John Smit has revealed most of the squad that will play in his Barney’s Army testimonial game at Kings Park on Friday night; one name that I wasn’t expecting to see belongs to former Sharks scrumhalf Rory Kockott.
When John originally started collecting together the names that will comprise Barney’s Army, he included old mate Ruan Pienaar on the list. Pienaar’s subsequent inclusion in the Boks squad for the test series against England scuppered those plans a little, however and he’s unlikely to play at Kings Park on Friday night and again in PE on Saturday. Luckily, the Rocket is in Durban on holiday during the French off-season and has apparently stepped into the breach.
Smit this morning tweeted a list of 19 names that will be in his squad. Assuming he’s the 20th, he’ll still need to find two others to join in; then again, it’s completely possible that one or two of his mates from the Sharks will rather play for his side on Friday. We’ll confirm both line ups, of course, once they’ve been announced.
Here’s the list of players that Smit has confirmed will be in action.
Martin Scelzo (Arg – Prop), Faan Rautenbach (SA – Prop), Peter Dixon (Sa – Hooker), Victor Matfield (SA – Lock), Jason White (Sco – Lock/Flank), Hottie Louw (SA – Lock), Rob Linde (Stormers/Bayonne – Lock), Francois Louw (SA – Flank), Shaun Sowerby (SA – Number 8), Julian Salvi (Brumbies/Leicester – Flank), Mark McMillan (Bath – Scrumhalf), Rory Kockott (Sharks/Castres – Scrumhalf), Butch James (SA – Flyhalf), Stephen Donald (NZ – Flyhalf), Matt Banahan (Eng – Wing) , Brent Russell (SA – Utility Back) , Joe Maddock (Crusaders/Saracens – Wing), Stefan Terblanche (SA – Fullback), Percy Montgomery (SA – Fullback)
Tweet
TGHMRL – The Great Hard Man Rob Linde!! 😆
@wpw (Comment 1) : actually quite keen to see the boy play…. 🙂
That looks like a very strong team. The Sharks will up against it.
cant wait to see Brent Russell again…
@wpw (Comment 1) : old Empangeni boy 😉
urm I guess it`s not very PC of me to admit I`m looking forward to this match a lot more than the bokke on saturday? 🙄
This looks like a very old team, average age of 32 I would guess? Experience vs Youth?
@molly (Comment 7) : Sharks will have Marius Joubert to even things out 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 8) : Ouch! 😈
Rob, you had me with that headline 😀
@vanmartin (Comment 10) : he he he he he x1000 🙂
@molly (Comment 7) : Couple of these guys will need heart pills just to finish the game
Must say I’m a little apprehensive about this fixture, the coverage hasn’t been too impressive, the double booking and a team sheet that is quite different to what was on the original website (http://www.barneysarmy.co.za/The-Players.aspx). Seems like its been sort of hacked together the closer we get to kick off.
Hope the turn out is good. Barney deserves no less.
Is this match televised by any chance
@Ludz (Comment 15) : Yes it is.
@Ben (Comment 16) : chechout the team…
Barney’s Geriatrics 😆