Your Views: Boks need young blood

Editor

Wednesday’s inbox looks at Allister Coetzee, and how the Springboks need to get younger, faster.

Keep those thoughts coming to readersviews@planetrugby.com to make the next edition.

Time to regenerate

By now, the majority of the rugby-loving public is in strong disagreement with a few of Allister Coetzee’s player choices. A guy like Malcolm Marx not even getting a spot on the bench is enough to get the fans all riled up.

Adriaan Strauss does not instil any confidence as captain and should be replaced by the combative, inspirational Warren Whiteley with Marx as hooker.

Jaco Kriel deserves a prolonged starting line-up role at either blind or openside and Rohan Janse van Rensburg should be in the squad at the very least, with centre a problematic position currently.

Also, there a certain players who are either out of form or too long in the tooth as they say.

These include: Bryan Habana (legend but we need new blood now), Morné Steyn, Damian de Allende, Francois Louw and even Beast Mtawarira by his own standards. The All Blacks are always churning out young blood and you wouldn’t see the need for a Joe Rokocoko in their current team.

There are other players who are questionable selections and have the dreaded quota tag on their names. 

These include: Rudy Paige (the guy is always on the bench but just never gets game time), Bongi Mbonambi and Oupa Mohoje (not a bad defensive game on Saturday though). 

There are also valuable players who are sadly injured at present: Handré Pollard, Patrick Lambie and Duane Vermeulen.

Yes, one might make a case that we do need certain oldies in order to have some experience but Jake White started clean in 2004 and groomed a young crop for the next four years (with just one or two stalwarts like Percy and Os) and it worked. 

Dhirshan Gobind 

Agree or disagree? readersviews@planetrugby.com