Springboks v British & Irish Lions II

Springbok team to face the British & Irish Lions at Cape Town Stadium:
15 – Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz) – 63 caps, 60 pts (12t)
14 – Cheslin Kolbe (Toulouse) – 15 caps, 40 pts (8t)
13 – Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks) – 16 caps, 15 pts (3t)
12 – Damian de Allende (Munster) – 48 caps, 30 pts (6t)
11 – Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks) – 15 caps, 70 pts (14t)
10 – Handré Pollard (vice-captain, Montpellier) – 50 caps, 477pts (6t, 78c, 93p, 4d)
9 – Faf de Klerk (Sale Sharks) – 31 caps, 25 pts (5t)
8 – Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers) – 1 cap, 0 pts
7 – Pieter-Steph du Toit (DHL Stormers) – 57 caps, 25 pts (5t)
6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Cell C Sharks) – 52 caps, 30 pts (6t)
5 – Franco Mostert (Honda Heat) – 41 caps, 5pts (1t)
4 – Eben Etzebeth (Toulon) – 87 caps, 15 pts (3t)
3 – Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers) – 40 caps, 5pts (1t)
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (DHL Stormers) – 38 caps, 40 pts (8t)
1 – Steven Kitshoff (DHL Stormers) – 49 caps, 5pts (1t)

Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 35 caps, 30 pts (6t)
17 – Trevor Nyakane (Vodacom Bulls) – 44 caps, 5 pts (1t)
18 – Vincent Koch (Saracens) – 21 caps, 0 pts
19 – Lood de Jager (Sale Sharks) – 46 caps, 25 pts (5t)
20 – Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls) – 3 caps, 0 pts
21 – Kwagga Smith (Yamaha Júbilo) – 8 caps, 5 pts (1t)
22 – Herschel Jantjies (DHL Stormers) – 12 caps, 25 pts (5t)
23 – Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 8 caps, 5pts (1t)

Starting side as expected with only Wiese being a bit of a change direction from last week.

The bench is a bit weird though. Nyakane is covering loose head though I can't remember him playing there in the last couple years. Koch comes in as th cover despite being poor in the warm ups. Then there are two very similar loose-forwards on the bench in Kwagga and Van Staden. Then in backs we have Willemse covering 10,12 and 15 (ten being the weakest of those positions).

Overall I don't like the bench, I am not sure of the fitness of the other players, but it looks a little slap dash to me. The 6-2 split at WC only really worked because we had 4 awesome locks and having them all in the squad was just best use of available resources, his just seems like a collection of last men standing.

12 of the 23 play outside South Africa.

OomPB

@number-10 6 of the pack and 8 in the starting XV played for the Stormers when Rassie coached.

OomPB

@catogrande https://twitter.com/VodacomRugga/status/1419288897536864261?s=20

MiketheSnow

Squidge's take on what happened in I and what could happen in II

mantissanet

@mikethesnow And an hour from Rassie to follow it up with …
https://vimeo.com/579940415

pakman

@mikethesnow was just starting to watch.

MiketheSnow

@mantissanet said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:

@mikethesnow And an hour from Rassie to follow it up with …
https://vimeo.com/579940415

Always baffles me how Rassie is regarded as this amazing motivational coach

I'm ready to top myself within the first two minutes of listening to him

Frank

@mantissanet said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:

@mikethesnow And an hour from Rassie to follow it up with …
https://vimeo.com/579940415

What is he doing?
This is just bizarre.

pakman

@mikethesnow said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:

Squidge's take on what happened in I and what could happen in II

Good analysis.

What is interesting is that Boks weren’t astute enough to alter their game plan, say, 15 into H2.
Lions kicked off to Boks’s right to limit De Klerk returns, but Boks kept kicking off to Lions’s left. And when they needed to get some territory didn’t kick from 10 to the corner.

Lions messaging at halftime was extraordinary.

Bok team naming presser suggests that number of players weren’t match fit, Pollard being one. And acknowledged tactical inertia.

As a neutral, I want a Bok win this week to set things up for winner takes all third.

Daffy Jaffy

@mikethesnow some Comments from Twitter -
"I heard Rassie has contacted Peter Jackson about doing a 6 hour trilogy on Munsters loss to Scarlets in Pro12 final"
"My favourite bit is when he says "we don't want to nit pick and show every mistake they made" whilst providing an hour long video of nit picking"
"My favourite part of the video was when he kept replaying Daly holding Mapimpi back (fair).

But the same replay kept showing Lukhanyo Am absolutely smashing Henshaw with no arms to knock the ball loose in the first place. No mention of it."
"Gatland is living in a 50 story skyscraper inside Rassie's head"
"I dont know, first the burner account now the hour long video. Kinda turning into the trump of rugby"

OomPB

Rassie took all the attention away from the squad and players.

The playing surface at CT Stadium is more a worry.

Bulls and WP play a CC match tonight at Newlands, maybe they can more the 3rd test to the Newlands faithful holy ground.

Frank

@oompb said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:

Rassie took all the attention away from the squad and players.

The playing surface at CT Stadium is more a worry.

Bulls and WP play a CC match tonight at Newlands, maybe they can more the 3rd test to the Newlands faithful holy ground.

Are you trying to justify his actions?

Derpus

The bloke has taken post-match Cheika and modeled an entire video on it. Brilliance.

The Silver Fern

Springboks v British & Irish Lions II