In news just in, Lions loanee Franco vd Merwe has been called up by Heyneke Meyer to the Springbok camp to replace the injured Bulls duo of Flip vd Merwe and Juandre Kruger.
The 30 year old lock has been a fixture in the Sharks side this season starting ahead of the like of Anton Bresler and the Marais brothers.
According to Heyneke, Franco adds valuable experience and has been part of previous Bok squads before which means he should slot in quite easily.
The training camp is in Durban and will run for two days.
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You got to be joking me!!!
@Grasshopper (Comment 1) :
Don’t hate bra, participate! 😈 😆
@Grasshopper (Comment 1) : Realistically, who else would you have called up? (Other than maybe Bresler, but this is HM we are talking about)
@Grasshopper (Comment 1) : Well Rapport was touting Kanko to be there covering lock.
Lodewyk De Jager for one….
@David12246 (Comment 3) : @Grasshopper (Comment 6) : @Salmonoid (Comment 5) : What about Sykes? He’s been good for the Kings and looks to have improved immensely as a ball carrier!
Who will the Bulls field at lock this weekend? Wilhelm Steenkamp and …?? ❓
@ChrisS (Comment 6) : sykes is injured
@Grasshopper (Comment 1) : He well and truely deserve this….He was one of the better players in a poor Sharks team this year…. Well done Franco.
Poor Franco went over just to be a bag carrier, nothing else!!!!!! HM is really an a…. making statements like this!!!
To me Franco has been the biggest disappointment to me at lock this year … would not pick him for the springboks in a 1000 years.
With the current squad, my team:
1. Beast
2. Strauss
3. du Plessis
4. du Toit
5. Etzebeth
6. Coetzee
7. Alberts
8. Spies
9. Hougaard
10. Lambie
11. Mvovo
12. Ebersohn
13. de Villiers (c)
14. Habana
15. Kirchner
16. du Plessis
17. Oosthuizen
18. Herbst
19. F. van der Merwe
20. Kankowski
21. Vermaak
22. Steyn
23. le Roux
@Marge (Comment 10) : There are only 3 locks in the squad, so he would be on the bench either way, unless Meyer calls up someone else, which he may.
@David12246 (Comment 12) : There are a few people in your squad that are off-form at the moment.
Brussouw in for Coetzee, Lappies Labuschagne in for Alberts, Spies is never good so bring in Kanko or Jacques Engelbrecht.
Hougaard is a wing and not a scrummy, I’d have Vermaak start with Piennaar on the bench. Jan Serfontein at outside centre instead of JDV. Aplon in for Mvovo, le Roux in for Kirchner.
BJ Botha would be at 3 instead of Jannie and I’d have Bakkies on the bench along with Deysel.
@ChrisS (Comment 14) : I said with the current squad. Most of those players aren’t in the squad.
Bakkies Botha and Danie Roussow are match fit and far better than Franco……jeez Franco has been non existent for about 10 games now….
@David12246 (Comment 15) : Sorry, thought you meant available players.
I’m not the biggest fan of the training squad selected.
@Grasshopper (Comment 16) : I was thinking the same thing. Bakkies for Franco and Danie for Alberts so that Alberts can get back to form.
Can Lappies Labuschagne play eighthman??
@Grasshopper (Comment 16) : Congratulations for Saturday, Deserved winners 😥 however very proud of College played with such heart, with 14 boys against 15 for 3 quarters of the match and if Koekemoer had got that penalty and conversion over we would have won! BEST game I watched for a very long time! and I include in this the Sharks matches 👿
Van der Merwe was called up cause he’s already in Durban, a player from union would miss atleast 1 of the 2 days.
@ChrisS (Comment 17) : If it were all available players:
1. Beast
2. Strauss
3. du Plessis – Has been solid and a leader. BJ? Hardly…
4. du Toit
5. Etzebeth
6. Louw
7. Alberts
8. Spies (vc) – Has been back on form this season.
9. Hougaard – Had a bad year at 9 last year but that is his position.
10. Lambie
11. Mvovo – Has been great these few weeks, and I have never liked Aplon. He is a useless defender and while he has pace and agility, that’s it, no power.
12. Ebersohn – Awesome for the Cheetahs.
13. de Villiers – He has shown a lot more ability this season and he is good, even at 13. Plus, we need a good leader.
14. Habana
15. Kirchner – le Roux shouldn’t start the first match.
16. du Plessis
17. Oosthuizen
18. Herbst
19. Botha
20. Brussow
21. Pienaar – Only until Reinach is better.
22. Steyn
23. le Roux
@Sharksmead, thanks boet. Very proud of the Glenwood boys for fighting back on Goldstones against a determined College outfit, it aint easy to win there so they showed tons of guts to steal it in the end. Heard is was the best school boy game in decades, wish I could have been there. Congrats to College on 150 years of excellence!
Think Lood de Jager is also making great strides. Paul Willemse out injured. Steph du Toit/Lood at 4 and Etzebeth at 5 could be a fearful combo.
Du Toit and Etzebeth should be bock locks. Lood is good but should play a bit more before he can be a Bok, maybe take him on year-end tour if he stays on form.
@JD (Comment 24) : Agree, but I am under correction here, haven’t both made their Super debut this year? So if that is your reasoning, then what is your motivation for du Toit?
@KingCheetah (Comment 25) : Both du Toit and Etzebeth made their debuts last year.
KingCheetah last year Du Toit played for national 0/20 team so not really his first season in “big” rugby, with Lood he came from “nowhere” to star for Cheetahs. Lood is a good player but should not be pushed to quickly, but that’s only my opinion.
@JD (Comment 27) : Fair enough, heard he was in the reckoning for the Junior WC with Etzebeth, but got injured. Even so, I reckon Super Rugby more a yartd stick of test suitability than Junior World Cup.
He has certainly mixed it with some international quality this year. Both young, both big boys, I reckon both can cut it.
KingCheetah with Eben, PSDT & Lood we have 3 locks for the future to replace Botha, Victor & Danie. All three are real prospects for the future and with other youngsters like Serfontein, Sadie, JJ, Rhule, etc also performing the future looks bright for the Bokke.
And we can throw young Paul Willemse into that mix too. Between them we have enough options at 4 and 5.
Come WC 2015 we will have some real firepower in th scrums and still growing in staure.
Coenie, Kitshoff, Herbst, Malherbe, Cilliers, and Nyakane
Cooper, Strauss, Bismarck
Lood, Willemse, Steph, Flip and Etzebeth
Brüssow, Lappies, Kolisi, Coetzee, vd Walt, Engelbrecht, Spies, Vermeulen, Elstadt, Rhodes, Arno Botha, Carr
Reinach, van Zyl, Vermaak, Sarel
Goosen, Lambie, Catrakilis, Pollard, Zeilinger
Ebersohn, Serfontein, Swanepoel, Jordaan, Whitehead, Venter, Engelbrecht, Sadie, Lindeque
Mvovo, Rhule, Basson, JPP, Senatla, Petersen
Le Roux, Ludik, Coetzee, Taute
We can pick a pretty fine team out of that lot, plus more to come through surely in the next year or so.
@KingCheetah (Comment 30) : You forgot Frans Steyn, he’ll be at the next wc.
@FireTheLooser (Comment 31) : True that, a bad oversight, as he will be a vital cog.