Coenie out of Bok squad
Shocker against Lions blamed for prop being overlooked
I feel sorry for Siya because at the Stormers he is played as a ball carrier. For the Springboks he is asked to play a fetching role
COENIE Oosthuizen’s conversion to tighthead prop has hit a brick wall after he was yesterday left out of the Springbok squad for this year’s Rugby Championships.
Although Oosthuizen played loosehead in his last test, Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has gone to considerable lengths trying to convert him to tighthead, but the Cheetahs man hasn’t come to grips with it.
“The tighthead experiment didn’t work. The five penalties he gave away against the Lions and the yellow card he gave away in that game probably cost him his place in the squad,” opined SuperSport pundit and former Bok coach Nick Mallett.
Frans Malherbe, who made a successful entry into the test arena on last season’s end of year tour, was instead included as Jannie du Plessis’s understudy after he recovered from concussion.
There was also no room for Stormers flanker Siya Kolisi, although his task was made difficult in a struggling team this season. “I feel sorry for Siya because at the Stormers he is played as a ball carrier, for the Springboks he is asked to play a fetching role. He has fallen by the wayside a bit,” said Mallett.
There was also no room for offthe-boil centre JJ Engelbrecht, while Juan de Jongh’s peripheral existence in the Bok context continues from afar.
It was also au revoir to Johan Goosen, who has opted to play his rugby in France. Frans Steyn remains in self-imposed exile.
Cobus Reinach and Damian de Allende are the only uncapped players in the squad, though the latter was in the group in June before being ruled out with a knee ligament injury.
Although Reinach delivered some stellar performances for the Sharks, he got his break mostly as a result of Fourie du Preez’s absence through injury.
Other returnees following their absence in June are captain Jean de Villiers, Eben Etzebeth, Tendai Mtawarira and Pat Lambie.
With the exception of Lambie, that group will have to prove their match fitness at the highest level after the South African Rugby Union’s request for provinces not to select their Springboks in the Currie Cup, which starts this week.
“We will medically assess all the players in the squad in Johannesburg next week,” assured Meyer. “This will not only include the players who missed the June tests because of injury but also someone such as Mtawarira, who has been out of action for a while. We will deal with every player individually.”
Etzebeth returns from lengthy injury after he was sidelined in the Springboks’ final test last year in Paris.
His return is timely as fellow locks Flip van der Merwe and Pieter-Steph du Toit are still injured. Other players with longterm injuries include Arno Botha, Pierre Spies and Jaque Fourie. JP Pietersen and Schalk Burger have temporarily pledged their allegiance to the yen.