XV Reasons To Be Excited: #2 Bismarck
Bismarck du Plessis
What started off as such a promising season for the Springboks in 2010 imploded in rather spectacular fashion on an unsuccessful away leg of the Tri-Nations. Injuries to key players, fatigue and an unwillingness from the coaching staff drop misfiring players all contributed to the winless trip.
We’ve compiled a list of fifteen players who didn’t get a chance – either through injury, cooling their heels on the bench or being left out – to play in the Tri-Nations to prove to you that things aren’t all doom and gloom in South Africa. We’ll be unveiling our team over the next week.
Keep logging on to see who we’ve selected and have your say on our facebook page. We move on to hooker now where John Smit has been some way off his best game. Smit looks to have bulked up to play at tighthead prop and has been cutting a rather ungainly figure at hooker.
The good news, though, as Bismarck du Plessis is back in training and should be pushing to grab back his Springbok place.
2. Bismarck du Plessis
Du Plessis’s neck injury cost the Springboks one of their more physical players. The young hooker may tread on thin ice when it comes to towing the disciplinary line, but part of that stems from him being in full out enforcer mode. With Bakkies Botha out the Boks desperately need a hard man in the pack, but he’ll have to tread carefully as the team is under the spotlight for poor discipline once again.
An overlooked fact is that Du Plessis executed the second most turnovers for the Springboks last season during the Tri-Nations, behind Heinrich Brussow, and his mobility and influence in the tackle is clearly missed. With the Bok captain struggling to recreate his best form there are many eager to see him reclaim the number two jersey.
Ones to watch: There are a number of other hooking options in South Africa, but few of them stand out as world class players. Tiaan Liebenberg and Gary Botha both give a full-hearted effort up front while Adriaan Strauss also continues to build an impressive reputation. None of the trio would be out of place in the Green and Gold and then there’s still the unknown quantity of Chiliboy Ralepelle and the impressive Bandise Maku waiting in the wings.
UCI BMX World Champs In SA
UCI BMX World Championships
MX The UCI BMX World Championships got underway at the Royal Showgrounds in Pietermaritzburg with a large South African contingent eager to satisfy the huge expectations of their local fans.
1100 riders from 37 nations have entered the competition, racing on a world first track that sees an elite track alongside the cruiser class track, and spanning an endurance testing 385 metres from start to finish.
On the first day nine-year old Georgina Grassie did South Africa proud by winning gold in the UCI BMX World Challenge 13 and Under.
Here is a taste of some of the action going down at the Championships.
First up, Georgina wins her race…
Courtesy of Bicycling and BMX World Champs
XV Reasons To Be Excited: #1 Beast
The Beast is the first of XV Boks we'd like to see more of in the Green and Gold.
What started off as such a promising season for the Springboks in 2010 imploded in rather spectacular fashion on an unsuccessful away leg of the Tri-Nations.
Injuries to key players, fatigue and an unwillingness from the coaching staff drop misfiring players all contributed to the winless trip.
We’ve compiled a list of fifteen players who didn’t get a chance – either through injury, cooling their heels oon the bench or being left out – to play in the Tri-Nations to prove to you that things aren’t all doom and gloom in South Africa.
We’ll be unveiling our team over the next week. Keep logging on to see who we’ve selected and have your say on our facebook page.
1. Beast Mtawarira
The Beast’s unfortunate, and rather unfair, suspension from Springbok duty has been somewhat overlooked due to the good form of Gurthro Steenkamp. His pace around the park and high impact game shouldn’t be so quickly forgotten. His mobility makes him as effective as another loose forward and that speed allows him to fly into the collision – something that has been missing from the Boks this season. It’s time for Gurthro to take a well earned rest and for the Beast to put the spark back into the Springbok pack.
Here is an interview we did last year with The Beast and Francois Steyn to get to know them better.
One to watch: Wicus Blaauw
The Stormers prop continues to battle with injury, but looks to have all the makings of a future Springbok prop. He’s young, mobile and doesn’t shirk the hard work up front.
Don’t forget to head over to our facebook page to have your say…
The End Of The El Diez Era
Diego Maradona
He claimed the Argentina national team was a Rolls Royce in need of a service. He told journalists to suck it and keep sucking it.
He said that if Obama was allowed to choose his backroom staff then so should he. He called up 108 players. He lost 6-1 to Bolivia. He told Pele to go back to the museum. He said that Pele ‘made his debut’ with a boy.
He took Ariel Garcé and Martín Palermo to the World Cup. He said the first three names on his teamsheet were Mascherano, Messi and Jonás Guttierez. He refused to train in the morning. He brought about the second international retirement of Juan Román Riquelme. He wound up FIFA, his bosses, the media, ex- and not-so-ex-players…
Say what you will about Maradona – and everybody is saying lots – but beyond it being utter mayhem from start to finish, there is one simple inescapable fact: neither Basile, nor Passarella, nor Bielsa, nor Pekerman performed better at a World Cup. None went further than the quarter-finals. Perhaps the problem with Argentine football is not just to do with the coaches…
Maradona opened himself up for criticism, he created several previously non-existent battles and his eccentric decisions were laughed at outside Argentina, making the blood-letting – now that AFA have chosen not to renew his contract as Argentina coach – all the easier.
The initial rumours seemed to suggest that Maradona would stay on despite the embarrassing result with Germany in South Africa, but in Argentine football realpolitik it was just another manoeuvre.
It’s convenient and easy to say with absolute certainty that with a more experienced coach Argentina would have reached, at least, the final four in South Africa. That may well be, but it gives whoever replaces Maradona the job of proving all those Diego critics right. The core of Maradona’s side is young enough to remain for a number of years to come.
For now the two front-runners – according to the decision-makers at the AFA – are Estudiantes coach Alejandro Sabella and Racing coach Miguel Angel Russo.
Amongst fans, the Boca contingent still want the Viceroy, Carlos Bianchi, to be given a chance. Ramón Díaz features high up in the surveys, thanks to his success at River. Diego Simeone’s name has also been mentioned, perhaps more by virtue of being unemployed right now, and then come the rest.
Whoever comes in could follow a similar route paved by Mano Menezes this week. The new Brazil boss axed all but four players from the South Africa group in his first squad. Such wholesale change perhaps isn’t needed for Argentina. The likes of Sergio Romero, Nicolás Otamendi (the Germany result wasn’t his fault), Mascherano, Di María, Pastore, Tevez, Higuaín, Agüero and Messi will all be key players for the coming years.
With the immediate task being winning next year’s Copa America on home turf, and then mounting a serious challenge for the 2014 World Cup next door in Brazil, whoever comes in should invest confidence in a new crop of players that will be of age in four years time.
For Argentina’s next outing, against Ireland in Dublin on August 11, we’ll have a side chosen by Maradona – naming the squad was his last act in charge – and coached by Under-20 boss Sergio Batista.
It’s only after that when perhaps we will start to see the new-look Argentina. Perhaps it will be more competitive. Perhaps it will play better football. Perhaps it will play worse. Perhaps they will challenge for honours. Perhaps they will end up returning home after the first phase of the 2014 World Cup. Perhaps they will return with the trophy.
Whatever happens over the coming weeks and months, it won’t be the same round here anymore. Chau Diego.
Courtesy of FourFourTwo
HAVE YOUR SAY: What will you miss, if anything, about Diego Maradona?
The Boks, According To Dwyer
Australian World Cup-winning coach Bob Dwyer addresses the media
Australian World Cup-winning coach Bob Dwyer last night produced a devastatingly frank assessment of Peter de Villiers’s ailing Springboks.
Dwyer’s view on John Smit? “He is not up to standard. He’s too slow and doesn’t seem to have much enthusiasm for the game anymore. In the case of both Smit and Victor Matfield, it is feasible that as team leaders they are struggling with their own games versus the team’s game. But I think Smit is past it and Matfield may well be past it.”
Dwyer offered a serious alternative to the long-established Victor Matfield/Bakkies Botha second-row partnership. “I think the two best locks in South Africa right now are Danie Rossouw and Andries Bekker. They complement each other and are terrific competitors. But I’m not sure you can play Bekker and Pierre Spies in one team because they’re both wide runners and you might be short of guys in close to do the hard yards.”
Saturday evening at Brisbane’s Suncorp stadium represented a much-improved Wallaby performance, in Dwyer’s view. It condemned the Boks to a third straight loss and virtually no chance of defending their Tri-Nations title.
“I have described the Wallabies’ performance as much improved and declared them on the right track,” said Dwyer. “This is accurate but I don’t want to give cause for too much optimism – yet. Over the past two weeks, I have described the Springbok performances as poor, so a performance with any sort of quality should have produced a win against them, with their current squad and form. They have, after all, conceded about 100 points in the last three weeks.”
CAPITULATION
What then for the Boks?
“Their capitulation on last season’s end-of-year northern tour was nothing short of astonishing, and that same form has continued into this year’s internationals.
“Certainly, they are missing Fourie du Preez, Heinrich Brussouw and Jannie du Plessis, but their established players are just not producing.
“Dare I say it? Victor Matfield and John Smit look past it, and even the great Bryan Habana is having no impact on the game. Why is that, in Habana’s case? There were a number of parts to his game: he had a fantastic kick-chase game but the kicking is now not as accurate because all the kicking is now in the domain of Steyn, whereas before it was shared by Steyn and Du Preez. So the defence against the kicking can be much more focused and the kicking is subsequently not as accurate.
“Habana’s attacking game had two strings to it. One was at the end of a backline attack which, without Du Preez, and Jean de Villiers at centre, has lost most of its sting and there are now virtually no opportunities for him.
“His other attacking opportunities came either as first receiver or as pick and go when he injected himself in close. But the South Africans’ ball recycling has become so stilted that no opportunities exist.”
FLAILING BACKLINE
What of some of the other players in the Bok back line?
“Zane Kirchner is a good player but I have real doubts as to whether he’s a world-class player,” said Dwyer. “He doesn’t have any distinguishing features. He’s reasonable under the ball, reasonable on kick return, fair as an injection into the backline and on defence. But in no facets of the fullback game is he a world XV choice.”
Gio Aplon? “I like him; he’s a nuggety type of player prepared to have a go. But he’s yet to prove himself international class, even though he was outstanding in the Super 14.
Wynand Olivier? “I had to ask a colleague whether he actually played in the second Test against the All Blacks. That may explain Morné Steyn’s absence of form.
“I am most impressed with Steyn’s development as a flyhalf rather than just being a kicker but I haven’t been impressed at all with his international performances.
“But this may well be influenced by a less-than-great performance by the scrumhalf (Ricky Januarie) and inside centre (Olivier). It’d be pretty impressive to play well if you had duds inside and outside you. For me, Januarie isn’t up to it, whereas Ruan Pienaar is quality at both 9 and 10.”
What of Pienaar’s former Sharks colleague Frans Steyn, who is now playing in France?
“Frans Steyn is one of those guys that produces the occasional sublime moment. So I’d always pick him. He is a big strong kid, has pace too and can kick a goal from 60m to win you a game.”
“I’ve just felt in recent times that the South Africans’ adherence to quality technique had really taken some forward steps,” he added. “But in the last year their game seems to have fallen apart. They don’t seem to be doing anything, that seems the biggest problem.”
With thanks to IOL
Loading ...
