June Internationals - South Africa vs. Scotland (15/06/2013)

[Big Ewis]

I think the score will be even more than vs. Italy. The Debutants nerves are now a bit more settled, the team had more time to prepare. And they are playing in the lowveld. I hope the Scots like rockhard playing surfaces, because they are going to feel it.

I'm thinking the Boks by 50+ margin

me too actually...but when making predictions, I'd rather not go with my gut only, I'd rather use some brain too. Deep inside, I think it should be around 50 for the Boks...Scotland can only manage the "survival" strategy these days, sadly...
And logically, I rate Italy higher than Scotland this year; with an asterisk: Italy can SUCK badly, and then can transcend and beat France (and not because France played bad), and then threaten during the entire Twickenham test...Scotland can't transcend, but they won't play particularly bad either typically.

Still, I should maintain about 45-10. I think Scotland may score 1, or perhaps 2 tries.

 

[Dougydeluxe]

Kelly Brown is a big loss for Scotland.

I think they can front up agaisnt the Bokks. Feel it will be only a 20+ game for the Boks

 

[Draggs]

Yeah, The Jan Pickard stand will turn in his grave if Flouw goes to the banana-province

Hehe, a man can dream, can't he?
I'd rather pull Kleinhans and Stander (cue Eze) through. I have a feeling Daniel might be under fire if we keep shaking things up.
Great to see Bismarck back, can't believe it has been a year! Still want to see Engelbrecht and Serfontein together, but there is plenty of time for that. If only Jordaan was fit and firing like he was last year.

 

[Jaguares]

I think that's the ideal game for Jan Serfontein in the first team. Scotland is an easy opponent right now, I would like to see many minutes on the field for Jan Serfontein, if I were the head coach of SA would put Serfontein in the first team.

Why not start the match? Because it's very young? Wallabies did play very young James O'Connor and the player he did well to gain experience in the field.

Jan Serfontein could be a nightmare for any defense, along with Willie le Roux, Habana, JJ Engelbrecht and Bjorn Basson.

Regards

 

[SomeOke]

I think that's the ideal game for Jan Serfontein in the first team. Scotland is an easy opponent right now, I would like to see many minutes on the field for Jan Serfontein, if I were the head coach of SA would put Serfontein in the first team.

Why not start the match? Because it's very young? Wallabies did play very young James O'Connor and the player he did well to gain experience in the field.

Jan Serfontein could be a nightmare for any defense, along with Willie le Roux, Habana, JJ Engelbrecht and Bjorn Basson.

Regards

I feel it's not so much that HM doesn't want to start Jan, so much that he doesn't want to field a backline without a defensive general.
If you play 2 Rookie (ish) centres you leave yourself vulnerable in terms of organisation, Morne has game management to worry about and doesn't really have the best defensive record in history (although I do think his abilities in this area are underrated) and more importantly your 10 hangs back in defense most of the time. JDV has been in charge of one of the most organised defenses in the world for quite some time, not to mention our captain (am I wrong, is it Strauss now?), and there really isn't someone in our relatively inexperienced backline who can do the job. Wings are too far out to really catch the defensive vulnerabilities so Habana is out as well.

tl:dr;
HM probably feels JDV leadership and organisation skills can't be replaced, considering the relative inexperience of our backline.

 

[sifplay]

LOL, yeah it won't be cold but imagine those Scots boys' lungs drying out in a really hot summers day on the Laeveld!

Yeah I would think it would dry out due to it being 2000ft above sea level

 

[sifplay]

But in all reality all Scrum-halves are crash dummy's when it comes to defence, but to criticize Sarel, his kicking game is not up to scratch and his pass power/speed is really bad but damn he can break defences!!

Rory Kockott was the complete scrum-half for me, could kick tactically, could kick for posts and could run with ball in hand and pass well putting players in spaces.

If that is the case WTF is Hougaardt doing in the squad as his kicking game is just as crap? Not to even consider him looking more over his shoulder for Oscar Pistoruis with a gun than the defense on a rugby field

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Kelly Brown is a big loss for Scotland.

I think they can front up agaisnt the Bokks. Feel it will be only a 20+ game for the Boks

That's what I want to hear; lower my expectations even further!

Hehe, a man can dream, can't he?
I'd rather pull Kleinhans and Stander (cue Eze) through. I have a feeling Daniel might be under fire if we keep shaking things up.
Great to see Bismarck back, can't believe it has been a year! Still want to see Engelbrecht and Serfontein together, but there is plenty of time for that. If only Jordaan was fit and firing like he was last year.

That could be great for the Sharks and SA! Currently who are the captains at the franchizes;

Pierre Spies - shouldn't be in the squad after the year is out as there are better players while also probably a risk ITO age to be a long term option
JdV - in the same boat as Spies
Adriaan Strauss - a good candidate but if Bismarck gets back on top... I'd just hate to see Bismarck on the bench while being our top rake again
Luke Watson...
JC Janse van Rensburg - not even playing Super rugby
Keegan Daniel - a waste IMO; a decent enough SR player but a bit hot-blooded for a captain and not a test player I agree with HM
Burger and Smith are done it seems.

So bring back Flouw and make him captain (even if it is at the Sharks). Him and Etzebeth seem the only dead certain long-term starters at this stage.

I feel it's not so much that HM doesn't want to start Jan, so much that he doesn't want to field a backline without a defensive general.
If you play 2 Rookie (ish) centres you leave yourself vulnerable in terms of organisation, Morne has game management to worry about and doesn't really have the best defensive record in history (although I do think his abilities in this area are underrated) and more importantly your 10 hangs back in defense most of the time. JDV has been in charge of one of the most organised defenses in the world for quite some time, not to mention our captain (am I wrong, is it Strauss now?), and there really isn't someone in our relatively inexperienced backline who can do the job. Wings are too far out to really catch the defensive vulnerabilities so Habana is out as well.

tl:dr;
HM probably feels JDV leadership and organisation skills can't be replaced, considering the relative inexperience of our backline.

I was starting to think so as well but it was his miss that lead to Italy's try. Maybe I'm being unfair.


Anyway I can't wait for the game or rather I think the game is in the bag but I can't wait to see the likes of Le Roux etc get another test game under the belt (entire bench hopefully as well bar maybe Flip who I feel is a stop-gap ATM).

 

[TRF_heineken]

I think that the Super Rugby Captains, shouldn't be put in the same light as the Springbok Captain.

The Captain of the Boks should be someone who would be a certainty to play nearly every game. His presence alone should be a consistent part of the team.

At the moment, I can't see any player being a regular starter (not even Etzebeth or Flouw). But this is not something we should break our heads at now. Now is the time, to get our big pool of Boks to gel. A leader will arise from there, and who knows, it might even be someone like Jan Serfontein or Arno Botha or Trevor Nyakane...

Let JDV captain the side for now, I don't have a problem with it, even if he doesn't go to the World Cup as a player...

Right now, our focus should be on the Scots, and the 2013 bok season.

I will be in the bush this weekend. Looking for some biltong still fresh on the antelope.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I think that the Super Rugby Captains, shouldn't be put in the same light as the Springbok Captain.

The Captain of the Boks should be someone who would be a certainty to play nearly every game. His presence alone should be a consistent part of the team.

At the moment, I can't see any player being a regular starter (not even Etzebeth or Flouw). But this is not something we should break our heads at now. Now is the time, to get our big pool of Boks to gel. A leader will arise from there, and who knows, it might even be someone like Jan Serfontein or Arno Botha or Trevor Nyakane...

Let JDV captain the side for now, I don't have a problem with it, even if he doesn't go to the World Cup as a player...

Right now, our focus should be on the Scots, and the 2013 bok season.

I will be in the bush this weekend. Looking for some biltong still fresh on the antelope.

That's kinda what I was getting at; we don't have any current SR captains that are a fit going forwards (apart from if Strauss oust Bissie as top rake) so if Keegan gets the chop it can only be a good thing while the currrent status quo can't last past this year and i almost hope it gets sorted before the end of year tour.

Enjoy the hunting trip!

 

[TRF_heineken]

That's kinda what I was getting at; we don't have any current SR captains that are a fit going forwards (apart from if Strauss oust Bissie as top rake) so if Keegan gets the chop it can only be a good thing while the currrent status quo can't last past this year and i almost hope it gets sorted before the end of year tour.

Enjoy the hunting trip!

I hope Daniels gets the chop... I just don't like him.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Scotland: 15 Peter Murchie, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Alex Dunbar, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Greig Laidlaw (c), 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 Ryan Wilson, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Alasdair Dickinson.

Replacements: 16 Stevie Lawrie, 17 Jon Welsh, 18 Moray Low, 19 Alastair Kellock, 20 David Denton, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Peter Horne, 23 Duncan Taylor.

 

[sifplay]

Think we should make a Sharky or a Vaalie bok captain. We seem to win World Cups with them at the helm

 

[Sker]

I'd love to see Trevor Nyakane play a bit longer this time around. He's a beastier beast than Beast.

 

[Jaguares]

I think that the Super Rugby Captains, shouldn't be put in the same light as the Springbok Captain.

The Captain of the Boks should be someone who would be a certainty to play nearly every game. His presence alone should be a consistent part of the team.

At the moment, I can't see any player being a regular starter (not even Etzebeth or Flouw). But this is not something we should break our heads at now. Now is the time, to get our big pool of Boks to gel. A leader will arise from there, and who knows, it might even be someone like Jan Serfontein or Arno Botha or Trevor Nyakane...

Let JDV captain the side for now, I don't have a problem with it, even if he doesn't go to the World Cup as a player...

Right now, our focus should be on the Scots, and the 2013 bok season.

I will be in the bush this weekend. Looking for some biltong still fresh on the antelope.

If the Boks captain should be a player to play every game, then the captain must be Bryan Habana but he doesn't have the leadership to command the team, is a great player but has little involvement in the game for his position, I think the captain should be someone with personality strong as John Smit, at present, SA doesn't have a leader of such characteristics, perhaps with a few more years, Eben Etzebeth could be.

Regards

 

[Jaguares]

Scotland: 15 Peter Murchie, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Alex Dunbar, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Greig Laidlaw (c), 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 Ryan Wilson, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Alasdair Dickinson.

Replacements: 16 Stevie Lawrie, 17 Jon Welsh, 18 Moray Low, 19 Alastair Kellock, 20 David Denton, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Peter Horne, 23 Duncan Taylor.

Without Richie Gray, Sean Maitland, Stuart Hogg, Kelly Brown and Tim Visser, Scotland have many problems.

Regards

 

[Sker]

I just hope we're not overconfident and cocky.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Think we should make a Sharky or a Vaalie bok captain. We seem to win World Cups with them at the helm

Okay, let's see how to respond to this on a serious note:

The Sharks have players who either have no leadership qualities (Steyn, Bismarck du Plessis, Mtawarira, Jannie du Plessis, Alberts, Mvovo, youngsters (Lambie, Coetzee) or players who are not up to the challenge (Daniel, Deysel, Kankowski)

Looking at the 'Vaal, they hardly have any players in the Bok squad in recent years. None at the moment, even.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I just hope we're not overconfident and cocky.

What? South Africans overconfident and cocky? Pffft.

 

[SomeOke]

Quinn Roux .
Anyway the amount of players leaving does seem to be rather absurd at the moment.
I don't care about all of them but still - Kirchner, Morne, Bekker, Juandre Kruger, Daniel, Nic Groom, Habana and a few more who I can't remember off the top of my head.

In the end though it's only going to benefit our overall depth, perhaps just weaken us in SR.