Trevor Nyakane has been withdrawn from the Springbok Rugby Championships squad due to an ankle injury. His replacement will be Sharks prop Lourens Adriaanse.
The call-up is just reward after a great season for Adriaanse, but causes some headaches for the Sharks, who have limited Currie Cup depth at tight head prop.
Well done, Lourens – good to see you back where you belong!
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Fantastic! Well done Lourens!!
Great news for Adriaanse as he really is looking fit and sharp. Not so great news in that the Sharks just lost their only tighthead.
Congrats Lourens!
Suppose this means Thomas will be moved to TH with a youngster moving onto the bench. This should give us a chance to really decide if Thomas is ever going to cut it as a specialist TH. At the moment my feelings are no.
Well deserved, Well done Lourens!
Well deserved. Given what we’ve seen from the juniors in the backline, I’m hopeful this is simply an opportunity for a youngster to show his stuff at no. 3. 😉
@Hulk (Comment 4) : Having watch DuToit scrum he is not a tighthead at the moment…too tall and technique not good enough. He will give away penalties…hope im wrong but yeh
@Culling Song (Comment 6) : Anyone in particular?
@Hulk (Comment 4) : I reckon he’s too tall to be a proper tighthead.
Moral of the story – when you’re looking for a tight head, look no further than the Sharks….why it took an injury for the scales to fall off, I do not know.
Can somebody please start a tight head academy? Of all the position in rugby, this seems to be the hardest to fill.
@SheldonK (Comment 8) : Not a clue. That statement was rooted in blind optimism, not any form of insight or knowledge.
@Culling Song (Comment 11) : …as is the expected norm for us genuine Sharks fans – blind optimists to the core. 😉
@Culling Song (Comment 11) : Damn…hope someone knew something i didnt
All I can say to Mr. Adriaanse is well deserved congrats and good luck!!!
@Culling Song (Comment 6) : @SheldonK (Comment 8) : @FireTheLooser (Comment 12) : well I do think we would get Coenie back.
im happy for him. he defiitely deserves it. I feel sorry for trevor as his flipping good too
but now thomas will have to step up at TH, which isnt so bad
Better than counie 😐 at TH. who will cover TH from the bench though, dont we have a good young TH, cant remember the name
Maybe Gerhard Engelbrecht will come into consideration again at TH
@revolverocelot (Comment 16) : Coenie is injured, apparently.
I am very chuffed for Lourens, he certainly deserves this call up based on his play this season. That said, this move makes little sense for the Boks, they have three tightheads (Malherbe, Koch, and Redlinghuys) and three looseheads (Beast, Kitshoff, and Nyakane), a nice balance (Coenie is injured but the Bok A side used him at loosehead, so who knows where AC sees him). One of your looseheads is unjured (Nyakane) and you bring in a specialist tighthead in Adriaanse making 4 tightheads and only 2 looseheads. That just does not make sense to me, what if Beast or Kitshoff have to cry off (hopefully won’t happen) at the last minute? This is a puzzling move, while Adriaanse may be the next best prop, we need a loosehead.
@JustPlainSHARK (Comment 17) : thats the guy yes, he has played well when he had a chance, but i seem to remember them not picking him but instead another young lad in the announce cc 2016 squad.
@robdylan (Comment 18) : thanks for the info, cant believe he packed down at LH for the boks when there are so many reports that its bad for his [email protected]Dancing Bear (Comment 19) : good point
Well done, Lourens! Congrats and good luck!!
@Dancing Bear (Comment 19) : I think you have one too many props in your list. Malherbe is out for three months…so we have two tightheads (Koch and Redelinghuis) and two looseheads (Beast and Kitshoff). Nyakane was prop number 5. Given this balance, I’m sure prop number 5 was meant to be one who could cover loosehead and tighthead. With both Nyakane and Coenie now injured, AC had to choose to back one of the two positions up…he chose tighthead…
@pastorshark (Comment 22) : Thanks for that….so many complaining that Dylan Smith wasn’t called up (the 365 fanboys), had me wondering whether he’s a th. The one position where you never take chances should be th, so no issues here.
Whatever happened to Ruan Dreyer. I always thought he was going to step up.
@pastorshark (Comment 22) : I understand, just with one point, the last time Nyakane had the chance to come on at TH, his team opted to rather take uncontested scrums. So not sure if he is still considered as a TH option. So again, wondering why pick 3 looseheads and only 2 tightheads, and then replace one loosehead with a tighthead.
@Dancing Bear (Comment 25) : Nyakane is definitely still seen as a tighthead option. The incident you’re talking about was definitely not one where the Boks chose uncontested scrums. They wanted contested scrums with Nyakane at tighthead. However the match officials correctly pointed out that according to the rules Nyakane was that day listed as the LOOSEHEAD replacement (if I remember correctly, Malherbe was the official TIGHTHEAD replacement)…and the rules stated that (for safety’s sake) the official LOOSEHEAD replacement could not come on at TIGHTHEAD, even though he can play in that position. It was out of the Boks hands. With this squad make-up Nyakane was definitely chosen as a fifth prop who could cover both loosehead and tighthead. With him and Coenie out AC ran out of options of players who can cover both…so he went with someone who could cover tighthead. If he had known this up front he,may have changed the balance of his squad (?)…
@pastorshark (Comment 26) : You are correct there. And i must say im pretty happy with the props in the squad (Beast, Kitshoff, Redelinghuis,Koch and Adriaanse) . Think Beast needs to up his game a bit though and he is capable of that- think the Sharks captaincy distracted him too much from just playing.
Just food for thought…Probable Bok team vs My Possible Team of those left out :
Probable: 1. Beast 2. Strauss 3. Redlinghuis 4. Etzebeth 5. PSDT 6. Kriel 7. Louw 8.Vermuelen 9. DeKlerk 10. Jantjies 11. Habana 12, DeAllende 13. Mapoe 14. Combrinck 15. Kriel
Possible: 1. Kitshoff 2.Bismarck 2. Adriaanse 4. Mostert 5. Lewies 6.Tecklenburg 7. Van Der Walt. 8 Whiteley 9. Hougaard 10. Goosen 11. Skosan 12. Van Rensburg 13. Venter 14. Pieterson 15. Steyn