November tour - Bok selections?

The Currie Cup final will be played this weekend and chances are Heyneke Meyer will make his squad selections immediately after the match as is tradition. The question is who will he see the November Tour?

Will be it experimental or has he had enough changes to his team during the past 4 months?

I would dare to suggest there will be a few surprise inclusions in the squad, but I highly doubt whether he will be too experimental, after all he has played 20 different forwards in the last 9 tests and it seemed in the end that at least the forwards were finding their feet and started to play as a collective.

There are obviously players who would be in the Springbok frame but won’t be available for touring due to injuries.

Players out.
Coenie Oosthuizen
Bismarck du Plessis
Andries Bekker
Schalk Burger
Juan Smith
Heinrich Brussow
Pierre Spies
Johan Goosen
Frans Steyn

Might be out.
Jean de Villiers.

In my view this isn’t a bad thing. Willem Alberts, Duane Vermeulen and Francois Louw have at least shown as they played together more that their combination is starting to find their feet and at times have dominated the collisions and rucks.

Having Goosen out is most likely the biggest conundrum for Heyneke Meyer, The biggest worry for me is whether he will go back to the familiar with Morne Steyn, yet as Lambie has proven over the past few weekends he is most likely the most complete ten in SA at the moment, Goosen has lots of strengths, however his defence needs work and at his age and given the injuries, it might be pertinent to give him another season at super rugby before committing him fully to the rigours of test rugby, Jantjies himself has a great offloading game but is prone to fold under pressure and is not yet as mature as Lambie.

The fact that Lambie has more than a dozen tests under his belt also gives more justification to his selection at ten.

Morne Steyn simply just doesn’t have the ability to control a game or sterr the game in the right directions if his plan A fails.

Another injury that might do us a favor (not that you would wish any injuries onto players) is the injury of Jean de Villiers. This would provide the opportunity for Meyer to have a new look midfield combination without de Villiers.

Because of injuries to Goosen, Steyn and de Villiers, plus the poor form of Morne Steyn, it would be exciting to see a whole new makeup of back line.

You could have one of the younger Scrum halves, such as Chad Mcleod who would combine well with Lambie as they know each other well, or Jano Vermaak or Sarel Pretorius instead of Ruan Pienaar. However considering the back line will be highly inexperienced in certain places, it is unlikely that Meyer will not select Pienaar at 9. If Patrick Lambie does get the call up for 10, you might see JP Pietersen at 13, which would excite me a whole lot.

The other player who may not have been poor, but just isn’t good enough in my view Kirchner could be replaced by Taute, who has played most of his professional rugby at 15.

Habana at 14, and hopefully at least a little bit of exposure with Raymond Rhule, he shone during the U20 JWC and has been scintillating at 11 for the cheetahs during the currie Cup.

He is still only 19, so touring with the squad and getting a few minutes here and there would grow his game tremendously.

Paul jordaan in my view must get an opportunity this November, he played very well for the Sharks in all formats this year and in my view is the young player of the year in SA.

Will we see Rhule and Jordaan get a call up?
Will we see Lambie at 10?
Will this November be the confirmation we want that Morne Steyn’s time is up?
Will Meyer be brave or will he fall back into old beliefs?

Apart from Pienaar, how many of the European based players do you expect to see called up?

Also where would you see Elton Jantjies in the queue for the 10 jersey?

I reckon only Francois Louw and Pienaar will be called up from Europe.

It is difficult to say what the qeue is at 10.

You have Jantjies, goosen and Lambie.

Goosen is injured, so right now he must be number 1 or two, depending how Meyer sees Lambie.

I would quite happily watch either of them.

Mate, I'd put myself ahead of Steyn, and I ain't no flyhalf.

Not au fait with JDV's injury. Didn't see JP Pietersen on your injured list either? Does this mean he's back and if so should he be captain and move into the 13 position and fill the void Fourie has left? I'd certainly like to see him there. Then you could have a slippery customer in 12 playing alongside Lambie and JP can provide the bash as well as the offload game to the wingers or fullback. Much better look to the backline already.

I agree Lambie has to make the test team at flyhalf and give Goosen more experience first at Super rugby. Selecting M Steyn would be a step backwards and undo the good momentum Meyer created late in the season.

JP Pietersen is back yes, he played the last two games for the sharks, and looked decent, he didn't have much opportunity to make an impact on attack this weekend as the conditions were poor, but he did very well at the back under morne steyn's bombs (didn't drop one) and defensively as sound as always.

Good to hear. Rate him a lot as a winger but I think he is the answer at OC. What are the odds of making him both captain and playing him at 13? Especially if JDV is out (not to mention out of form). Every backline needs a backline general and he is that player both on attack and on defence. JDV on the other hand just offers experience.

No idea, the question is who else can be captain of the senior guys left in the team?

You really only have Habana, Jannie and JP.

So I would suggest it could happen.

But then Adriaan Strauss has been vice captain, so it would most likely fall to him, even though he doesn't have near the experience they have.

When is Burger due back? He is another candidate. Never like wingers as captains. Habana is playing great. Leave him without the added pressure. Burger is the type of player who assumes the responsibility well and curves his natural aggression in positive ways.

Would love to see JP get the captaincy and the 13 shirt this autumn series. I think SA would look more ominous with him there as captain. Great servant of rugby who hopefully hasn't lost the imperious form he had for the Sharks in the S15.

Burger will only be back next year. He was actually going to be Meyer's captain until he obviously got injured.

JP looked full of confidence this weekend, I don't think he is going to allow a broken thumb to impact his form, he just got a nice rest and will be firing this November.

The loose-forward selections don't concern me too much: the Boks have quite a good crop in Vermuelen, Alberts, Louw, Coetzee. We do need to break new ground in the centre pairings. I would like to see Jordaan get a go, he looks promising. A potential combination of F. Steyn and JP Pietersen would also be promising (assuming Steyn has a good day...)....and surely, surely, Lambie must be picked at flyhalf...surely...

....and surely, surely, Lambie must be picked at flyhalf...surely...

Lambie did play well, but I think Meyer will stay with Morne out of the 3 available.

I think Rhule is too small to fit into Meyers' plans. I mean, he chose Kirschner over Aplon and Joe Pieterson.

I also hope he plays JP at 13 as he is our best backline player this year so far and he has the size thing going for him, so I think Meyer might.

Taute is still my man for the 15 jersey though, although he hasn't set the world on fire when he got his call up.

Our forwards seem fine, for most part it looked like they dominated every one including the All Blacks and Australia in the games we lost. Maybe not Argentina in both the games. Strange though that the games they dominated we lost. Must show that there is something wrong with how we play the game.

South Africa squad:
Backs : Juan de Jongh, Jean de Villiers (captain), Francois Hougaard, Elton Jantjies, Zane Kirchner, Patrick Lambie, Lionel Mapoe, Lwazi Mvovo, Ruan Pienaar, JP Pietersen, Raymond Rhule, Morné Steyn, Jaco Taute, Jano Vermaak
Forwards : Willem Alberts, Arno Botha, Schalk Brits, Pat Cilliers, Marcell Coetzee, Eben Etzebeth, Juandré Kruger, CJ van der Linde, Francois Louw, Flip van der Merwe, Franco van der Merwe, Tendai Mtawarira, Jannie du Plessis, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Gurthro Steenkamp, Adriaan Strauss, Duane Vermeulen

Four European based players. Pienaar must start. He is one of the best scrum halfs in the world right now. Louw was superb yesterday for Bath against Exeter and I rarely see Brits have a poor game.
Gutted that Habana won't be coming but also looking forward to seeing some of the young guys who have done well in the Currie Cup.