Cape Town - Is Springbok coach Allister Coetzee softening the imminent selection axe with his announcement about player releases to Currie Cup teams on Monday?
SA Rugby said in a short statement that five players – Bongi Mbonambi (Western Province), Malcolm Marx (Golden Lions), Lwazi Mvovo (Sharks), Rudy Paige and Trevor Nyakane (both Blue Bulls) – were released to their provinces for Currie Cup games this weekend after arriving back home following Saturday’s 41-13 Rugby Championship defeat to the All Blacks in Christchurch.
The official reason given for their availability is that “Springbok management feel they will benefit from additional game or training time”.
But what was strange was the announcement that four others – Faf de Klerk (Lions), Juan de Jongh (WP), Oupa Mohoje (Free State Cheetahs) and Vincent Koch (Pumas) – should not be considered for Currie Cup duty this weekend due to their heavy recent workload, but the respective provinces still have the final say on whether they should play or not.
Why single out four members of the current Bok squad? What about the others who weren’t named? The other SA-based players who are not injured are Lourens Adriaanse, Damian de Allende, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Jesse Kriel, Tendai Mtawarira, Adriaan Strauss and Warren Whiteley.
Coetzee will announce his squad later this week, and it is likely that one of Mbonambi or Marx (probably the former, as Marx was preferred in Christchurch), Mvovo, Paige and Nyakane won’t be part of a 26-man squad for the two home Rugby Championship fixtures against the Wallabies on October 1 (Pretoria) and All Blacks (October 8, Durban).
With Francois Hougaard able to play at wing and scrumhalf, Paige didn’t feature against Australia or New Zealand on tour, and Mvovo didn’t see any action either. Nyakane and Mbonambi were on the bench in Brisbane, but both were left out in Christchurch.
But none of De Klerk, De Jongh, Mohoje or Koch are going to be suddenly left out of the squad entirely after starting at the AMI Stadium.
The possibilities at scrumhalf are limited, with only Hougaard or Paige as alternatives to De Klerk, while De Allende is the only challenger to De Jongh at No 12.
Lions star Rohan Janse van Rensburg and Sharks giant André Esterhuizen have been punted in some quarters at inside centre, but it would be a surprise if the normally conservative Coetzee brings in a debutant in such a crucial position.
Mohoje was replaced by Willem Alberts in the second half of the All Black game, but the former Sharks bruiser didn’t make much of an impact either, while Koch is undoubtedly the best tighthead at the moment in the absence of the injured Julian Redelinghuys and Frans Malherbe.
Steven Kitshoff, Jaco Kriel and Lionel Mapoe deserve starts, but Coetzee did say in the post-match press conference in Christchurch that one or two “senior players” would be back for the home series, and that “maybe some players are not ready for this level yet. I will have to make some tough decisions”.
One would imagine that Patrick Lambie will be one of those coming in, but could there be further additions from overseas? England-based JP Pietersen is a strong candidate at wing as he played against Ireland in June, and if Coetzee could go back to the French-based Alberts, it wouldn’t be a total surprise if someone like Frans Steyn is brought in to solve the No 12 issue.
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Independent Media