic old expat.
referencing a fight that took place in the 60′s to try make a point about a discussion of something that happened last weekend just shows how behind the times you are.
p.s. transie is 100 times the man you will ever be and i would openly discuss any issue with him because he clearly isnt dragging around an msc container full of baggage unlike yourself.
14 Mar 2013, 09:52 am
Is the period, 2nd week of September to 2nd week of October, a good time for handling a rugby ball in Durban, & for scoring tries at Kings Park?
**
Durban’s monthly mean relative humidity (%) for September is 66 & for October 69 …. for March it is 68 …
The more pronounced difference is in monthly mean temperature:
March – 23.9
Sep – 19.3
Oct – 20.4
Anyway, autumn will be open us in a week’s time; perhaps we’ll have reason to score tries at Kings Park then.
PS: I wonder if Mogg, Speight, Rathbone & Mowen are aware of the try drought in Durban?
14 Mar 2013, 09:54 am
@Angostura-805:
open us = upon us
14 Mar 2013, 09:59 am
@Angostura-805: the humidity has already eased off in durbs it seems.
it will no longer be a concern in two weeks time imo (though we can have some days in march that bite i suppose).
14 Mar 2013, 10:04 am
@The Rangerman-807: Yes it has eased
Autumn is the best time of the year in Durban, imo
circa 3rd week of March to 3rd week of June – splendid!
even early winter is good, especially in the Midlands & Berg
14 Mar 2013, 10:19 am
@Angostura-808: yes it is good as the wind stops and we dont yet have the howling south wester cold fronts moving up the coast.
its a great time for diving too as the cray season is open, the warm water pelagics are still here (snoek and couta) but we will soon start to see the return of the cold water species like brusher and garrick.
sadly in the middle of winter things get a bit bleaker as the fish are concentrated around the sardine shoals and the reefs are almost bare of edibles for a while but once the sards pass and head out to sea, the fish numbers are beyond belief.
i have already stocked my freezer anyway so i have no reason to complain.
14 Mar 2013, 10:34 am
@gunther-789: City of Brotherly Love.
You well?
14 Mar 2013, 10:34 am
@ryecatcher-810: andf Rocky
14 Mar 2013, 10:47 am
@ryecatcher-810:
Salut Ryeman!
14 Mar 2013, 14:43 pm
jissus, but dawnie’s got a temper hey?
mess with her toyboy and all hell breaks loose.
racists to the left of us and racists to the right.
hope that peaceful pe family are ok after those nasty guppy whitepigs tried to steal their seats.
14 Mar 2013, 18:56 pm
@The Angerman-804:
I wonder why I planted many of a specific fruit tree just recently on home land?
But I can quite understand the anger and that it s limited and false too, as I remove all the ‘high ground’ you stood on. I do that all the time to the ‘good’ , the bad and definitely the ugly.
Exasperated, as that thorny prickly pear , jointly of dishonesty and racism(where you exact words were quoted both times and more) is painfully shoved again right up you ‘nought’? Keep it there and try not to let it out.
Try better adjectives, and NO epitaphs, please.
14 Mar 2013, 19:06 pm
Angerman do you read the words “typically and culturally and historically”?
The battle at Boet Erasmus of the late ’60s gives substantiation to that topical and local problem of black-white hatred and nationally too as you typically sweep under your dirt-mat the more recent fights at Loftus and Ellis Park and more not recorded but known of.
“1000 times”?
Why not make that 100,000 times but in the negative realm as he gets consumed by his false image which gives you thus the opportunity to correctly label him a “dishonest Xhosa”.
Too smart for you?
14 Mar 2013, 19:15 pm
@ryecatcher-810:
The “Brotherly Love” bit is marginally correct as the problem is a global one, where the haves are rich and mostly pale and the have-nots are poor and wholly non-pale.
The national problem exists when watered down reforms are instituted where radical economic and social solutions ought to be call of the day.
Until the workers claim their rightful places both economically and politically and socially no real solutions and thus peace will be found.
Unfortunately, that may not be in your lifetime nor many other lifetimes.
14 Mar 2013, 19:43 pm
CRICKET
What is going on, asks Steve Waugh
BY:PETER LALOR, MOHALI From: The Australian March 15, 2013 12:00AM
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FORMER captain Steve Waugh was “stunned” at news four players had been excluded from the third Test in India and he hopes Shane Watson can be enticed back to the game.
Waugh said it was difficult to judge from afar, but he assumed there was more to the action than met the eye.
“Right now, part of me admires the management for standing firm at a difficult time in the series, but another part feels that there had to be a better way to address the issue,” he wrote in an Indian newspaper.
“Things have got to a more worrying point with Shane Watson deciding to leave the team and head back to Australia. What kind of punishment awaits such an act is a cause for concern, and I hope that a wise and balanced decision is taken.
“However, there is more damaging news that Watson is considering his immediate playing options and his cricketing future. He needs to clear his head and decide what his legacy to Australian cricket will be.
“Let’s hope common sense rules.”
With the fallout from the exclusion of four players forcing wholesale changes on the squad, former greats are watching in dismay.
Mike Hussey admitted yesterday that he kept his retirement plans from Cricket Australia because he was worried if he revealed them he would not get to play out the Test summer.
As it was, he was dropped from the one-day side the moment he told management of his plan to finish at the end of the season.
Hussey’s retirement after the exit of Ricky Ponting has left an inexperienced team, which apparently needed a harsh lesson in what is expected. “The thing about that team is it didn’t really change much for probably a 10-year period, so they got to know each other extremely well, like brothers,” Hussey told Cricinfo.
“The environment now will get back to that I’m sure, but it just takes time.”
The lack of experience is such that, after Michael Clarke (91 Tests), Phil Hughes (22) is the most experienced batsman – and he was going to be replaced by Usman Khawaja before the disciplinary action.
Brad Haddin was named after Matthew Wade failed to recover from an ankle injury and brings some experience to the unit.
Steve Smith (five Tests) has been recalled for the first time since the Ashes two years ago. Here at Mohali in 2010, he missed a run-out and the resulting overthrows saw India win the match by one wicket.
The young NSW player was a substitute fielder at the time – a moment he says still wakes him up on the odd night.
“It’s a bit more exciting being in the XI and hopefully we get some play tomorrow,” he said.
Smith, who will bat at five after Clarke moved up to three, said he had worked hard on his batting and his leg-spin, even if he has not had much chance to bowl it for NSW.
Nathan Lyon was recalled to the XI, replacing Glenn Maxwell.
Haddin, 35, has played 43 Tests and brings with him the DNA of tougher times.
“I’m excited,” he said. “From where we are in the series there are no more second chances.
“We have got to get a result to tie the series, so it’s an exciting time to come in and I am looking forward to the opportunity.”
Shane Warne, meanwhile, has written a column for Britain’s Daily Telegraph slamming the decision to axe the four players.
“As a leader, I always thought if the boys weren’t getting along or we weren’t performing then the best thing to do was to lock everyone into a room with some music (and) alcohol,” he said.
On his Facebook page, Warne said: “To me the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. Old-school ways can still work well.”
Coach Mickey Arthur, who dished out the punishment with Clarke and manager Gavin Dovey, said it was one of his most difficult weeks in cricket.
14 Mar 2013, 19:45 pm
@ET.-816:
Your myopic prejudice and determination to prove a point is typical of the academic ego.
Globally, the rich aren’t mostly pale, other than in Europe and the Americas, although the poor include a large proportion of the non pale, as you put it. The divide between the rich and poor in the non pale countries of the world is far greater than that in Europe and North America..
14 Mar 2013, 22:08 pm
@David-818:
Are you even more myopic, than me being falsely ‘myopic’, as the guilt of your paleness forces you to be, even if it is a distorted notion you express?
Do you deliberately ignore the words “global”, “haves” (before the qualification that follows it), “have-nots”(likewise, initial and then qualification) in that first sentence?
The MAIN point is clearly the haves and the have-nots, as the paleness or lack thereof are mere qualifications of that main point.
Which is the greater number, the HAVES or just the Pale haves?
Which is the smaller number the black have-nots or the HAVE-NOTS?
Why not substantiate your claim if you so desire to prove a false hope to this world.
The millions of have-nots of Asia, Africa, S America and even Europe and many., many more poor islands and countries will surely accept my truth than you distorted, deceitful hope.
It may be easy for you, for obvious cultural reasons, to be deceitful and dishonest about many economic and social and political matters but it will never blind me to the known existing global truths.
Try harder next time,dishonest, lying boy.
14 Mar 2013, 22:14 pm
BTW you know where “prejudice” truly belongs Bwana David, hence the move to Rhodesia and then S.Africa where the pickings, driven by that familial “prejudice”, were clearly better and bigger.
14 Mar 2013, 23:16 pm
@ET.-819:
“guilt of paleness”? You have no idea of my history or racial background. You may believe that your pompous meanderings are impressive, but at my age they’re just tedious.
Certainly, the gap between the global haves and have nots is unacceptable, but it isn’t as well defined as you insinuate (“the problem is a global one, where the haves are rich and mostly pale and the have-nots are poor and wholly non-pale.”), although I agree that the bulk of the have nots are “non pale”. Strangely, the reason for this is the fact that unionisation raised the living standards of workers in Europe and America whilst operating within a capitalist society.
15 Mar 2013, 03:09 am
Bwana Dave you may play as many tricks and games with as many twists and distortions and potential lies as you want to, but you will not distract this African(can you claim that term, honestly?) from his lofty perch.
How many Brit Blacks came to Africa in the time you did? The low black flow, when it was effected(with difficulty) was in the opposite direction(like the Green Vigos that you recall).
Almost only non -blacks came to darkest Africa and to a man for reasons of rich pickings more than anything else. So stop wasting your time playing your childish games. Is your precious family also of philanthropic stock, Bwana?
I note, with amusement, your backtracking as the lesson you were meted drove home and sunk in
Be informed that I do not need you to agree with any aspect of any points I made above, as I am comfortable with all and thus do not need any confirmation from a Norfolk native(is that term acceptable to you?).
Perish the thought too that I need reasonable discussion from you as I DO NOT. I am here to expose trickery(even with reasonable charm), tokenism, hidden dishonesty and hypocrisy and much more and take pleasure in disarming the unlucky miscreants.
Your background is irrelevant to me, it is your attitude to workers that interest me and since you are in business and most businesses cheat workers(esp. in S.A.) to make a profit, my view tends to err on the side of those cheated workers and not the ilk you represent, from Britain and elsewhere, here in darkest Africa.
How comfortable are you not in the capitalist society of S.Africa even when ‘apartheid’ was raging but your profits were soaring at peaks unknown in Europe(incl. and esp. Britain) and America.
The trip and the ‘sacrifice’ was certainly worth it , not so?
15 Mar 2013, 03:58 am
@David-821:
The most rewarding purpose you can serve or hope to achieve is to straighten the convoluted Hondos in your midst.
His DNA though has to be straight and cannot be the twisted double-helix of normal humans or animals.
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