4th Sept 2012
Ruan who?
Ruan set for a run at No 9
Perth - Tiaan Liebenberg could make his first Test start for the Springboks, while coach Heyneke Meyer is strongly considering moving Francois Hougaard to wing and bringing Ruan Pienaar into the starting line-up at scrumhalf.
Hooker and current vice-captain Adriaan Strauss is battling with his knee ligament injury ahead of Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash against Australia at the Patersons Stadium, which will also double as a Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate game.
While Meyer is hopeful that the Cheetahs skipper would be able to play, he says that Strauss has a “50-50” chance. Team doctor Craig Roberts said at a media briefing at the team hotel on Monday that the 26-year-old will undergo a series of tests this week.
“Adriaan Strauss has a mild knee ligament strain. We will assess him again later in the week, and we will make a decision on his availability, depending on how he goes through training in the next couple of days. But apart from that, we’ve got a fit squad and are ready to go,” Roberts said.
“He needs to run tomorrow, and that will be the first step. There’s a step-wise programme that we run, and he needs to get through each day. The first day on Wednesday is the straight-line running, and if he is comfortable with that, we will progress him and make the call later in the week.”
Meyer tried to be positive about the situation, which would be a massive blow to the Boks’ chances of winning on Saturday as they are already missing Bismarck du Plessis and Chiliboy Ralepelle at No 2. “We’ve got a very good medical team, and I’m positive that we will get him through! I was very happy with Bissie and the way he progressed as a leader - I actually see him as a future Springbok captain as well. And then Adriaan is also a great leader who has just come through,” the Bok coach said.
“If you look at our pack, there are a lot of guys who hasn’t been in a leadership role, who hasn’t been the captain of their franchise or province. With Pierre (Spies) out as well, it would be a huge setback if Adriaan can’t play. But hopefully he will be fit. There is a 50-50 chance of him playing.”
But with a Stormers lock pairing of Eben Etzebeth and Andries Bekker, Liebenberg shouldn’t have too many problems throwing into the lineouts. It is rather about whether he can be as effective a ball-carrier as Du Plessis and Strauss, while he also needs to chip in at the breakdowns. Sharks back-up hooker Craig Burden will then come on to the bench.
“It would be a huge test for Tiaan, especially away from home. But I thought that he did well. I wanted to give him more gametime in the previous Test, but again, it was such a tight Test match, and Adriaan was the vice-captain.
“Tiaan is a guy I have a lot of trust in, and I want to give him more gametime this week,” Meyer said.
“It usually makes it easier (having franchise teammates), and Duane (Vermeulen) is a guy who is also close to (making) the team.
“So, those are three guys Tiaan is used to, and he has proven himself at Super Rugby level. His set pieces are good. This is a step up for him, but he is an experienced campaigner, and I am looking forward to seeing him play if he gets the chance.”
Hougaard has been under pressure at halfback as Meyer tries to turn him into a Fourie du Preez clone instead of letting him play his natural game. But after the disappointing 16-16 draw against Argentina in Mendoza, the Bok coach has finally changed his mindset by looking at Pienaar, who is better suited to the current gameplan, which places a huge emphasis on tactical kicking.
Hougaard revels in space, and he could make a big impact at left wing. Sharks star Lwazi Mvovo would be desperately unlucky to have to make way, though, as he has looked sharp every time he has had the ball in his hands.
“That (Hougaard at wing and Pienaar at scrumhalf) is an option. I always said that we have a horses-for-courses attitude, so we’ve studied Australia. They are a quality side, and Hougie gives you something different on the wing. We’ve got a lot of injuries there at the moment,” said the Bok mentor.
“Ruan’s a little more experienced, he’s got a brilliant kicking game, and he can give us more stability and take the pressure off Morne (Steyn). So, I won’t say that it’s a definite, but we are looking at that option as well.”
The Boks did not train yesterday, and only had a gym session, as a big storm brought heavy rain and strong winds to Perth. Bath loose forward Francois Louw eventually arrived from England on Monday, and he will want to impress Meyer in the first practice of the week on Tuesday.
Meyer said that he was toying with the idea of a 5-2 bench split, but was also weighing up whether to hand a Test debut to Cheetahs youngster Johan Goosen.
Cape Times
http://www.iol.co.za/sport/rugby/spring ... -1.1375750
Cape Town – For how much longer should Ruan Pienaar be curtailed to the role of Springbok “supersub”?
It is a question likely to be weighing as much on the mind of coach Heyneke Meyer and his lieutenants as it doubtless is already for plenty of observers.
The Ulster-based Pienaar, a former Sharks favourite, has been a patient but also highly effective substitute in all Bok Tests thus far in 2012.
Scrumhalf tends to be a position occupied by a livewire athlete, one often less likely than others to see the incumbent hauled off well before the end of matches if things are going suitably well for him.
Perhaps tellingly, however, Pienaar has been introduced with at least 20 minutes to go – and occasionally a fair bit more – in all four matches, including the trio against England.
The trick was duly repeated in the latest instance on Saturday, when Pienaar got another “last quarter” in the moderately satisfying triumph over Argentina in the Castle Rugby Championship, at the usual expense of first-choice Francois Hougaard.
The last-named player did get to see out the fixture at wing, a position where he has often been at his most incisive for his country before – and arguably was so again.
Hougaard is a naturally slippery, electric runner and there is a mounting case for saying he demonstrates it best when there is a bit more space available in raids from the back of the park.
Indeed, with the mercurial, in-form JP Pietersen inconveniently absent for the first two-thirds or so of this tournament, perhaps Hougaard is as equipped as anybody to show some alternative X-factor from out wide in broken-play situations.
Consideration of Hougaard for a wing berth, in the immediate follow-up game against the Pumas in Mendoza on Saturday, could lead to a win-win situation for both current rival No 9s, opening up a rather obvious gap for Pienaar to try to raise the bar for the Boks as starting scrumhalf.
Frankly, Hougaard has under-delivered there this year, even if his broad talent and supreme tenacity as a rugby player is hardly in doubt.
He struggles to genuinely take command of games at scrumhalf in the manner his legendary Bulls predecessor Fourie du Preez once did, with his tactical kicking aspect remaining unremarkable and his passing sometimes overly laboured.
Pienaar, who has been getting such rave reviews in Ireland and wider European competition since his switch to northern climes, just seems so much more “natural” in the slot of late.
Isn’t that an important consideration in a team currently, let’s face it, not massively renowned for cutting-edge backline play?
He is in the prime of his pro rugby life, at the age of 28 and with 55 international caps to his name, only bearing out his wisdom.
Hougaard is four years his junior and still has time on his side to iron out certain rough edges to his No 9 game -- unless his admirably versatile credentials do yet lead to his more regular stationing at wing.
Right now, he is not quite the Full Monty at Test scrumhalf.
Ruan Pienaar warrants an opportunity to wear a certain, single-figure number on his back for a change, doesn’t he?
http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/RugbyCha ... r-20120820
.........and the penny dropped! .........or has it?
Irish making eyes at SA youngsters
Amid the hullabaloo of the Springboks’ game plan, or lack thereof depending who was speaking, the Golden Lions Rugby Union saga and the entertainment of the Currie Cup, it’s gone unnoticed that two promising South Africans could play against the Boks in November.
Last month former Western Province and Stormers No 8 Robbie Diack became an Irish citizen after completing a three-year residency while playing for Ulster.
And a week before the Boks meet Ireland at the Aviva Stadium on November 10, Leinster hooker Richardt Strauss will complete his residency and become eligible for the emerald greens in time to face the Boks.
It could see the unusual situation of cousins Richardt and Adriaan directly opposing each other in a Test match. I suspect that’s not the way they imagined it when they horsed around in their Bloemfontein backyards as children. I’m sure the dreams then were of both wearing the bottle green of the Boks.
But it’s the nature of professionalism and if nothing else, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is cleverly plotting for the future by poaching promising players from around the world, but particularly South Africa, to fill voids in certain positions.
In the space of a week in June various Irish clubs announced the signings of three South African players – not unusual you might say – until you realise that they’re all under 23, they’re also all uncapped by the Springboks, and it’s three years before the next World Cup. It’s called forward planning by the IRFU.
In June promising 21-year-old Stormers lock Quinn Roux signed a one-year deal with Leinster only a week after former SA under-20 captain CJ Stander completed a two-year deal with Munster.
That same week the Stormers also confirmed that wing Danie Poolman was on his way to Connacht to complete a trio of quality signings for the Irish in less than seven days.
Sure, none of those players are contracted for three years, but it gives both the players and the club scope to assess the other before committing for the desired three-years.
Roux could be a big loss because he’s been spoken about in the same breath as Eben Etzebeth while Stander is arguably the best Bulls looseforward in the Currie Cup. Poolman has never set the world alight but he does have promise and regular game time in a top league could see him blossom.
There is another reason the Irish are recruiting uncapped players as well – because of a change of policy by the IRFU.
As from the 2013/14-season Ireland’s big three provinces – Ulster, Munster and Leinster – can only field one foreign player per position across the three unions. For instance, if Ulster pick Springbok scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar, then Munster and Leinster have to field an Irish halfback. Connacht, as the weakest province, is exempt from this rule for now.
The idea is that the three provinces can recruit foreigners, but will have to agree to sign players in different positions so they don’t overlap. In the short-term it will hurt, but if the Irish provinces sign cleverly, they can circumnavigate the rule in the medium term by qualifying several youngsters as Irish citizens.
Friendly Foreigners
There have always been players who will slip through the cracks and there have been isolated cases of South African players making their Test careers elsewhere such as Clyde Rathbone (Australia), Brian Liebenberg (France) and Pieter de Villiers (France). But this is more serious because it’s a concerted, systematic, albeit unofficial poaching programme in place by the IRFU.
For now the trickle of promising, but as yet, unproven South African youngsters to Ireland is not a crisis. But this could be the start of a deluge with the likes of Diack and more realistically Strauss pioneering a path to Test rugby that was blocked back home.
We don’t mind seeing some of our talented, capped Boks heading off to the northern hemisphere for a lucrative payday, but how will me feel about our raw talent disappearing in greater numbers?
http://www.arenasport.co.za/2012/09/03/ ... oungsters/
, and has a Lions tour as well. I have said previously and will say so again I would be surprised if we see Ferris featuring in more than 320minutes of Ulster's regular Rabo season provided we progress out of the HEC group. I think we'll see him against Munster and Zebre of the bench, full game Cardiff and 60-70 minutes against Connacht before going into the HEC, after that he'll be away with Ireland, back for the HEC and then pretty much away with Ireland again after the group stages of the HEC.
