There was further good news for the Lions last night, as three of their players, including uncapped backline stars Jaco Taute and Elton Jantjies, were included in a slightly enlarged 30-man Springbok squad to take on the Wallabies and All Blacks over the next fortnight.
Along with the pair, veteran prop CJ van der Linde had also been recalled, as has fit-again Cheetahs counterpart Coenie Oosthuizen, who sustained a neck injury during the mid-year test series against England. This bolstering of the front-row stocks sees suspended Bulls loosehead Dean Greyling make way, while Western Province’s Frans Malherbe, who was called up to join the tour in New Zealand as emergency cover, has also been omitted.
The decision to only include two scrumhalves (yet, oddly, four flyhlaves) sees Jano Vermaak also left out, but all other players released for Currie Cup duty this week, namely Lwazi Mvovo, Craig Burden and Jacques Potgieter have been recalled, along with Francois Louw, who made a whirlwind return to the UK to play for Bath this weekend.
Here is the Springbok squad for the home Rugby Championship matches against Australia and New Zealand:
Willem Alberts (The Sharks) – 15 Test caps
Andries Bekker (DHL Western Province) – 27
Craig Burden (The Sharks) – 0
Pat Cilliers (MTN Golden Lions) – 3
Marcell Coetzee (The Sharks) – 7
Juan de Jongh (DHL Western Province) – 10
Jean de Villiers (captain, DHL Western Province) – 79
Jannie du Plessis (The Sharks) – 37
Eben Etzebeth (DHL Western Province) – 6
Johan Goosen (Toyota FS Cheetahs) – 2
Bryan Habana (DHL Western Province) – 81
Francois Hougaard (Vodacom Blue Bulls) – 22
Elton Jantjies (MTN Golden Lions) – 0
Zane Kirchner (Vodacom Blue Bulls) – 19
Juandré Kruger (Vodacom Blue Bulls) – 5
Pat Lambie (The Sharks) – 15
Tiaan Liebenberg (DHL Western Province) – 3
Francois Louw (Bath, England) – 12
Tendai Mtawarira (The Sharks) – 39
Lwazi Mvovo (The Sharks) – 7
Coenie Oosthuizen (Toyota FS Cheetahs) – 1
Ruan Pienaar (Ulster, N Ireland) – 58
Jacques Potgieter (Vodacom Blue Bulls) – 3
Frans Steyn (The Sharks) – 53
Morné Steyn (Vodacom Blue Bulls) – 41
Adriaan Strauss (Toyota FS Cheetahs) – 16
Jaco Taute (MTN Golden Lions) – 0
CJ van der Linde (MTN Golden Lions) – 73
Flip van der Merwe (Vodacom Blue Bulls) – 18
Duane Vermeulen (DHL Western Province) – 2
I look at the selection of Taute…and he deserves it..but its making me wonder what role he is earmarked for and if it s 15 where does it leave Patrick. someone is going to miss out. and i thinks its talent squandered.
Heyneke Meyer is an ass! There, I said it
Glad for Taute, but HM really is wasting talent when guys like Lambie and Jantjies gets 5mins of game time. Jantjies has not even gotten any game time yet
@The Duke (Comment 1) :
Eish, they should change this page to PatrickLambieAppreciationWorld.com
We can even start a thread discussing every players impact on Patrick Lambie
Regardless, Taute deserves it on performances in the past. He would’ve played a couple of games for the Boks by now if not for an untimely injury.
Hm prefers size over skill that’s the problem
@hendrikp (Comment 4) : so do you believe what’s happening to him is justified and fair?
@shaniboi (Comment 6) :
Besides the point.
Taute has been selected for something that Meyer obviously thinks he can bring to the team. It shouldn’t be seen as a threat on Lambie.
But then again, any talk of Goosen being called up got the same reaction.
I do think Lambie is an excellent player, but also agree that he’ll never be a good tactical kicker and isn’t a great attacking fullback. In fact, his performance against the Chiefs in the SR final was something you’d expect to see from Ben Blair rather then Lambie.
Not playing in one position hasn’t helped him at all, so you can’t blame Meyer for not wanting to throw his weight behind the unknown.
@hendrikp (Comment 7) :
BTW, I’d be starting Lambie at 15 ahead of Taute who I think plays the game a bit flat to be a fullback and doesn’t get himself into the greatest positions on the field when he chooses to return from punts. For me Taute would make an excellent impact player off the bench because of his versatility.
Both Jantjies and Tuate deserve it. Lambie needs to focus his efforts at 10 imo. Goosen is erratic and I worry he isn’t mature enough for test match rugby yet and his last few cameos have been riddled with errors ,but because its Goosen they’re overlooked. The form 10 in this country is Elton.
This backline;
)
9.Pienaar
10.Jantjies
11.Habs
12.Steyn
13.JPP(JDV is horribly out of form)
14.Aplon (
15.Lambie/Tuate
@Talent (Comment 10) : Not the backline I would have re Lambie at 15 ,but that’s most likely where he will be used and I would be hesitant to throw Tuate in the deep end.
@hendrikp (Comment 4) :
I would accept that kinda post ifr you can give me any substance as too why Lambie deserves to be ushered to the side,based on his last 14 minutes of rugby. Thats right..14 minutes. So give me substance not sarcasm.
i find it funny where people keep saying where Lambie should focus his playing…right now what he needs is time on the pitch. fact. wqe cant access his form when he is twiddling his thumbs.
heres my back line.
9 – Hougaard, 10 – Goosen, 11 – Habana, 12 – Steyn, 13 – Taute, 14 – Mvovo, 15 – Lambie
Jaco at 13 is 1000% more dynamic than flat and plodding JDV. lets get a bog boy with speed making more space for finishers like Bryan and Mvovo. these guys of late have had to compensate for a very lack lustre JDV. they are looking for Graft instaed of waiting for te opening.
please excuse that spelling…crikey !
I can’t understand why “certain bloggers” can’t get over the fact that we here at SHARKSworld shows preference to one of our own very talented players
If you don’t like the Sharks overtone of this blog, maybe a vanilla rugby site will better suite your requirements
@FireTheLooser (Comment 16) : That is a horrible thing to admit ,that you are so jaded in your opinion and so effected by provincialism that you cannot or will not give an honest and unweighted opinion.
I’m a sharks supporter and I will call it as I see it, any one who doesn’t tosses their credibility sky high.
Here is how I see it- a)Lambie will never set the world alight at 15 ala Beale & Dag b)He is ,when on form ,the most formidable 10 in the country
@Talent (Comment 17) : that’s not what he said at all…
@Talent (Comment 17) : @robdylan (Comment 18) : Don’t know how you got to that assessment, but as Rob said, that’s not what I said.
Anyways, still frustrated at the rate Lambie is being messed around, and those that don’t like hearing about it should stay clear.
@FireTheLooser (Comment 19) : @Talent (Comment 17) : @robdylan (Comment 18) : Lambie is the best all-rounder that we have. In an ideal world we could play Frans Steyn at 15, Elton at 10 and Lambie at 12 and have Goosen coming on at halftime.
It would be awesome to see those players given the opportunity to run the ball and be creative!
I dont like the idea of Lambie at 15, yes he is good there but he is primarily our number 1 flyhalf at the Sharks, if we push him around he wont settle then he will become a jack of all trades master of none there where will we be sitting? Not only wondering what happened to our stock of flyhalfs but how we managed to break another classy player. he was selected for his performances at flyhalf, why select him at Fullback then? makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Is Lambie able to play the type of game Heyneke Meyer expects of his flyhalf?
I don’t think so.
I think therein lies the key as to why he is not being played by Heyneke.
As a fullback he is imo better than Kirchner but once again, what does Heyneke want from his fullback? He certainly doesn’t want someone who runs the ball back cos there’s a risk involved.
His game plan = kick and chase and it is for this reason he has selected the players he has.
My 2 cents.
@wpw (Comment 22) : The same applies to Keegan, a very talented loose forward with more x-factor than XXX (Tripple X
), but will never ever be able to play HM’s style of rugby, nor should he.
But as in the case of Keegan, if Lambie is not there to fulfill any meaningful role for the Bok team, send him back to the Sharks. He’s a rugby player, he needs to play rugby. He is currently HM’s fail safe only to be used if someone gets injured.
Release him back to the Sharks and let him do what he enjoys!
@Talent (Comment 11) :T-A-U-T-E
1 Beast MTAWARIRA (hopefully we’ll see his old, bruising, beast of a player self back soon)
2 Adriaan STRAUSS (he’s getting better and better with every Test start.)
3 Jannie DU PLESSIS
4 Eben ETZEBETH (Flip was good against the Kiwis but Etzebeth is beyond his years and much, much bigger.)
5 Juandre KRUGER (Bekker works well as an impact player later in the game when it has opened up a little more. Kruger can bring the early physicality to the game. Both are good in the lineouts so nothing lost there.)
6 Francios LOUW (HM found balance in his trio with the selection of Louw, playing Marcell and Alberts together doesn’t work nearly as well.)
7 Willem ALBERTS (with Marcell Coetzee filfulling the same brusing role in the second half, nothing was lost when he replaced Alberts against the Kiwis.)
8 Duane VERMEULEN (the way he stood up and kept playing his heart out after Kieran Read’s hit on him was pure class.)
9 Ruan PIENAAR (suits HM’s gameplan better than HOUGAARD does in this position.)
10 Johan GOOSEN (anyone BUT Morne, and I think he deserves it with no hate towards Lambie intended.)
11 Bryan HABANA
12 Frans STEYN
13 Jean DE VILLIERS (your captain has to be in there somewhere and don’t underestimate the effect of dropping your captain.)
14 Francios HOUGAARD
15 Patrick LAMBIE (here again, anyone but Kirchner – you simply cannot keep showing faith in non-performing players.)
16 Tiaan Liebenberg
17 Coenie Oosthuizen
18 Andries Bekker
19 Marcell Coetzee
20 Morne Steyn
21 Juan De Jongh
22 Jaco Taute
@The Sharks Sharkie (Comment 25) : heres the issue with your team…its good…buts lilly white. And that wont ever happen. so you need more realist take on the team.
@The Duke (Comment 26) : we don’t discuss race here, please.
@robdylan (Comment 18) : @FireTheLooser (Comment 19) : Thats how I interpreted it ,apologies if I came across aggressively
@The Sharks Sharkie (Comment 25) : I would reconsider Etzebeth ahead of Flip for now. What about this loose forward combo ;6.Coetzee 7.Louw 8.Daniel(for me)
@robdylan (Comment 27) : Im not trying to sound like that, and i believe every coloured player in te Boks deserves his place. But it is a fact that if we had selected a team that doesnt show a certain dynamic then people like Pieter devilliers get fuel for their fire. Lets not deny that fact . Im not being racist..i am stating a fact. should i not talk the truth ?
@The Duke (Comment 30) : you’re missing the point. It doesn’t matter whether you’re right or wrong – and nobody is calling you a racist. The point is that our rules very clearly prohibit the discussion of that topic here.
Trust me – it’s for everyone’s own good that we do it.
fair enough…i wasnt aware and i apologise if i have offended anyone.
@The Duke (Comment 32) : it’s ok matey. No harm done, just steer clear in future, k?
I am hemorrhaging fantasy transfers at the moment.
@The Duke (Comment 26) : I see your point, but I also see your point@robdylan (Comment 27) : , so that’s all I have to say about that.
@Talent (Comment 29) : Let’s face it, unless the Springboks radically change their gameplan, Daniel won’t be a success at 8. I think Vermeulen is the best option suited to the gameplan and he’s not a bad 8 at all.
Etzebeth maybe should “earn” his way back into the squad but I’ll let his game on Saturday speak for why I think he should start ahead of Flip (that is if he does indeed start).