Magnificent Mostert a massive loss

The Lions’ Super Rugby campaign simply can’t be put to bed without mentioning the name of workhorse lock Franco Mostert. While it was another failed effort for the Lions in losing their third straight final, the effort of Mostert was colossal.

Not only did he play every single game of the competition, amassing 1 520 minutes of game time, but earlier in the campaign he also stood tall as skipper for No 8 Warren Whiteley before the latter returned at the business end of the competition.

Mostert’s other stats also make impressive reading, having made the most tackles in the competition (237), made 157 runs, 743 running metres, 26 tackle busts, nine turnovers, and 87 lineouts won, which is 25 more than his nearest rival.

The loss of Mostert to the Lions is therefore massive. He played his last Lions game in the final, before joining Gloucester after the completion of his Springbok duties the end of November.

And even though Mostert is one of nine Lions players in the Bok squad, it’s probably only himself, hooker Malcolm Marx, wing Aphiwe Dyantyi and Whiteley who could feature in the Bok starting line-up for next weekend’s Rugby Championship opener against Argentina in Durban.

Others like centre Lionel Mapoe, flyhalf Elton Jantjies, scrumhalf Ross Cronje, lock Marvin Orie and flank Cyle Brink could at best be considered for a bench role in the Championship.

It could be interesting how Bok coach Rassie Erasmus is planning to accommodate the likes of Mostert, Pieter-Steph du Toit and RG Snyman in the Championship.

With the return of Eben Etzebeth a given and captain Siya Kolisi now only destined to play in the blindside flanker role, both Mostert and Du Toit could alternate as the back-up blindside flanker on the bench.

But the predicament for Erasmus is that the value of both Mostert and Du Toit as players doesn’t deserve to be confined to a bench role on the condition that Etzebeth is actually match-fit enough to feature in the starting team from the outset.

The Bok coach also made it clear that the time for experiments is over and that he couldn’t gamble with match selection in a vital tournament like the Championship.

It could however be interesting what Mostert’s future holds once he has departed for the United Kingdom.

Will he still feature for the Boks, seeing that Erasmus has cut the overseas players to just three?