The Official Rugby Thread

[echo]

Stegmann gets Bok start

Dublin - Deon Stegmann will make his Test debut in a much-changed Springbok line-up against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

Uncapped Sharks utility back Patrick Lambie could also make his debut if Jean de Villiers fails a late fitness. The bench will also include two uncapped players.

The team shows eight changes (nine if De Villiers is unavailable) to the one which ended the Vodacom Tri-Nations against Australia in September.

The six definite survivors are Bryan Habana, Morne Steyn, Pierre Spies, Juan Smith, captain Victor Matfield and Jannie du Plessis. A seventh, Francois Hougaard is on the bench, while an eighth in Frans Steyn will only join the squad after the Ireland match.

Stegmann, 24, comes in for Schalk Burger in the No 6 jersey. Burger suffered a broken rib in the Absa Currie Cup final and withdrew from the tour party.

The 20-year-old Lambie – man of the match in the Absa Currie Cup final after a two-try, 25-point haul on Saturday – is on standby to replace Jean de Villiers at inside centre if he fails to recover from his groin injury.

Lambie’s Sharks team-mates Willem Alberts or Keegan Daniel (looseforward) and Lwazi Mvovo (wing) could also make their debuts from the bench.

“It’s a new-look side but with 13 season-ending injuries it couldn’t be anything else,” said Peter de Villiers, when the Springbok coach announced the team in Dublin today. “But we’re looking on the positive side and this is a great opportunity to test some new players in the toughest conditions.

“We also have a number of senior players returning to the team after long lay-offs for one reason or another and they are keen to re-stake their claim to a starting place. We’ve not had much time to bed this new team together but the players have worked hard all week to be as well prepared as we possibly can be.”

Front rowers Tendai Mtawarira and Bismarck du Plessis make their first appearances of the season while Bakkies Botha returns after suspension. Ulster-based Ruan Pienaar returns to the No 9 jersey he last wore against the Wallabies in Australia in July while wing Bjorn Basson and centre Zane Kirchner make their first appearances since June.

De Villiers said injuries to experienced centres Jaque Fourie, Wynand Olivier and Jean de Villiers as well as exciting new talent Juan de Jongh and the unavailability of Frans Steyn for this Test had made the backline selection challenging.

“Our hand has been forced in our centre selection,” he said. “Hopefully Jean will recover in time but if not, Patrick Lambie has played at inside centre for The Sharks before he was moved to 10 and Zane is defensively strong and a strong ball runner.”

The pack is more settled with only debutant Stegmann having played fewer than 20 Tests.

“Deon is an openside in the traditional style and has been outstanding for his province,” said De Villiers. “He is used to playing with Pierre and we need an out and out specialist to counter Ireland at the breakdown.”

Team:

Gio Aplon, Bjorn Basson, Zane Kirchner, Jean de Villiers/*Patrick Lambie, Bryan Habana, Morne Steyn, Ruan Pienaar, Pierre Spies, Juan Smith, Deon Stegmann, Victor Matfield (captain), Bakkies Botha, Jannie du Plessis, Bismarck du Plessis, Tendai Mtawarira

Replacements: CJ van der Linde, Flip van der Merwe, *Willem Alberts/*Keegan Daniel, Francois Hougaard, Adi Jacobs, *Patrick Lambie/*Lwazi Mvovo

Not too bad a team, seeing as though 13 of our top players are out. Kirchner at 13 though, not so sure about that one. Couldn't they move Habana to 13 and start with Basson and Mvovo on the wings?

[Chuluka]

Way too many players playing out of position. I can see a hiding coming.

[MrDeVil_909]

All I can say is that I hope our forwards front up big time, because the centers are going to be a problem, especially if we end up with Kirchner trying to keep O'Driscoll out.

[Chuluka]

Seriously, Kirschner isn't a center. How can they let a guy who has never played center (that I know of) play it during an international match? If this was a provincial match, I'd understand.

[Cleric]

Divy proves again that he has little to no clue. The team isn't bad, but Kirchner at 13 against O'****ing'Driscol is a HUGE mistake. And why they don't start Hougaart over Pienaar is a mystery to me. Pienaar has been off his game for 3 years now, and Hougaart has is on form.

And Debuting Lambie at centre and not FB or Flyhalf is retarded.

****, it's like they don't really care what happes.

[wisp]

I can see us getting our ass kicked the tour, it great to see youngsters in the team though . Div should have done this a while ago cause with less that a year to RWC we still dont have a decent coherant team.

We have lost 5 out the last 6 games , so i cant see us doing much better , i really hope that this will be Div's swan song .

If they debut lambie at Center then they are making the same mistake that he did with Pienaar , bad move Lambies a flyhalf leave him there

[MrDeVil_909]

Divy proves again that he has little to no clue. The team isn't bad, but Kirchner at 13 against O'****ing'Driscol is a HUGE mistake. And why they don't start Hougaart over Pienaar is a mystery to me. Pienaar has been off his game for 3 years now, and Hougaart has is on form.

And Debuting Lambie at centre and not FB or Flyhalf is retarded.

****, it's like they don't really care what happes.

As I mentioned earlier, Ruan has been playing really well for Ulster as scrummy. He was off his game for the Boks because he kept getting shifted around the back line, now he's settled and he knows local conditions, starting with him makes perfect sense.

Even Lambie at centre makes some sense. He's strong on attack and defense, it may be better than having his international debut with the number 10, a little less pressure for him. He will also see more of the game at centre than at FB because there isn't likely to be much kicking.

Kirchner though, ai ai ai. Lambie is going to be covering both centre positions that way. I hope De Villiers passes his fitness test and they drop Kirchener. Doesn't seem likely though.

[Cleric]

On a positive note, thank grace that Basson is starting on wing. Love that man.

[KraMGarD]

PdV is the ultimate rugby troll. Seems like he deliberately choose players out of position to **** the local rugby community off. Anybody with half a rugby brain can forsee that Kirchner at 13 WON't work. He's a FULLBACK FULLSTOP. Jean must freakin better be fit. I even agree with putting Lambie at centre, but then he must be no. 12 to support Steyn as a "2nd" flyhalf. Pienaar / Hougaard at scrumhalf, Steyn at 10, De Villiers and Lambie at centre, Habana and Aplon on wings and Kirchner at fullback. How difficult is that?

[MrDeVil_909]

It's not like we're desperately short of centres anyway. Andries Strauss would be great, a guy who can hit O'Driscoll so hard he gets sent to hospital would be a major asset.

We're fine as long as we maintain possession, Kirchner can run and pass, but if Ireland comes down the centre channel we have problems. It's not doom, we can win the game and the Irish have their own injury problems, but it's tough to be confident.

I'm done complaining now. ;)

[Cleric]

But Kirschner does nothing but kick the ball away through rubbish up-n-unders half the time. Really a poor call.

And agreed, would have LOVED to see Strauss tackle O'Driscoll back a couple yards.

[MrDeVil_909]

Okay, I see on my RSS feed that De Villiers is cleared to play, but for some reason none of the 24 network sites are accessible to me, nor Supersport.

I hope that means he's in with Lambie.

*edit*

Nope, he's playing alongside Kirchner, so Lambie is out. And Willem Alberts isn't fit so Daniel is on the bench.

[wisp]

I would rather see them put Mvovo at 13 , than Kirschner IMO . Maybe the should have given Craig Burden a call up he was a great center before they moved him to hooker and he's better than Bismark IMO

[MrDeVil_909]

Holy crap! Tight game, all South Africa for 65 minutes and we nearly lose it at the end.

Would have been good to open up a bigger gap, but with our all new backline that would be expecting too much. Forwards were monsters, Ruan Pienaar was excellent and that won us the game. Kirchner had bad and good, overall he wasn't a disaster. He did at least pull off a decent offload to Aplon for the try.

So, a victory in what should be the toughest game of the tour. I'll take it.

[Boggle24]

How can anyone say Ruan Pienaar was excellent in that game ?

He was complete and utter crap.

Our tight 5 won that game, Kirchner was nowhere to be seen most of the match, but I was expecting him to be a dummy runner so no surprises there.

Also, I lost count how many Irish penalties the ref managed to dismiss, like say I dunno, stamping on our players, holding onto the ball and player after making a tackle, hands in the ruck.

At one point he was literally standing in front of one Irish nob -waiting- for him to let go of the ball in the ruck before letting play continue :/

And another thing, LEARN TO ****ING PLAY ADVANTAGE you moronic northern referees, if we have the ball and are moving forward with advantage you don't blow the whistle, you -let- us play the ****ing advantage.

[Cleric]

You really feel that way? I thought Pienaar was great. Sure, Hougaart would have been better, but there was nothing at all wrong with Peinaars game.

As for playing advatnage, well, I kinda thought we all knew by now that the northern refs are rubbish at it and had moved on.

Kirschner wasn't the disaster I'd expected. I was disappointed by Basson tho.

[MrDeVil_909]

Boggle, I think we were watching different games. I did express myself badly when I said Ruan won the game, I think I was trying to say two things at once, but he was really excellent.

He defended well, organised attack, saved a try all by himself in the first 5 minutes, kicked perfectly, made ground under contact, choked ball at the Irish scrums. You know, he did what a scrum half is supposed to do. Not sure what more you would expect. He, like every other player, had a few fumbles thanks to the wet ball, but I doubt any one else would have done better.

Yes, the Tight 5 won the game, which is what everyone expected. The ball hardly ever went outside no 10, because that was the plan.

Cleric, I wouldn't be too disappointed by Basson. It wasn't a game for the wings, he made some fairly decent ground, but found himself in possession at awkward times.

[Boggle24]

perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on Ruan, but he definitely wasn't great.

he made a -lot- of bad kicks and decisions, not to mention that he was missing in action at so many rucks, which is inexplicable since that's where a scrummie has to be. and no I don't think his tactical kicking was exceptionally good either, he made one or two good kicks into space, but then one or two straight into touch or the hands of the opposition.

It was sad not to see Bjorn get more of the ball, but as mentioned it really wasn't a game for the backline, the ball almost never went wide since they kept using De villiers as a crash ball carrier, I mean it seemed to work so I have no qualms, but hopefully Basson and even Mvovo get a chance to shine against Wales or Scotland.

also, none of the loosies ever pass the ball, which is why Schalk is still a master loose forward, he not only does the crash ball thing, but manages to offload as well, hell he was the loosie with the -most- offloads in the entire Tri Nations (AUS and NZ players included).
Spies really needs to step up and find his form again, and why they didn't include Duane Vermuelen is beyond me.

Aplon just showed again how absolutely fantastic he is, brilliant even playing out of position, his kicks weren't that hot (a lot of them were with big Irish lads stampeding down on him though), but he caught the up and unders, he delivered under pressure and he knows more than anyone how to run a line straight through opposition defense.

Victor and Bakkies also were great, our lineouts were very good and bakkies cleaned out like a monster ruck time and was a beast on defense, Victor let slip a tackle here and there, but his work in the Line out was superb.

Also, who else wasn't surprised at all to see Lambie miss his first kick ?
Hope he shrugs it off though, that boy is such an amazing talent.

[MrDeVil_909]

We'll just need to disagree about Ruan I guess. He wasn't perfect, but I've never seen a perfect game from any player, so I don't expect it. The only time I recall him not being in position at the base of the ruck was when he was underneath it after taking a tackle. Sometimes a tactical kick going to an opposition player isn't a disaster, he takes the ball and has our whole tight 5 jump him and win the turnover. All part of the game plan.

I think the game plan was for the loosies to not offload. We went for a super conservative grinding game to minimise errors, and it worked for 65 minutes. Offloading can be a bit 50/50, especially when the conditions are wet. Just look how often the Greenies blew it when they tried to get tricky when they had possession.

The thing that really pleased me about the game though, was every player looked like he wanted to be there. During the Tri Nations there was a lack of fire from our players, and it was back last night. Everyone just got stuck in and did the job, there was no case of Matfield standing around the rucks with his hands on his hips.

[T_Kill3r]

Aplon just showed again how absolutely fantastic he is, brilliant even playing out of position, his kicks weren't that hot (a lot of them were with big Irish lads stampeding down on him though), but he caught the up and unders, he delivered under pressure and he knows more than anyone how to run a line straight through opposition defense.
.

Yeah, good offensive player, but he resulted in the final try being scored. Poor attempt at an interception instead of just tackling the player.

Also, some unnecessary substitutions at the end which almost cost us the game.