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Rob Houwing
My birthday present to Cheetahs scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius, who turned 27 on Monday, is selection for my South African side chosen wholly on the grounds of performance over the first half of the ordinary-season Super Rugby fixture list.
We have reached the midway mark of this phase of the new-look competition, so it seemed an appropriate point to pick a “Springbok” team on that basis – note, then, strictly no room for sentiment or past glories.
It also means that I wouldn’t necessarily want this particular side to go into battle if the World Cup final was advanced to tomorrow.
For instance, I am not yet convinced the bundle-of-energy Pretorius even belongs at this stage, in overall terms, among the top three No 9s in the country: there is a strong case for saying Fourie du Preez and Francois Hougaard, presently labouring alongside their Bulls team-mates but proven at international level, remain better options and that Charl McLeod and Dewaldt Duvenage could also raise protesting, “what about me?” hands.
But in the absence of massively compelling showings from more fancied counterparts in Super Rugby thus far, coupled with his own elusiveness and attacking fizz in a struggling cause, Pretorius is my deserving man for purposes of this exercise.
Similarly, another player uncapped at Test level, the Stormers’ tireless No 8 Duane Vermeulen, cracks my “Springbok” approval as a reflection of his role in the Cape side’s bossing – at this stage, anyway – of the South African conference.
Some rightful doubts do remain about the forceful Vermeulen’s ability to mix suitable levels of finesse and peripheral vision with honest grunt, but nobody can dispute that he almost always works extremely hard and leaves some sort of personal mark on matches.
And I’ll tell you this with confidence: like Ryan Kankowski to a lesser extent, he is leaving Bok incumbent Pierre Spies firmly in the shade right now, even if plenty could yet change ahead of the World Cup.
Some of my selections were fairly easy to determine with, for instance, Andries Bekker streets ahead of anyone else (yes, including the veteran, rich-reputation Victor Matfield) for the No 5 lock role, and Willem Alberts a confident heave-in at blindside flank considering his great consistency as a “bulldozer” and crunching tackler for the Sharks thus far in the competition.
And can anyone blame me for pinning my entire front row faith in the all-Sharks firm of Beast Mtawarira and the Du Plessis brothers?
I know they took some nasty heat from the Crusaders at scrum-time at Twickenham, but so has just about every other combo in the competition. Don’t forget that Mtawarira didn’t start in London (the still-unconvincing John Smit did at loosehead then) and restored some stability – not to mention incredible open-play fire – when he was introduced as a substitute.
Some picks were tricky, like No 4 lock, where Steven Sykes fills the hole despite concerns about his lineout effectiveness; he has at least been industrious in all other facets for the Sharks and would be a fair enough foil for Bekker.
Sadly, of course, Bakkies Botha has been so ordinary in early-season as to barely be given a thought, whilst Bulls-mate and utility forward Danie Rossouw was tempting, but just hasn’t had enough starts in the second row to be judged fairly, specifically for this exercise.
Aggressive Stormers greenhorn Rynhardt Elstadt has made some decent strides since his conversion from flank to lock, but it is probably a tad premature to start tossing around the word “Springbok” in his direction, isn’t it?
Versatile back-three customer JP Pietersen, who has looked hungry and energised for the Sharks at left wing since his comeback from injury, finds a spot on the right in my team, to accommodate lone Bulls representative Bjorn Basson, who came to light against the Reds in an another otherwise bleak showing by the champions, on the left.
Featuring seven Stormers players, six from the Sharks and one each from the Bulls and Cheetahs, which is at least some reflection of the way the SA conference looks right now, this is my “Form-based Bok XV”:
15 Gio Aplon, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Beast Mtawarira
*An identical exercise has been carried out by Wynne Gray in the New Zealand Herald: this was his current “All Blacks XV” entirely on Super Rugby evidence in 2011:
15 Isaia Toeava, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Jared Payne, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Zac Guildford, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Matt Todd, 6 Adam Thomson, 5 Sam Whitelock 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock
Rob is Sport24's chief writer
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.
My birthday present to Cheetahs scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius, who turned 27 on Monday, is selection for my South African side chosen wholly on the grounds of performance over the first half of the ordinary-season Super Rugby fixture list.
We have reached the midway mark of this phase of the new-look competition, so it seemed an appropriate point to pick a “Springbok” team on that basis – note, then, strictly no room for sentiment or past glories.
It also means that I wouldn’t necessarily want this particular side to go into battle if the World Cup final was advanced to tomorrow.
For instance, I am not yet convinced the bundle-of-energy Pretorius even belongs at this stage, in overall terms, among the top three No 9s in the country: there is a strong case for saying Fourie du Preez and Francois Hougaard, presently labouring alongside their Bulls team-mates but proven at international level, remain better options and that Charl McLeod and Dewaldt Duvenage could also raise protesting, “what about me?” hands.
But in the absence of massively compelling showings from more fancied counterparts in Super Rugby thus far, coupled with his own elusiveness and attacking fizz in a struggling cause, Pretorius is my deserving man for purposes of this exercise.
Similarly, another player uncapped at Test level, the Stormers’ tireless No 8 Duane Vermeulen, cracks my “Springbok” approval as a reflection of his role in the Cape side’s bossing – at this stage, anyway – of the South African conference.
Some rightful doubts do remain about the forceful Vermeulen’s ability to mix suitable levels of finesse and peripheral vision with honest grunt, but nobody can dispute that he almost always works extremely hard and leaves some sort of personal mark on matches.
And I’ll tell you this with confidence: like Ryan Kankowski to a lesser extent, he is leaving Bok incumbent Pierre Spies firmly in the shade right now, even if plenty could yet change ahead of the World Cup.
Some of my selections were fairly easy to determine with, for instance, Andries Bekker streets ahead of anyone else (yes, including the veteran, rich-reputation Victor Matfield) for the No 5 lock role, and Willem Alberts a confident heave-in at blindside flank considering his great consistency as a “bulldozer” and crunching tackler for the Sharks thus far in the competition.
And can anyone blame me for pinning my entire front row faith in the all-Sharks firm of Beast Mtawarira and the Du Plessis brothers?
I know they took some nasty heat from the Crusaders at scrum-time at Twickenham, but so has just about every other combo in the competition. Don’t forget that Mtawarira didn’t start in London (the still-unconvincing John Smit did at loosehead then) and restored some stability – not to mention incredible open-play fire – when he was introduced as a substitute.
Some picks were tricky, like No 4 lock, where Steven Sykes fills the hole despite concerns about his lineout effectiveness; he has at least been industrious in all other facets for the Sharks and would be a fair enough foil for Bekker.
Sadly, of course, Bakkies Botha has been so ordinary in early-season as to barely be given a thought, whilst Bulls-mate and utility forward Danie Rossouw was tempting, but just hasn’t had enough starts in the second row to be judged fairly, specifically for this exercise.
Aggressive Stormers greenhorn Rynhardt Elstadt has made some decent strides since his conversion from flank to lock, but it is probably a tad premature to start tossing around the word “Springbok” in his direction, isn’t it?
Versatile back-three customer JP Pietersen, who has looked hungry and energised for the Sharks at left wing since his comeback from injury, finds a spot on the right in my team, to accommodate lone Bulls representative Bjorn Basson, who came to light against the Reds in an another otherwise bleak showing by the champions, on the left.
Featuring seven Stormers players, six from the Sharks and one each from the Bulls and Cheetahs, which is at least some reflection of the way the SA conference looks right now, this is my “Form-based Bok XV”:
15 Gio Aplon, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Beast Mtawarira
*An identical exercise has been carried out by Wynne Gray in the New Zealand Herald: this was his current “All Blacks XV” entirely on Super Rugby evidence in 2011:
15 Isaia Toeava, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Jared Payne, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Zac Guildford, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Matt Todd, 6 Adam Thomson, 5 Sam Whitelock 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock
Rob is Sport24's chief writer
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.
