Has De Villiers got it right?

2008-07-11 09:29

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Tank Lanning

Cape Town - South African record point scorer Percy Montgomery returns at fullback in place of Conrad Jantjes, who heads to the bench. JP Pietersen is preferred on the right wing to Odwa Ndungane, who drops out of the 22. Bismarck du Plessis replaces injured captain John Smit and Victor Matfield will captain the Springboks on Saturday at the House of Pain in Dunedin. The other change is on the bench where Ruan Pienaar replaces Bolla Conradie

And no change at 8th man or in the front row? Amazed, and appalled, I am...

It is good to see Montgomery back in the side as I think the Boks need his experience and confidence. But to do it at the expense of a man like Jantjes, who has not really put a foot wrong, is quite baffling. Surely it would have made more sense to have moved Jantjes to the wing in place of Ndungane, who definitely had to go? Instead in comes Pietersen, who, according to coach, Peter de Villiers, was in need of conditioning at the beginning of the international season. More like form finding in my book. And given that he has had one Currie Cup game to find that form or conditioning, and it was apparent to all who saw the game that both were still missing, it is beyond comprehension to believe that this is the player that the Bok coach is looking to for backline solutions!

And to leave Joe van Niekerk at No 8, while the likes of Pierre Spies and Ryan Kankowski take in the sights and sounds of Dunedin in their Billabong "casuals" is bordering on the criminal. Call the police people, this coach might need to be put away! Or at least get the man a few recordings of the Sharks and Bulls final Super 14 games...

And forward coach, Gary Gold, can go on as long as he likes about the effectives of the scrum being based on how you get the ball away from it, but he is living in dreamland. It is how you perform come scrum time that determines the effectiveness of the ball you get from the scrum. If you get the ball, that is! Even the boys I saw playing Craven Week rugby in Pretoria this week know that!

And the bottom line is that we took strain in the scrums last week. If it was because CJ had flu in the week leading up to the Test, then say that. But do not try and defend the Bok scrum. Word on the street is that it is because CJ is suffering a neck injury that has weakened his right arm sufficiently enough to effect his right arm strength - the arm he binds with. But that is just rumour, and I hope he turns his game around this week. I would have liked to have seen the "Beast" take his place at loosehead instead of Gurthro Steenkamp, but I also cannot fault a coaching team that wants to give the same two props another crack.

Either way, I am not very confident, though. Smit is a monumental loss to this Bok scrum. Not only is he the man keeping this side together as a captain, but he is a tremendously strong scrummager. Bismarck is an excellent hooker who does an enormous amount of work round the field, but he is no Smit when it comes to pure scrummaging. I am afraid we are going to see more drama up front...

But this is just my take on the selection. We want to get South Africa's opinion, so in continuation with our relatively new Sport24 tradition, we open the "Great Friday Debate" by asking you to post your comments below. Who knows, De Villiers might even read them...

Your thoughts?

Disclaimer: Sport24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on Sport24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Sport24.

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No he hasn't go it right, he says he is picking a team for wet weather. But surely there was wet weather last week, so he sould have picked a team for that. And if it is wet weather, where are the heavy ball carriers. I have nothing against Luke Watson, I think he is a good player. But horses for courses, you need Spies starting with Kanko on the bench or vice versa! Jantjies should be on the wing. Steyn should be at outside centre, that way we would have 4 kicking options in Steyn, Monty, Jante

Jantjies should be on the wing. Steyn should be at outside centre, that way we would have 4 kicking options in Steyn, Monty, Jantjes and Butch. That would be ideal in a wet weather game dominated by tactical kicking. De Villiers is doing himself no favours by selecting the unpopular choice, the press and public will lambast him if he loses and rightly so. If we carry on with this stubborn selection we wont have a chance against the Ozzies in Perth...

Butch James was the weak link last week as he concentrated more on tackling Carter into the Hospital rather that to use tactics to get the overhand over the Blacks NR10. I would put Steyn at center with De Villiers and use Jacobs as an impact player as the Sharks have used him the last 2 seasons. I do believe we need to give our coach De Villiers a change to make an impact on SA rugby and at times he will make mistakes and that is what will make the current team better - remember Jack white lost against Ireland and England and narrowly beaten Wales 38-36 in his 1st season as coach and he retired as a winning WC coach. After that end of year tour we also Questioned Jackes selections ? please give PDV a change as he do have the potential to give the Boks a 3rd WC on there sleeves.

No one will ever be happy with a bok squad chosen for match day. We all know that we are going to loose to the all blacks. Its how you lose that makes the difference. If we go out there and we fight the whole 80minutes than we have done well. If we win the lineouts and scrum's we have done well. we also must unite as a nation, we know we will loose to the all black's. for former players to start publicly saying all blacks will win that is bad.

Yes, conrad should replace JP. He is more solid under the high ball and a better kicker of the ball. We all know the back 3 will be tested by dan carter, so it was an incorrect move by PdV not to utilise the fullback skills of conrad on the wing. However, I support the team that was selected and I hope that they will win.

I am happy with the return of Monty this is a huge plus for us, but yes Conrad should have played wing, JP had a shocking Super14. I think Gurthro Steenkamp is the weakness in the pack he just does not bind properley. Bismarck for me should be the next hooker to John. Next take Big Joe out and give Ryan the shark boy a go, he was outstanding in the Super14. AD Jacobs had an ok game, but should he have a nightmare then bring on the Steyn, we should win this one if our front rowers play their part

Yes the team for Saturday is not the best one to play the All Blacks I believe. To start I will put Cobus Visagie(playing currently in the UK) in the number 3 en move CJ to the loosehead side. Pierre Spies would be number 8, Rory Kockett the number 9, Frans Steyn number 13, and Conrad Jantjies on the wing. And Rian Konkovski? on the bench. I like it that Raun Pienaar is on the bench but would like BJ Botha also on the bench. We need big man in the pack up front! GOOD NEWS Jaques Fourie is back!

I agree completely with Tank. The springbok coach got it completely wrong again.There was nothing wrong with the AB scrum,they just overpowered us. Because everytime when there's a scrum, our loose-forwards are doing ball watching and not scrumming.And JP Peterson are not on form and the all blacks are going to expose that, especially the AB back three.They should have picked frans steyn, he is 200% better than ad Jacobs and jp Peterson. The AB's gonna beat us again.

Tank you should take a chill pill. If Butch played better last week, we would not have worried this week. Give de Villiers more time. We have one game in NZ in the last 10 yrs. ONE. Jake White also made some baffling selections. With the schedule for this year's Tri-Nations, we were always going to be up against it. Why the tone? " Amazed, and appalled" others use "naïve". I see talking down, or?..

Jantjies should be on the wing. Steyn should be at outside centre, that way we would have 4 kicking options in Steyn, Monty, Jantjes and Butch. AND WHAT THE HECK IS BIG JOE DOING IN THE TEAM. We have the 2 best no. 8s in the world and he chooses Big Joe. I think that Div wants to start with a loosing team and then try and build for the next world cup!!!!!!

I am a big ozzie Fan,probably the biggest in SA. And let me say this, the springbok backline has got no flair or spark. If it wasn't for an ex-ozzie coach, the springboks would not have won the world cup. The wallabies just showed us again,how a backline should run and score tries. And they gonna carve the springboks backline to pieces next week.

I THINK DIV SHOULD PLAY STEYN ON FULLBACK IF YOU LOOK AT IT EVERY TIME NZ TAKE THE BALL BACK INTO THEIR 22 THEY CANT KICK OUT THEN YOU HAVE SOMEONE LIKE STEYN THAT CAN TAKE THE DROP GOAL FROM FAR OUT PLAY JANJIES ON WING WITH HABANA JOE IS TO SLOW AND WATSON TO SMALL PLAY SPIES AND KANKO.

i do agree that Steyn must be outside centre, Jantjes very unfortunate. there is no way that spies and kanko cannot be in the 22. unfortunately what cost us the game last week was poor kicking and terrible scrumming. kicking might be better scrumming will be a nightmare. big loss tomorrow - BIG!

I must agree I also had my reservations concerning adi's ability to defend (especially at test level) - but he has proven me wrong in the last few tests. We all know he is great on attack & a good distributer of the ball. Based on this I cannot see why PdV should drop him for Steyn. Steyn is a good player but sometimes a bit inconsistent and has the tendency to take the wrong options. No doubt in my mind that he has lots of talent. PdV should groom him as flyhalf and that is where he should play

The only place Steyn can play is fullback. Boks need to make mental shift to playing ELV's where there is more support for the ball carrier, backs acting like forwards and fwds acting like backs and so forth. Each and every man being able to carry the ball forward. We're going to get a hiding this weekend i'm afraid.

This is probably the strongest set of Bok players we've had in many years. The fact that the coach is producing such dismal performances with such top class players must surely be a reflection on his coaching ability? The tests against Italy and Wales were nothing to get excited about and I wasn't at all shocked by the loss against the All Blacks. But then what did we expect when Oregan Hoskins was quoted as saying that PDV was selected for reasons "other than purely rugby reasons".

De Villiers deserves a chance but needs a mentor to help him through something as intense as a NZ tour, he needs to understand that this is not u/21 rugby and that by picking Watson on the bench provides very little in terms of impact when he comes on, the bench is extremely vaulable and players that can come on and change the game are what is needed, Spies or Kankowski are these types of players, if he wants Watson involved he would be better to start than come off the bench.

Colin have you even watched Butch play before last Saturday.Butch is the best flyhalf we have in this country.This is the team that I would play. 15.Percy Monty.14.Conrad Jantjies.13.Jean De Villiers.12.Francois Steyn.11.Bryan Habana.10.Butch James.9.E.Januarie 8.R.Kankowski. 7.Juan Smit 6. Schalk Burger. 5Victor Matfield ,4 Bakkies. 3.Heinke v/dMerwe 2. Bismarck 1. Bj Botha.

Taking injuries into consideration - this is how the team should have looked like: Percy Montgomery, Conrad Jantjes, Jean De Villiers, Bradley Barrit, Bryan Habana, Butch James, Enrico Januarie, Pierre Spies, Juan Smith, Sckalk Burger, Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, BJ Botha, Bismarck Du Plessis, Tendai Mtawarira

I feel that most of the readers are not willing 2 give PdV a chance. Allow the man to experiment and try out combinations. He will soon realise that we cannot play without Jacques Fourie, Fourie du Preez & BJ Botha. As soon as these guys are fit and selected the AB's & Ozzies will have a tough time - especially here in SA. Go Bokke

The bottom line is, we wont win this test if we cannot dominate or hold our own against the AB scrum. It is very seldom that a team wins when they battle in the scrums. That is a fact and the Springbok coaching staff should know that. It is time that our props deliver or PdV should revert to BJ, etc. A good ball carrier like Danie Russouw would also be welcome in these wet conditions. Go Bokke, and prove me wrong

De Villiers has once again dissapoined me with his selection, as I feel that he has left out South Africa's form wing, western provinces Tonderia Chavanga and included Jacobs at outside centre. I feel that Steyn should have started last week against the All Blacks at outside centre with Percy at fullback. Although Jantjies had a solid game, Percy has the ability to turn again around, and his experience on the field would have been valuable, especially after Smit had to leave the field. Having known that James was suffering from a cold, this option would have made the most sense, as Percy would have been able to take over the kicking from James in the event of a poor performance. I believe that Steyn would be more dangerous at second centre, as he will run at the All black line, and control the game with his boot, if needed. Jacobs is to small, and in my opinion offers little. Although I believe in giving De Villiers a fair chance, it seems that he has already made some fundamental selection errors in an attempt to satisfy SAFU's desires.

The only reason why these 2 guys had a mediocre game was due to the poor performance of the Bok pack. If the forwards cannot produce, the scummie and flyhalf will always be under pressure. Hopefully the forwards will up their game and we will see the old Butch in action this coming Saturday. W.r.t line kicks, PdV should give this responsibility to Percy or Conrad - since Butch lacks in this department.

In my humble opinion we only have one classic, world class fly-half in South Africa and that is Willem de Waal. I cannot understand why he is always overlooked as an option for the Springboks. I also agree that it unclear why Joe van Niekerk is prefered to the Kankowski and Spies.

Obviously you were not watching the same game. Butch was the weak link in our backline. He kicked the ball away when we were in there 22 and played like he did when he first started. The game was lost by Butch and the tight five.

I had my doubts about Divs and only realized this week that he was part of the coaching team under Nick Mallet who organized our record in consecutive testes won in 97/98 and he had success with the u/19 as well. For once in a long time we have too many good players and only 22 spots to fill, what more can a coach ask for. Each and every player in the team has the ability to win any team in the world, it is just a mental thing against AB. I still think we have a good chance to win this weekend

We need more faith in our players- Yes i agree Conrad should be played on the wing- but unfortunity this is SA and politics play too much a part. As for JP- he should count his blessings for getting choosen to play again considering his recent form- but maybe he will come out blazing and show he is up to the challange! Butch we love you but please mate consentrate on the game and not killing Carter- Although i would love to see Carter get hit by a full butch blow.. Viva the bokka

If the coach moan and groan like a baby about tactics imagine the negative effect it would have on the players. It is now his time!!!! When the team beat lesser opponents - DeVil laughed and played the media, now it is time to show true character and he should stop this complaining about illegal scrums etc. Maybe he should get a mental coach and not the players. We have a great team - (Jake's team), please DeVil don't mess it all up

Spies has been injured/sick for basically the whole super 14. He therefore has very little game time. van Niekerk has played the whole super 14 for the lions and has been one of there start players. Joe was probably the best forward on the field along with Schalk last saturday. LOOK AT THE FACTS, before jumping on the bandwagon.

EXCELLENT team, in all honesty i think this is the only team that has the grit to beat NZ. Few changes ill make (1) ill select Jean De Villiers to captain the Boks (2) ill call up Peter Grant to the bench. PDV inclusion of JP is prob his birthday gift to JP seeing that he will be celebrating his 22 Birthday come Saturday! I agree he needs a mentor, if Jake didnt have one he wouldnt of won the RWC in 2007!

Riaan if rugby was just a mental thing it would have probably been played on a chequered board. Wrong choices are going to cost us another win against the All Blacks. Peter should grow up and choose players according to form and ability.

to win we need our captain to play as part of the tight five and not left wing.also should have peter grant on the reserve bench.in the super14 the combo of grant/devilliers was the best of all sa teams by far- steyn was pathetic in all the postions he played in super 14.james also needs to adjust to SH rugby.and juan smith needs to be utilised for his strengths and not as a member of the tight five in place of matfield

The coach said from the beginning that he will base team selection on current form. Based on that policy how the #$%* can you pick JP Petersen(good player but not on current form) in a Springbok side to play the AB's. This is no game to find form!

Okay, so the Bok team has been selected and there is nothing that we can do about that. So how are we going to beat this AB side? Come on experts, let me have your thoughts! The ABs are also busy with re-building and are without their regular & star captain, so according to me they are vurnerable. Can we beat them and (if we cannot) what is preventing us from beating them? Answers please

eventually everyone will have their opinion as to who should be included in the team. i think we need to move away from this pathetic tendency of always criticizing the coach's selection and support the team regardless, thats what real supporters do. Frans Steyn can only really play Fullbac.when he plays anywhere else except fullback, he tends to be selfish with the ball and goes into contact where he should pass

Let Steyn play at 13,move Jantjies to wing (and send JP back home!), play Beast and book Luke Watson on the same plane as JP. Spies and Kankowski are much better than Big Joe and Puke Watson! Why the hell P Divvy doesn't select Spies or Kankowski only he knows!!

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