As the Springboks prepare to travel to Europe for their end-of-year tour, coach Heyneke Meyer has secured two experienced locks in case the national side encounter injury problems.
"If we get an injury at [number] four, Bakkies [Botha] would be the standby man, but for five we've looked at Marco Wentzel," said Meyer during their training camp in Cape Town this week.
"I've been in contact with them and they're both on standby."
Wentzel received his second and last Springbok cap in 2002, moving to Europe soon afterwards where he played for Leicester Tigers, when Meyer was the English team's head coach in 2008.
Wentzel now plays for another English club, London Wasps.
In the event of injury, Meyer was not planning to play any lock out of position as set-piece management might pose problems.
As a result, it was unlikely specialised number fours Eben Etzebeth and Flip van der Merwe would make the starting XV as a pairing but offered options off the deck.
"Flip has really played well this year and Eben has been exceptional," said Meyer.
"In a sense you'd love to have two guys who really put in the grafting work. [They] could be tough guys in overseas conditions.
"The set-piece is so important over there. I'd love to play them together, so maybe off the bench it could happen."
Meyer said Etzebeth had been fantastic this season but with line-outs being a technical area, a specialist number five was required.
"Eben has been brilliant but they [him and Van Der Merwe] haven't called a lot of line-outs together, and it's such a technical area these days.
"It requires such a lot of preparation, and we only have three [training] sessions.
"I believe we need a specialist five lock in those conditions. I did look at a guy like Johann Muller [of Ulster] for the tour but he is also injured."
Comments
Chopper says...
@fattysock - I think his reasoning in calling up Wentzel is that the guy has played on grounds in the UK for years now. He is far more experienced at calling line-outs than either Flip or Eben who don't do this regularly and will also know a lot of the opposition as he's played against them at club level.
Posted 10:34 02nd November 2012
Chopper says...
@fattysock - I think his reasoning in calling up Wentzel is that the guy has played on grounds in the UK for years now. He is far more experienced at calling line-outs than either Flip or Eben who don't do this regularly and will also know a lot of the opposition as he's played against them at club level.
Posted 10:34 02nd November 2012
fattysock says...
I'm a bit confused by this.
Apparently it's NOT OK to play Flip and Eben together because they "haven't called a lot of line-outs together, and it's such a technical area these days"... and also "It requires such a lot of preparation, and we only have three [training] sessions"
But it would be OK to bring in a guy that (as far as I know) NO ONE in the Boks squad has played a game with in about 10 years? Not just tests, but domestic or anything (as he's been in the UK).
While I don't disagree entirely with the first point, surely someone who has been in the squad, knows the players, knows the calls (even if they are used to performing a slightly different role in the lineouts) would be a better bet than someone who potentially hasn't even met most of the squad before, let alone having any idea about the way they play etc?
Posted 09:28 02nd November 2012
kappelange says...
Bresler, Sykes and De Kock Steenkamp are all three fantastic locks, but I guess they have to commit to a Bulls jersey first to get a Bok call-up.
Mapoe as my prime example, he sign for one year with the Bulls and all of the sudden he is good enough again.
Who the heck are Marco Wentzel and Arno Botha...I mean our best players of the currie cup and superrugby, K.Daniel and D.Fourie arent even being considered but Arno Botha is. Where is the logic in that?
Back in the Jake and PDV made us scratch our heads with their selections but this guy is actually getting the nation pee'd off
Posted 09:04 02nd November 2012