The Official Rugby Thread

Rugby is not a sport, it's a way of life! If you enjoy your rugby more than is healthy feel free to add your thoughts here.

Tonight at 5 South Africa are playing Australia at Loftus. Hopefully Morne Steyn trips and breaks his ankle early on in the game so that we might have a chance?

Go BOKKE!!! Die Groen en Goud bo!

His not even in the starting 22, haha and they are playing Nz. You must be on something, pulling your leg.

Its going to be a craker of a game for sure

Thought this day would never come haha!

We're playing at 4 hey bud, would hate for you to miss the first hour and I think Heyneke Meyer has been reading all the BBM statuses over the past few weeks because Goosen is finally starting ahead of Morne! :woohoo:

Big rugby fan here

Played a touch rugby tournament today and was the first time I sprinted in over 2 years. Running like that has made my legs so sore already I am going to be crying for a week!

In the hGH forum, even :lol:

Eidolon wrote: In the hGH forum, even :lol:

Ha ha ha :lol:


Pyro had some more spice i see

haha Thanx for that Greg.

Super stoked to see Morne not even warming the bench. A completely different game of play by the Springboks with the new fly-half scrum-half combination. Morne was there for his kicking but he was average on his best days. Goosen can run the ball and take a gap and you can see he is hungry.

Speaking of people getting sacked, let's pray Zane Kirchner is next. We have Pat Lambie AND Jaco Taute, both top class players. My choice of the two would be Taute as he adds a dimension of strength to the game taht Lambie doesn't.

Jean de Villiers is having a rough time with the captaincy and his performance on the field is lacking. I am not sure if he is the best man for the job but I suppose it's a bit early to say. He just needs to wake up and remember how to tackle properly.

If we can just sort out our kicker I honestly think this is the strongest SA side we have EVER had. In terms of game play I do have one HUGE issue and that is that we kick possession away. Ek wil 'n appel kak elke keer wat ons die bal weg skop!!

@MK: I think your watch is a bit slow there bud...

well pyro, good analysis of the game, however i think its far from our best side.

Morne steyn, i love the guy but he has played 3 games to many in the bok jersey now. Why change the team when we cant win anymore?(the tri nations) These changes took to long to happen, Heineke must wake up. Why play Jantjies on the bench for 3 tests without 5 min of play? why bring on patrick lambie(previous tests) 77min into the game. I hope he realized that the kick and chase option does not work all the time!! imagine guys on form back in the team like schalk, brussouw, frans steyn, bismark and jp pietersen!!! (i mentioned all on form).

I think the problem with Heyneke is that he is too much of a Blue Bull (if that's possible) and therefore he favors bulls players over the rest. This is why he chooses Morne instead of Goosen, and Kirchher instead of Lambie/Taute. I don't rate Jantjies to be honest, so I don't even think he should be warming the bench. All of those player make a massive difference if even just one of them is missing. Steyn not so much and Schalk ONLY when he decides he wants to play some rugby (I.e on form ). I think it's amazing how JP Pietersen has improved his game!

well jp is by far the player we miss the most. i think ruan pienaar had an amazing game and that francios hougard must up his game if he wants to play scrumie again. i know what you saying about jantjies, but let him rather play for the lions than waste time, anyways we need a kicker, why stop goosen from kicking when he misses 2, its his first game!! why did you (heineke) not change to ruan when morne kicks away 20 points. sorry i am going to say it, but its definately blue bull mentality

Byron saying we were playing NZ, MK saying the rugby starts an hour earlier than it actually does (Pro tip: In SA, the rugby is always either at 15:00 or 17:00) and then Pyro saying this is possibly our best team ever?

Sheesh boys, I love you guys and all but, try not to be too wrong eh?

As far as best teams go (this does not include pre-1994), I'd say '95, '98 and 2007 were our best teams to date.

I am by no means a Kirchner fan, but credit where it's due, he hasn't been playing bad at all (barring missing that tackle against NZ) in my opinion, seems like he is gaining some form.

As for kicking, maybe we should put Lambie there? Pienaar missed a few, but every single time it was only just. We've shown we have a good running team, now we just need a kicker to back that up. As for territorial kicking (I'm not talking about those up-and-under nonsense stuff going around these days), Lambie and the likes are quite good.

I was definitely impressed by how well the Bokke ran this weekend, but there are still areas where we can improve

Let me clarify.. It is the best team we have ever had if there are no injuries and we can choose any player available. Bakkies and Matfield are a big miss but the new stars are brilliant! Even Guthro shall be missed but we have Beast to fill his shoes. We should take some tips from Kurtley Beale on how to kick for territory. He reminded me of Naas Botha!

@Michael: EXACTLY!! It is his first game in the Springbok jersey the guy must learn. The only way to learn is by putting your hand on the stove and seeing for yourself. How can you build confidence like that?? The poor oak. Are the kickers in South Africa so bad that we have to dip into the retired international pile?

...Uhm...I might almost agree with you there, barring any injuries.

And also, Pietersen, indeed someone we miss

Ya ya, sorry guys, that's a BIG rookie mistake on my behalf. These assignments haven't been doing me too much good, haha. Wish I could hand out Karma to make up for it :oops:

Have to agree with you Pyro, it definitely seems like Heyneke is too much of a Blue Bull, and as much as I hate the Bulls, he had an amazing spout with them which I don't think anyone can deny.

It's early days, and I think everyone is giving him kak because of the team not performing in the Championship. But I still think he is the right man for the job.

I also think that we're missing a good leader on the field. de Villiers is a quality player, but we need someone like John Smit, who might not have performed as a player towards the end of his career, but was a brilliant leader.

One player who I think we should all watch out for in the future, is the Cheetah's Wing/Centre Raymond Rhule. He's young now (20) but I think he'll be a great asset to SA rugby in the future.

I won't even start with Kirchner. Despite him not having half a bad game on Saturday, I am a firm believer in things being fair and earning your way into the team rather than letting favouritism and politics have their way. I know that it's probably an attempt by the coaches to keep some level of consistency in the side, but I think he, like Morne, should have been benched a long time ago.

We are also seriously lacking a quality Hooker to fill Bismarck's position. I must admit, Adriaan Strauss is not doing too bad, but then if he gets injured I seriously doubt the capability of Liebenberg to take the role of starting hooker. He may be experienced at Super 15 level, but he is by no means good enough for the green and gold.

Just my 2c.

Liebenberg should never even have pulled the Springbok jersey over his head, spoke to some of my (very pro WP) friends, and even they agree. I would rather have Craig Burden as the substitute, at least he can run decently.

Raymond Rhule? He the one that played for the Baby Boks this year? If so, I fully agree, that laaitie has potential!

Can't wait for Bismarck to recover, this injury of his has shown just how much of a difference he makes in the side.

Craig Burden is battling to even make the starting line up for the Sharks these days. Last game I saw him in, he was on the bench and Monde Hadebe was starting ahead of him. Not sure if that's much of a sign, but I think he needs to work harder if he wants to start for the Sharks.

There's also Kyle Cooper but he's far away from the green and gold at the moment.

Yes that's Raymond Rhule, he can play a pretty decent game of rugby to say the least.

That's probably because both Burden and Liebenberg were called up after Bismarck got injiured, Burden just never got game time (nor even bench time)

Definately agree with MK politics have no place in anything important let alone rugby! I am a HUGE Bismarck fan so I tend to think we miss him the most. Remember in the world cup 2011 (sorry if I bring up any bad memories) when John Smit finally pissed off the field and Bismarck came on it was a different game of rugby being played. All of a sudden we have the ball 80% of the time for no apparent reason. Hats off to Strauss for filling some big ass shoes (no really) and doing well. Liebenberg is not even close to being worthy of wearing the Boks jersey. Raymond Rhule has a bright future ahead of him I think that guy has some major talent.

This is what Carlos Spencer has to say about the upcoming clash on saturday.


Despite the fact that the Springboks dominated the All Blacks in Dunedin, former All Black flyhalf and discarded Lions backline coach Carlos Spencer has predicted the World Champions will “destroy” the Boks this weekend in their Castle Rugby Championship clash at FNB Stadium.

Spencer, who was fired as Lions backline coach, told Fairfax Media that the World Champions will put matters back into perspective this weekend with a match that will bring Bok fans crashing down to earth.

The former All Black believes Australia were so bad in their five-try defeat at the hands of the Boks at Loftus that the All Blacks would show the Boks just how out of touch with reality they are.

"The Springboks obviously needed a good win but the Aussie weren't great. I think the All Blacks will destroy them this week," Spencer said.

Spencer is just a washed up has-been trying to get some media coverage.

The Springboks’ starting XV has a combined total of 430 Test caps – 162 to the forwards and 268 to the backs.

The Springbok team to face New Zealand in Soweto is:

15. Zane Kirchner (Vodacom Blue Bulls) 20 caps
14. Bryan Habana (DHL Western Province) 82 caps
13. Jaco Taute (MTN Golden Lions) 1 cap
12. Jean de Villiers (captain, DHL Western Province) 80 caps
11. Francois Hougaard (Vodacom Blue Bulls) 23 caps
10. Johan Goosen (Toyota FS Cheetahs) 3 caps
9. Ruan Pienaar (Ulster, N-Ireland) 59 caps
8. Duane Vermeulen (DHL Western Province) 3 caps
7. Willem Alberts (The Sharks) 16 caps
6. Francois Louw (Bath, England) 13 caps
5. Andries Bekker (DHL Western Province) 28 caps
4. Eben Etzebeth (DHL Western Province) 7 caps
3. Jannie du Plessis (The Sharks) 38 caps
2. Adriaan Strauss (vice-captain, Toyota FS Cheetahs) 17 caps
1. Tendai Mtawarira (The Sharks) 40 caps
Replacements:
16. Tiaan Liebenberg (DHL Western Province) 4 caps
17. Coenie Oosthuizen (Toyota FS Cheetahs) 1 cap
18. Flip van der Merwe (Vodacom Blue Bulls) 19 caps
19. Marcell Coetzee (The Sharks) 8 caps
20. Elton Jantjies (MTN Golden Lions) 1 cap
21. Juan de Jongh (DHL Western Province) 11 caps
22. Pat Lambie (The Sharks) 16 caps

In other words, exactly the same as last week?

EDIT: Apart from Coenie Oosthuizen replacing Pat Cilliers on the bench of course

Good luck boys!! Its going to be a big one!

Big game today! SA vs NZ at Soweto.

Excited and nervous to see what happens today!