It seems it’s not just me who wants Pat Lambie to play Currie Cup this weekend; in an interview yesterday, Sharks coach Grant Bashford confirmed that the union is hopeful that the under-used Bok back will be released to play against the Cheetahs, given his lack of game time for the Boks.
The other player that Bashford hopes will be released is Craig Burden, who has racked up yet more air miles in the last week by being flown to Argentina and back, without even a sniff of the bench.
Any hopes of an early team announcement, though, appear to have been dashed by the Bok management’s decision to delay the confirmation of their Rugby Championship squad to tour Australia and New Zealand. Initially, the tour party was due to be announced yesterday, but with the selectors understood to be haggling over a few positions, that announcement has been pushed back to some time today.
Tweet
All that does is harm a player, give him match time and it will and can only assist the boks
I hope the players that did not get game time against the Argies get to play in the CC this weekend. If not then I fear guys like Lambie and Burden will not see action again this year 😕
@Dunx (Comment 1) : You Sharks fans must stop being tjatjarag!
one week you want your players to be Boks and the next you want them back for Currie Cup!
Heyneke said he needs to keep these players “in the mix”, they need to LEARN the “gameplan”!
Asked about the reason for selecting three scrumhalves in his 30-man squad, Meyer said it was such a specialist position that he needed the extra back-up.
“It is always a tough one,” he said, adding: “If you select 30 players you want to go with two full squads, especially for training purposes, but hooker and scrumhalf are such specialist positions.
“We have only been together for three weeks.
“No.9 and hooker are the players that touches the ball the most and they are still finding their feet in terms of the game plan.
“You don’t want to get into a situation where your No.9 and hooker are on the bench, then he goes from Currie Cup rugby straight into starting a Test. We want to keep those guys in the mix [at the Bok team].
“We want to keep them up to date with the gameplan.
@Megatron (Comment 3) : I reckon everyone in the world that saw the last 5 tests know the game plan.
@Megatron (Comment 3) : Mmmm, even a 7 year old can memorize that game plan – kick the ball as much as possible, bash into 4 defenders, 13 to run towards the sidelines, and if not sure, kick the ball
@Bokhoring (Comment 5) : And if you feel you can’t kick (being a prop and all), replace kick with “pick the closest defender to run into”. Even better choose a group of 4 defenders
@Megatron (Comment 3) : So Meyer is hell bent on coaching any and all talent out of the players not from planet blue…. 👿
“…. Craig Burden, who has racked up yet more air miles in the last week by being flown to Argentina and back, without even a sniff of the bench.”
That is not fair if it is implying Burden shouldn’t have gone. As Megatron pointed out you need 3 hookers in squad. In the last Bok game Strauss almost didn’t play because of an neck injury. If he hadn’t, Burden would have been on the bench. If Burden wasn’t there and that had happened someone would have been writing an article about how short sighted Meyer was in not taking Burden over as cover!
@Dive Pass (Comment 8) : you misunderstand me. I’m not saying burden shouldn’t have gone. I’m saying he shouldn’t have been left out of the 22!
@robdylan (Comment 9) :
Oh ok….I agree Burden would offer tons more x-factor in the last 15 to 20 minutes then Liebenberg. But the later was obviously higher up Meyer’s hecking order and he is a fair man who never let’s logic interfere with fairness , unless it’s a Bulls player in which neither logic nor fairness apply
I don’t understand how after all those initial training camps where HM let seemingly every player on the continent know exactly where they stand, they can’t pick a 30 man squad until so late.
@robdylan (Comment 9) : let me get this straight…any sharks player called up to the Boks should not be only there to cover but must either start or be in the 22, otherwise the call up is useless/wasteful?
right, imagine guys like siya who are told they’re in the wider group since june…
i think you lot doth protest too much 😆