Boks have plenty of bite
SPINE: SEVEN PLAYERS FROM THE ELLIS PARK FRANCHISE GIVEN THE NOD
Bok coach selects a well-balanced side to take on the French.
The large complement of Lions players in the Springbok side will greatly help with the cohesion in the side and will form the “spine” for tomorrow’s first French Test at Loftus Versfeld.
This is the opinion of Bok coach Allister Coetzee after he confirmed No 8 Warren Whiteley as his new skipper.
“In regard to all the Lions players, we need calm guys and it would be nice for Warren in his first Test as captain with players around him who have played together.
“They will provide the spine of the side and it’s players who can support each other,” said Coetzee.
No less than seven Lions have been named in the starting line-up, while Coetzee has handed debuts to fullback Andries Coetzee, leftwing Courtnall Skosan and scrumhalf Ross Cronje, and there’s a first start for hooker Malcolm Marx.
On the bench, wing Dillyn Leyds could also earn his first cap, while wing Raymond Rhule toured with the Boks in 2012, but will play in his first Test match.
Coetzee explained that flanker Jaco Kriel wasn’t named in the squad because he has played very little over the last few weeks, while Francois Hougaard only joined the side on Monday.
“Somebody like Hougies has only been with the squad for five days, while Jaco only had 20 minutes against the Kings recently, and we agreed there’s still some stuff he needs to work on,” he said.
Coetzee said he had to make some tough calls before naming the side.
“I’ll be honest, I’ve had to make some really tough calls to select the starting 15 players and they have all trained well, but I had to play rugby and start somewhere.
“Players are really pushing for positions and caps but I had to find a good balance,” he said.
Coetzee is also not too concerned that his back three are all inexperienced at Test level.
“They might be new to Test rugby, but they have all made their mark in Super Rugby and somebody like Courtnall Skosan has been very impressive over the last two years,” he said.
“It was also a close call between Dillyn Leyds and Raymond Rhule, but Dillyn can cover quite a few positions for us from the bench.”
Coetzee said he was very pleased with how Frans Steyn and Elton Jantjies worked together this week.
“Frans is a character and Elton actually had to help Frans to get him up to speed where we are as a squad at the moment,” said Coetzee.