Despite the usual plethora of Bulls, the Sharks have managed to secure 5 spots in the 26-man squad picked to compete for the IRB Junior World Championship in Japan next month. Bok Sevens star “Magic” Rob Ebersohn will captain the side.
The Bulls have 11 representatives in the side, including former SA Schools captain CJ Stander and Super 14 winger Gerhard van den Heever. Francois Brummer is another regular on the provincial scene. The Lions, Cheetahs and Western Province have three representatives each, with Ebersohn nominally the fourth Cheetah, even though he is (to my knowledge) not actually contracted to that union. The captain’s twin brother, flyhalf Sias, is also in the squad.
The only KZN backline player in the team is another youngster with Super 14 experience, scrumhalf Ross Cronjé. The blonde youngster is no stranger to Sharks fans as he and his twin brother Guy played a huge role in the Sharks u19 team’s trophy-winning season in 2008. Both Cronjé twins featured regularly for the Sharks XV this year, while Ross managed to accumulate two senior Sharks caps as well.
Locks Kene Okafor and Jandre Marais have also been selected – the latter putting in some good Vodacom Cup performances in place of Joe Snyman while the Sharks were on tour. Okafor was another stalwart in the Sharks Under 19 side last year. Hooker Kyle Cooper and tighthead prop Julian Redelinghuys are also there, but the third member of their trio, loosehead Dale Chadwick, is a surprising omission.
We’d like to wish the squad the best of luck in Japan, where they’ll come up against some stiff opposition – including an Australian side that boasts 10 or more players with Super 14 experience. Go all the way, Bokkies, we’ll be right behind you.
The Squad:
| Name | Province | Positions |
| Clayton Blommetjies | Blue Bulls | Fullback |
| Zane Botha | Blue Bulls | Hooker |
| Francois Brummer | Blue Bulls | Flyhalf |
| David Bulbring | Golden Lions | Lock |
| Tendayi Chikukwa | Blue Bulls | Eighthman |
| Kyle Cooper | KZN | Hooker |
| Lionel Cronje | Free State | Flyhalf |
| Ross Cronje | KZN | Scrumhalf |
| Sias Ebersohn | Free State | Flyhalf |
| Robert Ebersohn | Free State | Centre |
| Nicolaas Hanekom | Western Province | Centre |
| Yaasir Hartzenberg | Western Province | Flank |
| Cornel Hess | Blue Bulls | Lock |
| Morne Mellet | Blue Bulls | Prop |
| Jan Andre Marais | KZN | Lock |
| Sampie Mastriet | Blue Bulls | Wing |
| Kenechukwu Okafor | KZN | Lock |
| Caylib Oosthuizen | Golden Lions | Prop |
| Coenrad Oosthuizen | Free State | Prop |
| Rudy Paige | Golden Lions | Scrumhalf |
| Julian Redelinghuys | KZN | Prop |
| Johann Sadie | Western Province | Centre |
| Marnus Schoeman | Blue Bulls | Flank |
| Omphile Seabela | Blue Bulls | Wing |
| Christiaan Stander | Blue Bulls | Eighthman |
| Gerhard van den Heever | Blue Bulls | Wing |
Management:
| Name, Surname | Province |
| Eric Sauls | Head Coach – Blue Bulls |
| Deon Davids | Assistant Coach – Boland |
| Nico Serfontein | Assistant Coach – Blue Bulls |
| Willem Opliphant | Manager – Eastern Province |
| Tim Dlulane | Logistics Manager – Blue Bulls |
| Elliot Mntunwekhaya Fana | Technical Assistant – Border |
| Pierre Viviers | Doctor – SARU |
| Matime Diale | Physiotherapist – SARU |
| Wayne Hector | Physiotherapist – Western Province |
| Johan Pretorius | Conditioning Coach – Sport Science Institute of SA |
SA Under-20 Junior World Championship Fixtures:
| Date | Fixture | Venue |
| 05 June 2009 | SA v Fiji | Osaka |
| 09 June 2009 | SA v Italy | Osaka |
| 13 June 2009 | SA v France | Osaka |
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love them or hate them they have got a nice squad building. I really rate their no 8 Tendayi Chikukwa , played for Boys High a couple of years ago one of the more athletic no 8 reminds me of a young Joe van Niekerk
Where can we see the whole squad?
@KSA Shark © (Comment 2) : http://www.sarugby.net
@KSA Shark © (Comment 2) : oops – meant to include that in the arti… oh well.
@Whindy (Comment 1) : LOTS of PBHS boys in there. Quite nice
Ebersohn nominally the fourth Cheetah, even though he is (to my knowledge) not actually contracted to that union. The captain’s twin brother, flyhalf Sias, is also in the squad.
Maybe they gonna try the Ndungane trick…
@Rahul (Comment 5) : 😯
@robdylan (Comment 4) : They are having a shocker this year Rob only won two games, even lost to KES for the first time in 13 years , did not do badly aggaist Affies though 20-16 down
@robdylan (Comment 4) :
if the mountain won’t come to Mohammed,….
Done. 😉
wheres our next stand out flyhalf and fullback, any of the youngsters showing enough promise to play with the big boys?
@KSA Shark © (Comment 8) : glad you got the hint 🙂
I see these Kids beat the Kavaliers, they must have a good chance of winning this tournament, they really do have a lot of class, what surprises me is that there are not more free state kids in, unless they have moved on to other provinces, as they drilled everybody two years ago at Craven Week.
who the hell is Morne Mellet and how did he get selected ahead of Dale Chadwick? Scandalous!
I wish I saw this post earlier, at a time when comment might have been more relevant, but I want to comment on your last post, since it is quite personal.
These are your words Rob Dylan: “Just have a sense of humour and be able to laugh at yourself from time to time…”
So I can ask: “Who the hell is Rob Dylan???” 👿
Have you ever picked up a rugby ball?
The scandalous element in your commentary is the fact that Dale Chadwick couldn’t even make the team as 2nd choice loosehead (ahead of Caylib Oosthuizen),
then you want to raise a mental meltdown such as: “how the 1st choice loosehead (and alternately capable tighthead, Morne Mellett – you spell the surname incorrectly) could make the team ahead of Dale Chadwick?”
Naturally you were not present at the try-outs, since then it would have dawned on you that when a national team is selected, it helps to lift one’s head out of a single minded hole and look at more than one province for talent.
Morne Mellett captained the team of High school Dr. E.G Jansen, when it was chosen as the South African Representative team at the 2007 World Championship for Schools (also held in Osaka, Japan), he’s inclusion came a long way, based on talent. So, a bit of advice: “Lift your head and broaden your horizons.” You’ll notice that the essence of rugby is the beauty of the game and not a knee jerk reaction to anything of threat to your province’s glory. 😉
@liz (Comment 13) : 😯
@liz (Comment 13) : point taken, but I wrote that a year ago. It was based on the fact the Chadwick had been a fixture in the side all the way during the buildup, but was then suddenly dropped for Mellett (apologies for the misspelled name, but I can only assume that the source where I got the team form had it that way). We all have our own take on who’s great and who isn’t, but in my experience, the only people who tend to jump on their soapboxes and raise passionate defences of age-group players are the people who are related to them and as such, not really in a good position to deliver unbiased commentary.
Hope I’m not doing you a disservice here, Liz. BTW, how much rugby have you played in your life? Is it in any way relevant to the discussion? Maybe I should ask how many people read your website, because perhaps that’s a more valid thing to discuss when it comes to discussing my “suitability” to run a site such as this and provide commentary.
Screen names are deceiving… I played my share of rugby in my day and will leave the trumpet blowing at that. Another misconception will be my relation, Blue Bulls being my team, as well as an old Dr. E.G. Jansen student; those would be my motivators, compounded by an appreciation of “all that’s rugby”.
After our revelations of grey matter, I will also leave the discussion at the point I wanted to make, being that “Rugby should be the winner, with acknowledgement of another human being’s talent, regardless of his provincial colours.” Understandably, Bull’s supporters are notoriously disrespectful of this point; I have always held Sharks supporters in high esteem, because of their love of the game and respect of the merits of other teams and players. (Dating from my time spend involved in KZN Rugby Structures, with most of my qualifications courtesy of KZN Rugby Union).
Concluding, I want to congratulate you for your good work in this site. Not many administrators reply to posts aimed at a personal stand point, or allow negative reflections to their images.
I like your site and look forward to your future posts.
@liz (Comment 16) : Thanks liz… and again apologies if I misread your intentions – and I apologise for apparently getting your gender completely wrong too!
Look, we walk a pretty fine line here, but are ultimately biased towards the Sharks, hence the name of the site. I rate Chadwick very highly and there was considerable anger in KZN rugby circles when he was omitted… the feeling was that Mellett had just come back from injury could certainly not be included on the basis of form. I’ll put my hand on my heart and admit that I really don’t know anywhere near as much as I should about youngsters from other provinces. Hell, it’s hard enough trying to keep track of the Sharks youngsters these days, especially from my home in Kent!
We have at least one EG Jansen old boy in our squad (Ludik) and used to have a fair few more floating around in the age-group ranks, although I suspect Dick Muir has lured most of them back to Joburg already.
@liz (Comment 16) : I think you need to remove the carrot from your arse!
Why is Patrick Lambie on on the list? Did I miss his name?
@liz (Comment 13) : What a hypocrite…you get to have YOUR opinion on players, but no-one else can…and the only one having a “mental meltdown” is you. 👿
@Just a Fan (Comment 19) : calm down… I think we are actually all ok with each other now! 🙂
Aai vooitog!! 😈 🙄
LOL! 😛 , Think “Just a Fan” has the wrong thread.
You just got out of your pot vibe?
You posting the above describe hypocrisy in detail.
Having an opinion of a player is the right of all, since they are essentially in the lime light, CRITICIZING a player from a basis of “outsider” ignorance and a provincial veil restricting one’s vision, is another matter altogether.
We’re having a chat about last years JWC team.
Patrick Lambie is an integral part of the 2010 JWC Squad.
http://www.irb.com/jwc/news/newsid=2036938.html#south+africa+name+squad+jwc+2010.
I think Rob has a point when considering that it is hard to keep track of the youngsters in the system. The u20 World Championship should be taken more seriously, since a track record of 2 consecutive 3rd place rankings reeks of a nonchalant approach.
Maybe the solution would be to utilize a coach FULL-time for the preparation, instead of a coach on some provincial team’s payroll.
@liz (Comment 22) : not a bad suggestion. saru and sa rugby have been crying out for decent coaches, but don’t use perfect opportunities like this to blood promising coaches. here we are taking future stars to compete amongst their peers, why aren’t we using this to test future coaches. get the national coaching team to spend a little time with these youngsters and up and coming coaches and then see how they fare. but what chance does eric sauls have of becoming a super 14 or national coach. so it is a complete waste of an opportunity.
Yup.
Another nightmare is the fact that the northen hemisphere u20 teams all participate in a Junior Six Nations and what do we do? We warm up against Vodacom Cup teams and play a few “left-over” games against France (too long ago) and Argentina. ❓
@liz (Comment 24) : ep being one of them. now where exactly did ep come in the vc? it is a great way to give your team over confidence. then they play their first game and start panicing because it is harder than they expected.
@liz (Comment 22) : ok looking at the article you linked, it brings to mind the saying “birds of a feather…”. has anyone noticed the ridiculous pool system. three pools. how can you have three pools? it is riduculous. only the winner of pool three gets a semi spot blah blah blah. there are 12 teams, so why not have 4 groups of three, or 2 groups of six. but three pools, what goes through the head of those fools in the irb? and we give saru grief for some of their odd decisions.
Right on! Since it becomes quite tricky to determine the best runner-up of the 3 Pools! Log Points, Points Difference etc. They’re probably running a Mathematics Trial for the administrators during the JWC.
@liz (Comment 27) : 😆 maybe they should spend money running a logic trial at the irb and its affiliated unions around the world.
😆
@liz (Comment 29) : hey liz you came onto this site with a bang, but you seem a decent guy. it would be good if you hang around to keep us out of hand characters in check. so welcome.
Thank you, think I need to change my screen name though. Otherwise I might go off the site with a bang! 😀
Just had an issue close to heart that I got relieved of, thanks.
I’ll try and not be a typical “Bull s. Supporter”! 😆
I actually see that as a moral obligation.
@liz (Comment 13) : 🙄 😯
@liz (Comment 29) : Welkom in die haaiswereld eeeee
@liz (Comment 31) : AMEN to that their are toooo mannyyyy of them
@liz (Comment 31) : just warn us about the change in screen name, so we don’t knock chadwick in your presence. 😆