Springboks disclose their 27-man squad for Tri-Nations tour
The South African Rugby Union (SARU) national team Springboks, ranking third in the world of rugby, has declared this Friday, July 8, their 27-man squad for the upcoming clash with Australia and New Zealand in the Tri-Nations series in July.
The Springbok’s Tri-Nations finalised squad will take off for Australia on July 15. They gathered to leave for this event on Sunday, July 10 in Johannesburg.
Under the leadership of John Smith, the skipper and hooker of the 27-man squad, 21 anticipated members have not been taken up on account of injuries. This “Virtual B” squad will meet the Wallabies and then the All Blacks. These clashes are a week apart.
This major step of sloughing off the potentials was taken after the medical examination, in Cape Town, which revealed the weak health status and thus the ineligibility of the players for the game.
This was further confirmed by the SARU that the drop-outs “required immediate rehabilitation to avoid the risk of break down before the end of the international year.” With this statement, the degree of their meagre health was further verified.
This experimental squad with a lot of veterans amiss will be meeting their opponents in full throttle in Sydney and then in Wellington during the month of July.
The largely novice composition of the squad is going to incorporate the experience of Morne Steyn the fly-half of the team and Smith, having five rugby world-cup-winning members in total. On the other hand the veterans such as; Victor Matfield, the vice-captain;
Bismarck du Plessis, the hooker; Butch James, the fly-half and Bryan Habana, the winger will not participate in the initial two encounters of Tri-Nations Tour in Sydney and Wellington.
Also, six players will debut in the tour including; Charl McLeod, the scrum-half, Elton Jantjies, the fly-half, Ashley Johnson, the loose forward and Werner Kruger Coenie Oosthuizen, and Dean Greyling, the props.
The forward’s pack of Springbok includes, Flip van der Merwe, Heinrich Brüssow,Jean Deysel, Ryan Kankowski, Alistair Hargreaves, Dean Greyling, Werner Kruger, Johann Muller, Ashley Johnson, Coenie Oosthuizen, Chiliboy Ralepelle, John Smit (captain), Adriaan
Strauss, Deon Stegmann and Danie Rossouw.
The back pack of this team has Bjorn Basson, Gio Aplon, Juan de Jongh, Adrian Jacobs, Elton Jantjies, Patrick Lambie, Lwazi Mvovo, Charl McLeod, Odwa Ndungane, Ruan Pienaar, Wynand Olivier, Morne Steyn.
This squad will be part of the opening two encounter of Rugby World Cup 2011 on Wellington’s soil in September.
Peter De Villiers, the head coach of Springboks while explaining his pick for Tri-Nations tour stated, “We've rewarded players who have performed outstandingly in Vodacom Super Rugby. Although the injury situation has also been critical. But there is a backbone
of experience and it means that all our leading players will receive Test exposure this year.”
With this selection made the Springbok’s squad is suspected of giving their top tiers some recovery and renewal period just ahead of the big game, RWC 2011, while also granting others with the opportunity to prove their mettle in and before RWC 2011 in September.
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