Bok selection begs questions

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers named 10 uncapped players, which includes the nine newcomers and Earl Rose, the erratic Lions utility back that he has backed from the outset and was selected for last year’s tour of Britain as well as the series against the British and Irish Lions without earning a cap.

De Villiers said afterwards that he had chosen on form, which in many cases was true, but in other areas not. For the Lions prop Heinke van der Merwe, for instance, there is no recent form to talk of, as Van der Merwe has been out injured for the entire Currie Cup season. And several other players selected into the squad have only played off the bench.

The method behind Van der Merwe’s selection became clearer later on Saturday night, once De Villiers had sat in front of the media at the post-announcement press conference.

“I coached Heinke at Under-21 level and I know how strong he is. We’re struggling with good tighthead props in South Africa at the moment and with John Smit there now, I think this will be a great opportunity for Heinke to go on tour. His future lies at tighthead,” said De Villiers.

Every coach has a right to go with his hunch selections, but switching yet another player from another position in the front-row in the quest to bolster the ranks of the tightheads is a highly questionable policy. It is true that Smit is captaining the side from tighthead after switching from hooker, but it is highly debatable that the move has been a success.

Not one of the Cheetahs front-row that dominated the last few weeks of the Currie Cup season made the tour group, and their coach Naka Drotske was right to express his frustration afterwards.

“I thought Wian du Preez would be ideal in the wet conditions of the northern hemisphere. Also our hooker, Adriaan Strauss, has had a great year and then you look at guys like Coenie Oosthuizen and WP Nel who’ve got great futures,” said Drotske.

Nel has certainly impressed as a tighthead in the last few weeks, and Strauss is a better hooker than either of Chiliboy Ralepelle and Bandise Maku, the two hookers chosen to understudy Bismarck du Plessis. So for that matter is Western Province’s irrepressible Tiaan Liebenberg.

WP, by the way, finished second on the Currie Cup log and yet provided only three members of the squad – an indication that either the selections are not based on form, or that the recent Province resurgence is entirely down to excellent coaching which has made the team more than the sum of its parts.

The Cheetahs, who played in the final, only provide one more player than WP. It is right that the Bulls provide the bulk of the squad, with 15 Blue Bulls in the touring group, but there are too many players that have been selected who are not first choice at their provinces.

Apart from tighthead, the other area where the big test of depth is going to come on this tour is lock. The selection of young Sharks lock Alistair Hargreaves is merited if you consider his potential, but he is more in the Victor Matfield and Andries Bekker mould as a No 5 lock than a No 4 lock. Surely what the Boks should be doing now is looking for a long-term replacement for Bakkies Botha once he calls it a day?

Danie Rossouw will back up Botha as a so-called front- or scrummaging-lock on this tour, but he is the same age as the first choice player. There is no-one else in the group who looks like a front-lock, and the absence of Hargreaves’ provincial teammate Steven Sykes is questionable if you consider that De Villiers considered him good enough to sit on the bench in the final Test against the Lions.

Good players who missed out on selection and who have a right to feel aggrieved include WP fullback Joe Pietersen, Cheetahs wing Lionel Mapoe, the two hookers already mentioned as well as the Cheetahs props. This is a land of plenty in terms of loose-forwards, but it is hard to believe that Duane Vermeulen and Francois Louw are not better players than some of the players selected, and ditto for the big Lions No 8 Willem Alberts.

And who is the back-up flyhalf in the group? Is Ruan Pienaar going to retain that role, or be used as a fullback?

The Bok second-stringers who will play the games against England club teams Leicester Tigers and Saracens leave this week, with the Test team leaving the following week.

Springbok touring squad: (Test caps in brackets)

Forwards (20):

John Smit – Sharks, Captain (90)
Victor Matfield - Blue Bulls, Vice-Captain (89)
Andries Bekker - Western Province (18)
Bakkies Botha - Blue Bulls (63)
Heinrich Brüssow - Cheetahs (10)
Schalk Burger – Western Province (53)
Bismarck du Plessis - Sharks (30)
Jannie du Plessis - Sharks (12)
+ Alistair Hargreaves - Sharks (-)
+ Ashley Johnson - Cheetahs (-)
Ryan Kankowski -  Sharks (10)
+ Bandise Maku - Blue Bulls (-)
Tendai Mtawarira - Sharks (19)
+ Dewald Potgieter - Blue Bulls (-)
Chiliboy Ralepelle - Blue Bulls (8)
+ Davon Raubenheimer – Griquas (-)
Danie Rossouw - Blue Bulls (43)
Pierre Spies - Blue Bulls (28)
Gurthro Steenkamp - Blue Bulls (22)
* Heinke van der Merwe - Lions (1)

Backs (17)

+Heini Adams – Blue Bulls (-)
* Meyer Bosman - Cheetahs (3)
+ Juan de Jongh - Western Province (-)
Fourie du Preez - Blue Bulls (52)
Jaque Fourie - Lions (51)
Bryan Habana - Blue Bulls (54)
+ Francois Hougaard - Blue Bulls (-)
Adi Jacobs - Sharks (28)
* Zane Kirchner - Blue Bulls (1)
Odwa Ndungane - Sharks (6)
* Jongi Nokwe - Cheetahs (4)
Wynand Olivier - Blue Bulls (24)
Ruan Pienaar - Sharks (35)
JP Pietersen - Sharks (30)
* Earl Rose - Lions (-)
Morne Steyn - Blue Bulls (9)
+ Riaan Viljoen – Griquas (-)

+ Denotes new cap
* Denotes recalled to squad

Springbok Tour fixtures: (All times South African)

November 6 vs Leicester at Welford Road - 21:45
November 13 TEST vs France at Municipal Stadium, Toulouse - 21:45
November 17 vs Saracens at Wembley Stadium - 21:45
November 21 TEST vs Italy at Stadio Friuli, Udine - 16:00
November 28 TEST vs Ireland at Croke Park, Dublin - 16:30